Dawn (standard:drama, 2857 words)
Author: Maureen Stirsman	Added: Oct 20 2003	Views/Reads: 3451/2374	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
She listened to music, ate toast and hot tea. Again she looked at the embroidered picture. The cross-stitched porch invited her. She stared at the tiny windows and sat down, never taking her eyes from the mesmerizing scene. One of the black squirrels move

THE SUN ROSE with a radiant brightness that was never more welcomed.   
Streaks of blue and green shot through the reds that lighted the 
eastern sky like a fire. That was the day Donna Jean was born. Martha 
and Warren had been married six years and every one of those nights 
Martha prayed for a baby. Now on the morning of April 17, 1947 after 
sixteen straight days of rain the sun rose and announced the rain was 
over. 

“What time is it, doctor?” asked the nurse. “Exactly 7:02 AM.” said
Doctor Petrie. “And, she is a beautiful baby, nice color, round face, 
and just listen to that cry.” Martha and Warren couldn't take their 
eyes from their daughter. The wonder of answered prayer shined in 
Martha's eyes. “Her name is Donna Jean, after both of our mothers.” 
Martha said. “To me, she is Dawn, because this morning the rain has 
stopped and our lives are just beginning. It's the dawn of a new day.” 
Her daddy was the only one who called her Dawn, everyone else called 
her Donna Jean. The mother and father took turns feeding her and 
playing with her and never took their eyes from her. They never left 
her with anyone except one grandmother or the other. The little family 
was very happy together. 

Then one day twenty-three months later, Lily Celeste was born. The two
little girls grew up together, as close as sisters could be. They 
thrived on the love their parents and grandmothers showered on them. 
“Lily Celeste, let me help you comb that beautiful hair.” Lily Celeste 
had the goldilocks curls and bright blue eyes every mother wanted for 
her daughter. Her personality was sunny to match. Donna Jean was dark. 
Her hair was brown and extremely straight. Her face was very round and 
her cheeks ruddy. The only resemblance she bore to her sister was in 
the blue eyes.    But, Donna Jean was never aware of the difference in 
their looks. “Donna Jean, that smile lights up your face.” She was 
told. Neither girl ever doubted that she was loved. 

Martha dressed the girls in frilly dresses, Lily Celeste in pink and
Donna Jean in blue with ruffled white anklets and matching ribbons in 
their hair. Every Saturday night when Martha gave them their baths and 
shampoos she towel dried and brushed Lily Celeste's into her natural 
curls and Donna Jean's brown hair was wound around torn pieces of sheet 
in rags. Donna Jean complained but she wanted curly hair on Sunday so 
she put up with the inconvenience. By Sunday afternoon her hair was 
straight again. 

The girls grew and the parents bought a little cottage on the outskirts
of town.    That September William John was born. Quickly he enchanted 
his sisters. He laughed every time they came into the room and they 
loved feeding him and    taking him for walks in his baby buggy. The 
girls slept in twin beds with pink spreads and flowered wallpaper on 
the walls of the corner bedroom overlooking the rose garden. On hot 
summer evenings they sat on the porch drinking colas or lemonade and 
listening to the radio through the window. Hollyhocks grew in front of 
the porch and a lilac bush at the corner of the house. Black squirrels 
played on the treetops outside of the windows. 

On winter evenings they sat around the dining room table building
puzzles or playing Monopoly or eating popcorn in front of the 
fireplace. “I always wanted a fireplace.” Martha said.  “I love the 
smell.”  William sat in his playpen or his high chair and laughed at 
everything they did. His fine blonde hair was straight like his 
fathers. Martha was the parent with the curly hair. They all had blue 
eyes. 

The little family enjoyed life in the cottage summer after winter after
summer until the year William turned four. That late October morning 
when the girls got on the school bus, Martha held William on her lap 
and Warren got behind the steering wheel. They waved as the yellow 
school bus pulled away. That was the last time the girls saw their 
parents and little brother. 

A sudden unexpected early snow caught them unprepared and Warren lost
control of the car and skidded off the road over an embankment. 

Warren's stepsister, Jenny, came to make funeral arrangements. They were
buried in a single plot, Martha and Warren and William. Lily Celeste 
and Donna Jean sat next to Aunt Jenny and Uncle Walter holding each 
other's white gloved hands. 


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