At Peace~Niki Belle

At Peace


I came down the stairs and into the living room, looking for Tod. He hadn’t been in his room when I went to look for him and he wasn’t anywhere upstairs for that matter.
“Tod?” I yelled through the house. I didn’t hear any response or any movement. No one else was in the house, or I would’ve asked them where he was. I looked on the coffee table for a note he could’ve left or anything really that would’ve helped me figure out where he was.
Finally, I came to the back door. It was open a crack, but it hadn’t been that way earlier today. I smiled. So that’s what the conversation in my room the other day had been about. He was trying to decide to go on with his project or not. He had chosen to go through with it.
“Glad I could help.” I whispered at the door.
I sat down on the couch and started reading one of my old Brio magazines. I came to an article about a girl that was grieving because of the recent death of her sister. I closed the magazine, unable to read any more. I couldn’t explain how, but the words hurt me. I looked out the door to see Tod walking toward the house smiling, and I put the magazine on the table in front of me.
When I tried to think of why I had been looking for him in the first place, I couldn’t remember what I wanted to tell him, if anything. When he finally walked through the door, I could only think of one thing to do. I ran over to him and gave him a huge hug. I had expected to feel him pull away, but instead I felt him hug me back. It was nice, but I was confused. He usually didn’t like hugs.
“What are you so happy about?” He asked when I finally let him go. My only response was to hug him again. This time, he did pull away.
“Gosh, enough hugs already!” He said. He was smiling.
“Fine,” I said. “Keep pretending you don’t like them.” I smiled. He shook his head and continued past me and up the stairs. When he was out of sight, I sat down on the couch and started praying out loud.
“Thank you God, for helping Tod find peace about Milly’s death, and for helping me stay strong through all of this.” I paused. “And thank you for hugs” I said.