The snow was what she loved the most about the outdoors. It just didn't make sense for Livy, how water from high up in the air just freezes and turns into these geometric ice crystals. It was a miracle, she thought. Livy notices a snow flake near her face, slowly swaying through the air. She reaches for it but it was drifting away from her. She tries to grab it again. The snowflake drifted away with each attempt. She couldn't grab it and it landed safely on her dog's bloody body. As soon as it landed, dirt immediately covered it.
"Livy, stand aside. I might hit you." Said her older sister as she was shoveling dirt to cover the bloody dog. "Skipper was a really cute dog, too. God I'll miss his cuddly face." Her older sister was a few years older than her. She had trouble with the shoveling, but she said she was fine and didn't need any help.
Skipper was inside a three-foot hole her sister dug. What horrified six-year-old Livy the most was that they didn't have a sheet to cover up the dog. Skipper's bloody and bruised body is clearly shown. Especially his burnt face.
"Come and say something." Young Livy went to her sister's side and stared at the grave. They couldn't do much so they put soil and stacked white rocks inside skipper's favorite bowl with the words: "Here lies Skipper" written around the bowl.
"Okay, I'll say something first. You just follow my lead, sis."
"Okay."
"Umm….That dog would always uh…leap into my bed early in the morning and wake me up. It was annoying as hell but it was also very cute. Gee, I could never know why his favorite bathroom was at the couch. I could not count the times when I would sit down and feel something wet down there haha. But whenever I uhh…feel down, that dog's always there to…brighten me up. That dog wanted a lot of attention from all of us. He was uhh….yeah, we miss him. Now it's your turn to say something."
She saw that Livy was looking at the window above them. She turned to look as well and saw her father and her mother arguing in their room. Though they couldn't really see their faces, the loud noises, the yelling, and very fast moving shadows tell it all.
"Don't listen to them." She told her younger sister. Livy was holding a flower she picked from the garden nearby. It was the only flower that was alive. The rest were either dead from dehydration or from the intense cold. "Ain't you the little gardener! I see you've finally grown your first flower. A beautiful rose." Little Livy then put the flower right next to Skipper's homemade tombstone.
"You were sooo cute. You were sooo happy. You were sooo loved." Her voice was cute that it couldn't help jut give her big sis a chuckle. That was all Livy could say and that was enough. "Jessica?" she called out her older sister. "Did dad not know that dogs are allergic to hot water?"
Jessica didn't know what to say. She had to soften the blow for Livy by telling her that dad was trying to give Skipper a bath but accidentally putting hot water, which Skipper was "allergic" to. But with that question, it made her want to tell her young sis everything. Even though she won't be able to understand. She chose not to do that.
Suddenly a vase broke out of the window and landed hard into Skipper's burial site, nearly hitting Livy. Jessica went down to comfort Livy who was now crying.
"Don't you worry, sis. It's okay, Skipper's here with us."
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Livy heard noises downstairs so she went down to see. She went down the stairs and saw her mother talking to some men wearing blue uniforms. She couldn't tell what or who they were. All she knew was that Jessica and dad went to go buy milk and hadn't come back for hours. The blue men then showed her mother a picture before they left.
"Where did daddy go?" asked young Livy. She kept tugging at her mother's skirt, annoying the hell out of her.
"I told you already, sweetie. They went grocery shopping." She was smoking a cigarette, not even caring about the risk of her daughter having a second-hand smoke. "But I wanted to join! I wanted to buy candy."
"It's okay, it's okay. I told your older sis to buy you candy." She threw away her used cigarette and popped up another one. "Go. Go outside and play."
Livy went closer to her mother, who was sitting on a chair near the window, still smoking her cigarettes. "Mommy, are you hurt?" she pointed at the bruise on her face. It was a small bruise on the cheek. "Mommy, are you crying?"
Her mother was already in tears but she was holding it in and continued on smoking. But she couldn't hide the red of her eyes and the running tears to little Livy. "Where did they go?"
Her mother threw away her cigarette. Then she started throwing the table, the chairs, the cups and the jars. Everything she could find breakable, she threw in a fit of rage, despair and sadness.
Before she knew it, Livy was standing in front of her dead sister's coffin. It was plain white, that was the cheapest her parents could afford. Jessica was now inside a six-foot deep hole in the dirt. Livy focused on the picture of her sister next to the grave. Jessica was smiling, just as she did when she saw the rose that Livy grew.
"I suppose everybody's….here." The priest said. Livy's mother looked around them. Everything there was just empty chairs, a pastor, and two grieving family members. "As we uhh….gather…here today to remember this beautiful girl that the Lord had given the world. We should never forget her kindness and the good she has done. Receive the Lord's blessing. The Lord bless you and watch over you. The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord look kindly on you and give you peace."
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"Karen, How's Richard?" Father Martin asked the grieving mother. "Richard's still at the hospital," she replied. "They say he'll be there for a while. He suffered some major wounds."
"And have you told any of this….of what happened…to little Livy?" Karen and the Pries t looked at little Livy. She was standing beside the grave, looking down on the dirt. "She's a child, I'll tell her when it's time to tell her."
"You should comfort her at least, she needs her mother."
"Thank you so much, father." Karen walked away, leaving Little Livy in the care of Father Martin, never to be seen again.
A few years went by and little Livy was now finishing college at the age of sixteen. She studied her bachelor's degree in psychology and was about to become the youngest psychiatrist in history. She was all over the news, attracting many couples that wanted to adopt her. They would always come at the church. Not for prayer, but for the blessing of adopting the youngest person to complete college and to be the youngest ever psychiatrist. But they would always leave sad and empty, unable to get that blessing. Livy stayed at the church, but not for long.