She was a mother.

     Her son Lukas sat on the floor, playing with blocks. He was four.

     Lukas hadn't acknowledged a thing.

     She had been diagnosed with cancer. Her husband had been dead ages ago.

     They didn't have much money; they barely kept food on the table.

     She knew her time was coming.

     Little Lukas didn't know.

     "Mommy? What's death?" Lukas asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned to her son. He was smiling, his blonde hair glowed gold in the light.

     "Where did you come up with that?" She sounded to sound cheerful, but she knew she was failing. Lukas didn't seem to notice, though.

     "What's death?" He repeated, obviously ignoring her question. She sighed heavily.

     "Death... Is something where you go up there," she pointed up with a finger. "... And you can watch over the world." Lukas's eyes widened with wonder.

     "Watch over the world?" He said, and she nodded with a little, pitiful smile.

Then it quickly faded into nothing.

     "Mommy, I want you to do something for me." Lukas said after a long time of silence. She looked into the boy's sapphire eyes. They blinked excitedly.

     "Mommy, I want you to stay with me, in this house, next to me, forever. You're going to do that, right?" He asked with such a hopeful voice that shattered her heart into about a million pieces.

     She didn't answer.

     "I promise." She finally replied. "But Lukas, promise me one thing." She looked back into his eyes.

They glowed with happiness.

He didn't know.

     "Promise me, when I go away, forever, everybody's going to cry. Others will be upset if you cry. So you won't cry. When I leave, you'll stand by my side, and smile. And you'll wave. You'll wave, while smiling brightly. Do that for me, okay?"

She went to bed.

---

     It was her funeral.

     Lukas stood next to the coffin. He was smiling. No tears flowed.

People next to him whispered.

They questioned themselves; 'Why is he smiling?'

They'd finally come to take her away.

As they rolled his mother away, Lukas carefully raised his hand.

He waved.

Lukas waved until she was gone from his sight.

     "She'll watch over the world." He said to himself, and kept waving.

Then a lonesome tear slipped off his cheek.