Daisy: A Short Story

Daisy didn’t come home that night.

Her mama called my mama real panicked late that evening after the carnival. She said Daisy hadn’t shown up at home and was she maybe with us or had we seen her? Mama placed her hand over the phone receiver and asked me gently if I knew where Daisy was. I shook my head, lips pursed. Daisy and I had left the fair together, then I’d turned right towards my home and she’d turned left towards hers. That’s as far as I knew.

Mama spoke real soft into the receiver and said that we hadn’t seen her but we’d call if we did. I snuck into the other room while mama was quiet and picked up the extension. I strained my ears real hard to hear what Daisy’s mama would say.

“Well, I’m not surprised,” her mama said, real defeated like. “I knew this day was coming. Just something not right about keeping her, you know?”

“I-” Mama started to answer. Then: “Get off the line, Eliza!”

I hung up right quick. What Daisy’s mama said seemed about right to me. Which I know sounds pretty odd, right? I guess I better do some explaining about Daisy real fast.

Daisy wasn’t her mama’s child by birth, see. What happened was one day her mama was walking down along the shore and she found this baby, all wrapped up in soft, green cotton, just abandoned by the tide. It wasn’t fussing or nothing, just staring out into the waves, almost like in a trance. She looked all over for anyone else but no one was there, just this clean, healthy baby. So she took her.

She went to the police, too, but they couldn’t find any records or anything about that baby, so in the end she got to keep her. Now I was just a baby at the time, too, so I’ve heard this story from just about everyone in the town. Daisy’s mama doesn’t ever say anything to Daisy about not being her natural mama and no one says anything to the either of them, but it’s a well-known fact.

I remember one time when we were real little - six, maybe almost seven years old - we were playing down by that part of the shore. We were running around and making sand angels and digging holes and looking for shells when Daisy just stopped all of the sudden and stared out into the sea. She got this real faraway look about her and her voice got all excited.

“You know the story of Venus, Eliza?” she asked me.

I shook my head and shrugged.

“Oh, it’s wonderful! You see she was this ancient goddess, right? And all the other gods and goddesses were already around and knew each other and one day she just rises on up out of the sea. Even the sea god doesn’t know anything about her. But she rises up out of the ocean and she’s gorgeous. The most beautiful woman ever, and she comes on land and everyone has to attend to her and love her, but she’s just so charming it’s not like they don’t wanna.

“Anyway, they realize she’s something special so she becomes the goddess of love and beauty. Only her name wasn’t Venus, first; it was something else, something funny. Aphro- Aphrodiddy...”

“Aphrodaisy?” I ventured.

Daisy giggled. “Maybe!”

Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is that Daisy was a real odd kid. Not odd like the kind of odd that gets a girl kicked out of the lunch table, but the kind of odd that’s more like free-spirited and mysterious. She was different from all us neighborhood kids, but we liked her well enough and I loved her more than some.

Her tenth birthday she’d had down at the shore. She must have spent all day out there in the water and almost had to be dragged away for cake and presents. Her mama seemed real nervous that day, always looking after Daisy like something terrible might happen. But Daisy was eventually coaxed out of that water and dried off and her mama seemed more at ease.

I remember that day was pretty much the only day I’d ever seen Daisy get real mad at me. I’d come out into the sea with her, me and some other kids. She saw me and her eyes glittered with excitement.

“You wanna play sea people?” she asked.

“Sure!”

“Okay,” she said. “I’m the sea princess. I live in a reef far, far below and wear coral in my hair.”

“Well, I live in a great big palace made out of seaweed and I swim with seahorses and my tail is all blue like the sea.”

Her eyes flashed all of the sudden. “That’s not what sea people are like! That’s a stupid mermaid cartoon!” She swam away angrily.

Of course later in the day we were best of friends again. She didn’t mention what had happened out in the water and I didn’t bring it up either. I’d figured it was just some dumb fight and I was just glad she was talking to me again.

Well, coming back to today, I guess I should talk on what happened. See, Daisy and I had gone to this local carnival. It was a warm, sticky summer night, the kind where you could sort of taste the salt in the air and the evening smelled like ocean. The carnival was in the center of town, all flashing lights and popcorn smells and the cute boys in impenetrable groups.

Daisy was at least just as excited as I was to go. We purchased our pink wristlets - the kind that gets you unlimited rides - and bounced happily inside. First, we rode the ferris wheel. It took us high up above everything where the air was a little cooler. You could see almost maybe the whole town form the top. I recognized the firehouse, my high school, and the glint of water off in the distance. Daisy was busy picking out which rides looked the best from high up.

When we got off, she tugged at my arm towards a pirate ship ride she’d spied from the ferris wheel. It was one of those giant rocker rides, taking you high up on one side, then swinging back down like a big ol’ pendulum. It looked like a genuine pirate ship, though, with a lady carved on front and everything.

I thought it was all right, but Daisy was ecstatic about it. She smiled the whole time and stretched her arms out with the wind as we made our descents. We rode that darned ride at least six times.

When it got near our curfew we left, like I told my mama. I turned towards my home and Daisy headed off towards hers. Or so I’d thought, anyway.

Mama came in the other room and found me and assured me everything was going to be fine, Daisy was all right, and was I okay? I nodded. I knew it was and she was and I was. I felt it, you see. I tried to tell mama that, but she just smoothed my hair back and pretended she understood.

So, it’s been two days, now, since Daisy’s disappearance. Her mama still has bulletins out and is asking everyone, everywhere. But she’s not trying real hard, you see. None of us are. We all don’t really know why, but we know Daisy’s gone. And it’s not a sad feeling. It’s like an accepting feeling, I guess. Like we all knew Daisy coming here was a fluke, at least for right now. We knew it wasn’t right, you see.

Anyway, I went by that carnival again today. In the daylight it looks pretty out of place, with no lights and no movement and no people. I stopped by that pirate ship ride and something caught my eye. That lady on the front of the ship; she was definitely different today.

I stepped in closer and squinted my eyes to be extra sure. Darned if she didn’t look just almost exactly like Daisy, her eyes closed, her head tilted back. Heck, even her arms were stretched out wide, catching the wind. I shook my head, not truly believing it. Then a name caught my eye. Right below the carving was a name: Aphrodite.

I stood there and stared a while, then shrugged and turned away. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But as I headed home, the smell of the sea became stronger than I remembered before and I smiled.

Daisy was all right.