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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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These was once a girl, Sara, whos third birthday was coming up, and as this was the first time she was old enough to really understand what was happening, her parents asked her what she wanted. "I want a green ping pong ball!" Sara answered immediately and without a hint of uncertainty. The parents found this a bit peculiar but figured they might as well get one, in addition to other, more traditional presents. When the day came Sara was overjoyed with her green ping pong ball and only paid attention to the other presents at the insistence of her mother and father, and with obvious lack of interest at that. This trend continued the next birthday, and the one after that, and whenever anyone asked her about it she'd just give you a mysterious smile and say something along the lines of "One day I'll tell you". One year her parents tried to give Sara something else and she absolutely lost it! She spent two days locked in her room until someone went and got her the mysteriously desired green ping pong ball, at which point she immediately cheered up and came out of her room. Thus her life continued; She started school, got good grades and soon enough grew in to a young woman who started to notice, and partake, in the joys of male companionship. Yet still, every year, without exception, all she wished for her birthday was that green ping pong ball. She started studying at university, where she met a man, David, who seemed good at first, but after some time together, revealed himself to be a possesive, jealous and sometimes voilent person. After university, while working her first real job, the sudden death of Saras mother prompted her to leave David, sell most of what she owned and spend the next few years traveling. While she was away, her family back home would set aside a green ping pong ball every year on her birthday, awaiting her return. It was during her travels that she met the man she would eventually marry, an Englishman named Paul. The first of Saras birthdays her and Paul spent together, on a white sand beach in Bali, he presented her with a green painted ping pong ball. He had stolen from the rec room of the hostel they were staying in and spray painted it himself. Eventually, Sara and her English husband returned home and not long after, their first child was born. They had three more over the years and anyone would say that, together, they had a full, if sligtly ordinary, life together, with her children and husband giving her a green ping pong ball every year on the morning of her birthday. The kids would ask Sara about it, for the first few years, but one can only hear "One day" so many times before one catches on. Sara, now a middle aged woman, and Paul grew old together and saw their kids go off and start their own lives, and eventually, the first of many grandchildren was born. Paul died a few years after his seventieth birthday due to a drawn out battle with cancer and it nearly broke Saras will to live, had it not been for that first birthday after his death, when she heard a ring on the door, and found that he had arranged to have a green ping pong ball delivered to her every year on her birthday, along with a note of encouragement and love, but Sara was old, and it was not long before she too was in a hospital bed, requiring assistance with even the most basic of tasks. On her seventyseventh birthday, the whole family had come to the hospital, four children and ten grandkids, one of whom walked up to his wrikly old grandmother and gave her the box that had come in the mail that morning. Sara was too weak to open it and one of her children had to help her. She took out the green ping pong ball, looked at it and smiled. "Why do you always want a green ping pong ball, Granny?" The youngest grandchild asked. The others in the room chuckled and shook their head at the child, for he was young and didn't yet know the futility of the question. This time, however, the old woman didn't give her usual response right away. She looked around her, all her loved ones gathered, a gentle breeze coming in through the open window and she found herself looking back at her long life; Not without hardship, but well lived, and full of love, and as a tear of joy and nostalgia rolled down her cheek, catching the afternoon sunlight, she thought "It is time." "Well dear, the reason I always want a green ping pong ball is" and then she died.   |
