Mommy was sick.

The doctors said they were running out of things they could do for her.

I didn’t want to go to the hospital to see her.

I just couldn’t.

I got on a train and didn’t get off until the last stop.

The station was surrounded by a field.

It started snowing harder. 

As I walked across the field I came across an old graveyard. Its gravestones were small and crooked. There were tall weeds everywhere.

In the middle of the graveyard was a giant tree. It was at least a hundred years old. There were no leaves.

A gust of wind blew snow upward.

The tree looked like it was sucking souls out of the ground and sending them out into the sky.

I saw thousands of souls travel through the tree’s roots, its trunk, its thinnest branches and towards the clouds.

I turned away; it was all too much.

In a few weeks I was seeing spirits everywhere. Sometimes they look like tiny white dots. Other times they look like snowflakes.

Every once in a while a soul bloomed into a flower. The flowers are blue and tiny and look like little eyes. And, they are beautiful.

Mommy's going to be one someday. And so will I. 

Mommy’s still with us.

These days I visit her at the hospital every Saturday.