The Luckiest Girl in the World

A Mountain-Town Riddle

She was the luckiest girl in the world, dressed in a violet sweater, the color of irises. Her pants were the colors of chamomile flowers, a dainty white and yellow.

She sat on a rocking chair on the porch of the general store in her mountain town.

Every day at 9 a.m. sharp, she went there for lemonade.

She always skipped her first class in school, telling her teachers that she had to take care of her sick mom.

You see, her mom was dying.

She had been dying for the last two years, but she was getting closer and closer by the death to really dying.

“Live every day to the fullest,” her mom would say, just before “I love you,” when she first saw Anne and whenever Anne left.

That’s one of the reasons Anne always stopped at the general store.

Lemonade was her favorite.

Why not drink it every day?

A story by Pemba Umoja