5 Aug 2025, 14:27
A Message To The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
Two days. Just two days. Two days, and it would all be over. Sage could make it through.
Between hectic dinners and bustling trips to museums, there hadn’t been a minute to spare for a rest during the trip. That midday on August 5th brought the Willows- and a few select others- to Regent’s Park for a picnic lunch.
The Grays, Joseph and Marietta with their children Amelia and Bowen, arrived with a cooler of food, Joseph tugging along a wagon that held their children. The Lysers, Sofia, Tyson, and Ane, drove up in their car, taking their time unloading. Sage’s other aunt, Regan, Christopher’s sister, sat waiting in the grass for them. It’d been ages since Sage had seen her.
Inside Christopher’s signature tiny car, Sage adjusted her baseball cap. “Remind me where you got this?” she asked her Grandpa, he’d given it to her the day she arrived.
“A trip to the US we took when Tyson graduated sixth form. He’d always complained to us about how much he wanted to see that city. We took your mum to Paris, I believe it was, for a week after she graduated. She bought that cap in New York during that trip,” he told her. “Lord, Autumn loved that thing.”
Sage reached to brush the fabric of the cap, fading blue with white stripes down it. Her mum’s hat… After all this time, she was finally holding it. “Where’d you find it? I don’t remember ever seeing it.”
Christopher cut in. “She was wearing that when she met me. The last time was the day she died, maybe even a few hours before the wreck.”
Everyone in the car stopped talking. This, quite possibly, was one of the last things her mum had come into contact with before her death. And now it was Sage’s. Now it belonged to the one person who escaped that accident alive. She held it tighter.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Sage formed a picture in her mind of her mum wearing that hat at the bookstore. Helping her pick out a book about some alternate fantasy world, popping it on Sage’s head at the checkout lane. Only in this dream Sage wasn’t a simple toddler. It was her now, telling her how excited she was for her third year. A knock on the window launched her back into reality.
“Picnic’s out here, not in the car!”
Sage swallowed and nodded, undoing her seatbelt.
“Hey,” Kora said, tapping Sage on the arm, a line of concern drawn across her forehead. “You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just…” Her voice trailed off to remove her hat. “This was her hat.”
Kora nodded, understanding, and opened her own door. “She’d be proud to see you wearing it.”
On picnic blankets in the park, aunts, uncles, cousins, dads, sisters, and a grandpa gathered. Food was shared, passed onto different plates. Some shared stories from work, others recommended a book to read. All of it seemed civil. Right.
“So, Regan,” said Aunt Sofia after swallowing a bite of mashed potatoes. “You’ve been doing an awful lot of traveling, right?”
“Uh, yes. I have. Just got back from a stint in Asia. In September I’m heading back to South America.”
“Really? And how do you manage so much traveling? Ane’s been dying for a holiday out of the UK. Maybe you could take her with you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. She’s only, what, twenty? Backpacking can be a lot for someone who’s only twenty.”
“Backpacking? No, no, no. I’m not paying for my only daughter to travel around with a backpack instead of her attending a good university.” Tyson shook his head. “You weren’t kidding when you called her the black sheep of the family, Chris.”
“Okay, we aren’t doing this. Not every meal and second together needs to have a huge fight.” Regan shook her head in disgust. “Honestly, Christopher, I don’t care what you call me, but let’s not start an argument.”
“So, does anyone have any fun film recommendations?” Sage asked in an attempt to switch the conversation. “Chris- Dad- showed me It’s A Wonderful Life over the winter holiday.”
Just call him Dad, Sage told herself. It’s not that big of a deal, just make sure he doesn’t get upset.
“Come on, Joseph, buddy, pay up. You lost the bet that she’d ever call him ‘dad’ again,” Tyson said, barely able to control his laughter.
“Tyson, quit.”
“You’re… betting on what I call my father?” Sage managed. “What’s wrong with you?” Suddenly, having her mother’s hat didn’t seem like such a comfort.
“Oh, come on, it’s just a joke.”
“Uh, it’s sort of a child’s movie, but I’ve been watching Mary Poppins with the kids this summer,” Aunt Marietta offered. “Perhaps you could come over and watch it sometime before you leave, Sage? You too, Kora.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Christopher. “Shouldn’t we be wrapping this up?”
“Christopher, let’s calm down.” Grandpa Lyser placed a hand on his son-in-law’s shoulder.
“Maybe we should get going…” Sage started to stand. “It’s been… fun.”
“Oh, Sage, I’ve been meaning to ask,” started Tyson. “How are you handling all the walking on this trip?”
Sage crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. She knew he meant that with ill intentions. “Just fine. How have you been handling that no one here cares for your opinion?”
She didn’t stick around to hear the aftermath, only Ane laughing and muttering “Burn.” Slamming the car door that Christopher had forgotten to lock, she covered her face with her hands. It was in moments like these that she wished she could drive. Drive, far away, to erase the pain of being there.
“The hell is wrong with you?” Christopher exclaimed. “That is your family, your uncle!”
“Really? Because they don’t act like it. You don’t act like it.”
“I’m not doing this with you. I’ll go grab Kora and your Grandpa and we’ll leave. Then you can think before you speak next time.”
Before he could leave, Sage said, “Why did you really ask me here?”
He stopped, hand frozen on the door. “You’re my daughter.”
“I could be your daughter and you could hate me. Tell me the truth.”
“I just… I wanted to see you before I may not have a chance to.”
Sage frowned. “Are you moving?”
“No… I’ll- I won’t spoil our time together.”
“Dad? It’s nothing… bad, is it?”
Christopher laughed with no emotion. “You have no idea how wonderful it feels to earn that title back. But no, it’s nothing bad. At least, nothing horrible.”
“You know I’ve wanted to call you ‘dad’, right? I’ve just felt like you haven’t deserved it since you haven’t been around.”
“Yeah.” He turned to herd Kora and Grandpa Lyser back into the car.
Evening had fallen over London. For once, the extended family wasn’t come round for dinner. They’d all said lunch had been enough. Between a pot of macaroni and cheese and tea, Sage turned to her room for the rest of the evening. Before she had a chance to flip open the cover of the new book she’d gotten the other day, someone knocked on her door.
“You have a minute to talk?” Christopher asked.
“Sure.”
He came in, taking a seat on the foot of her bed. “I’m… sorry. For everything I’ve said or done. Or, rather, what I haven’t done.”
“I know you want me to just say ‘it’s fine, no worries’, but I can’t. It isn’t fine. I’ve felt like crap for the past few years because of you. I’m glad you’ve realized the error of your ways, but it feels like no matter how many times I forgive you, nothing changes. I need things to change. I can’t sit around waiting for you to be ready to be a father, I need you to change.”
Christopher stared at her, like she was trying to figure out what she’d just said. “So… you don’t forgive me?”
“I can’t. Out of respect for myself, I can’t. Maybe one day when you prove you can change, but not now.”
“Well.”
“Well” indeed.
“Maybe one day,” Sage repeated. “I do want for us to have a good relationship, but I’m not going to drop everything to say it’s okay.”
He just nodded. “I take it Kora feels the same?”
“I can’t speak for her, but… To me, it’s always felt like you distance yourself from her. Like you didn’t actually want her around. But you need to talk to her on your own.”
Christopher stood, looking down at the ground. He stopped in the doorway, hand on the doorknob. “Thank you.”@Brookline Quinn as she asked to be pinged
