Kelly Came Back

Kelly came back today. It has been three years and everyone was so excited to see her again. My wife hugged her tightly, tears streaming from her face. Our little girl was home again. She looked just like I remembered. Her long wavy brown hair, emerald green eyes, and that little mole on the left side of her neck. People always said she looked just like me. Her mother had left her room just the way it was too. She said that she didn’t want Kelly to feel like she was gone to us. A little dusting and you wouldn't have known it had been empty all this time. My wife doted on our little girl all night long. She prepared her favorite meal, meat loaf. The house was filled with laughter again, as my wife and daughter joked about. Once dinner was done a bath was drawn for her so that she could wash the grime of the world from her body. Kelly recalled to us all where she had been for the last three years. She spoke of waking up in a forest, not knowing how she got there and finding her way home. Apparently, she woke up in a place she had never been and the journey became longer and more difficult every day. She told her mother that all she thought about was getting back home. Kelly said it was the one driving force that kept her alive. She gave me the tightest hug just before bed and said, "I love you daddy."

My wife slept next to our fifteen year old for the first time since she was six last night. She didn’t want to leave her side. I sat alone in my room that night pondering the events of the day. I racked my brain trying make sense of it all. I had to talk with my wife but I wasn’t sure what to say. I couldn’t understand why she was acting this way and I was afraid that if I sat her down it could devastate her. How do I tell her that the girl in our house isn’t Kelly? I know she acts like her and looks like a slightly older version of her, but leukemia took her when she was twelve.