MERCY

2 a: a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion b: a fortunate circumstance (it was a mercy they found her before she froze)


A wrote a short story tonight about a little girl named Mercy. She wrote the first draft of it on the back of a Trader Joe's receipt that J found in his coat pocket for her during a high school girls basketball game. She wrote the second draft on the back of a children's menu from Jim & Nick's, where we had dinner after the game. A then handed it over to me and told me to use it to write a longer story and to "make it better." It's a lovely little story as it is and she doesn't know the gift of mercy that this little story is to me.

My daughters hear me talk about wanting to write. They sometimes hear me ask for a minute more on the computer to finish what I'm writing. They see me sneak upstairs before their bedtime to get in a few minutes of writing while J puts them to bed. What A taught me today is that she believes in me. She thinks I can write. While I know some of this is blind faith in her mother, I'm not going to dwell on that tonight. Tonight, I am going to see the fortunate circumstance that occurred when my daughter wrote a story about a girl named Mercy and gave me a gift much bigger than a few paragraphs.

To honor that gift, I will see if I can imagine more for Mercy and write it up for A. But tonight, here's A's story (draft #2):

One day Mercy was going to her job as a night guard at the museum. She walked in and said, "Hello" to Mrs. Westing. Mrs. Westing left. Mercy started her nightly rounds. All of a sudden she heard footsteps behind her. Who was it? she wondered. She ducked into a room. The person walked by. Yikes! It was BIG WILLY! She almost screamed, "Help!" but held her tongue. She called the police and they came. She told them where he was. They caught him red-handed. Everyone was safe.

I hope little mercies like this one will propel me to write even when I don't feel like I have the words.