"Dawn?"
   "Hi Mommy."
   "Hey Honey." Her mother sighed. "I need to tell you something."
    "What is it, Mommy?"
   "Well, I have a serious problem."
   Dawn stopped smiling, and for a moment it felt like her heart was in her toes. Waves of sadness streamed off of her mother.
   "But Mommy, you can't have a bad problem. You just can't." There was no way her four-year-old mind would listen to reason.
   "I'm getting sick. I'm going to have to go away soon."
   "But you'll come home, right? Just like you get better after you throw up, and barf everywhere?" Dawn's eyes were filled with hopeful longing.
   "Yes, Honey, I'll come home, in you. In spirit."
   At that time, Dawn didn't know what that meant. The only thing her little ears picked up was that her mother was sick, going to the hospital, and would come home. In spirit, or whatever that meant.

✧ :˚ * ⁎ ˳ ༚

   "Dawn?" She felt worry streak the air. It felt like it was leaking from beneath the door. And it was. In her mind, she involuntary glimpsed her father. He was standing at her door, his expression confused, and concerned. It created a cloud around her heart, making is strain to beat. She wiped away her tears. And shoved her face into her pillow, feeling its feather softness soak up the wetness on her face.
   "Yeah Dad?" Over many years, Dawn had learned how to hide her emotions. She could strain her throat, and speak plainly. Almost everyone bought it.
   "Can I come in?"
   She knew he was going to say that. Silently, she flipped her pillow over to hide the tear stains, and stole over to her desk, where she hastily opened her workbook that she was supposed to be studying.
   "Sure," she said, as she sat on her desk chair. "Come on in."
   Her door creaked open, and her father peeked his head in.
   "You alright, Dawn?" He wasn't asking about her emotions. He wasn't asking if she was okay emotionally, she could sense that. He wanted to know if she was okay, meaning if she was sick. And he was hoping that she would ask him to help her with her homework.
   "I'm feeling fine. I was just a little... y'know, tired. I just needed to lay down. Also, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding this," she pointed at a line of text in the workbook, that she distantly recalled having trouble with the day before.
   "I'm glad you're alright. Onto the work, though. Can you read it aloud to me?" He walked over, and knelt by the desk next to her, placing his hand in the back of her chair. Dawn leaned into his a bit. Love streamed from him. It made the tears seem like a distant memory.