Years ago, when my daughter was just a little girl, I told her impromptu stories.
Usually these were forgotten almost as quickly as a dream. But a few of the stories stuck. One of those was the story of Daisy and her lost petals.
After telling myself for years, “You know, Wiley, you ought to write that one down,” I’m finally doing just that. I’m also working on some illustrations. (The one you see above is a little “character study” of Daisy.)
Here’s how the story begins (at least for now):
Once there was a daisy named Daisy.
She lived beneath her neighbors Mr. Birch and Mr. Beech, and she had six lovely petals, soft and bright. But the Old North Wind came through at times, and he never even noticed them. He just stormed along, lost in his troubles, and leaving people with some of their own.
And one day, he blew all of Daisy’s petals away.
Everyone suffered. Her neighbors had been thinned out a bit, and their leaves were scatter-shot here and there. Mr. Birch even lost a branch, which he refused to acknowledge. Being stoical he said, “What’s meant to be, will be.”
But Daisy’s petals were blown out of sight. And she wept for them.
“Come now, young lady,” said Mr. Birch, “it is the way of the world.”
But Mr. Beech was made of tougher stuff so he could afford to be tender. And he was old enough to know that he did not know all the ways of the world.
So he said, “Daisy, why not look for them?”
—
And so it begins. It is a short tale–taking less than a thousand words to tell. Nice bedtime fare for little girls.
C. R. Wiley 