“Hey,” Lauren said, pushing up on her elbows. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”
Erin smiled and walked into the room. “I’ve been up for a while. I just didn’t know if you were awake,” she said as she climbed up onto the bed. “I have something for you.”
“You do?” Lauren asked, sitting up, and Erin nodded, handing her a tiny folded square of pink tissue paper.
“How sweet of you,” she said, genuinely touched by the gesture. “What did I do to deserve this?”
Erin shrugged sheepishly, and Lauren leaned over and ran her hand over the top of Erin’s hair before unraveling the filmy paper. Neatly folded inside was a small crystal heart dangling from a thin black cord. Lauren held it up, and the pendant twirled from side to side, refracting little rainbows of light from the window.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful! I love it,” Lauren said, smiling at Erin before she held it up a little higher to admire it in the light. “In fact,” she said, sitting up straight, “I’m going to put it on right now.”
Erin watched with a smile as Lauren fastened it behind her neck. “How does it look?”
Erin reached into the neck of her T-shirt and pulled out the exact same necklace, holding it out for Lauren to see. “It’s perfect. Now we match.”
“Well, now I like it even more,” Lauren said with a smile.
Erin grinned, but then her smile faltered as she looked down. “I have something else too.”
“Two presents?” Lauren asked, surprised.
“Well, no. It’s just this,” Erin said, holding out a card in a lavender envelope. Lauren hadn’t even noticed her holding it when she walked in.
The look on Erin’s face had changed; the excitement from earlier had transformed into something that looked to Lauren almost like anxiety.
She couldn’t help but feel somewhat apprehensive in response as she slid her finger beneath the edge of the envelope and pulled out the card.
On the front was a large sun overlooking a meadow full of flowers, and inside the sun was written:
Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,
Hundreds of shells on the shore together,
Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather,
Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
Priscilla Glenn, Back to You
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