Not A Simple Dress

張鵬程

“Do you like my dress？”she asked of a passing stranger.“My mommy made it just for me.”She said with a tear in her eye.

“Well，I think it s very pretty，so tell me little one，why are you crying？”

With a quiver in her voice the little girl an- swered.“After Mommy made me this dress，she had to go away.”

“Well，now， ”said the lady，“with a little girl like you waiting for her，I m sure she ll be right back.”

“No Ma am ，you don t understand， ”said the child through her tears，“my daddy said she s up in heaven now with Grandfather.”

Finally the woman realized what the child meant，and why she was crying.Kneeling down she gently cradled the child in her arms and to- gether they cried for the mommy that was gone.

Then suddenly the little girl did something that the woman thought was a bit strange.She stopped crying，stepped back from the woman and began to sing.She sang so softly that it was?almost a whisper. It was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard，almost like the song of a very small bird.

After the child stopped singing she ex- plained to the lady，“My mommy used to sing that song to me before she went away，and she made me promise to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop.”

“See， ”she exclaimed，“it did，and now my eyes are dry！”

As the woman turned to go，the little girl grabbed her sleeve，“Ma am，can you stay just a minute？I want to show you something.”

“Of course， ”she answered，“what do you want me to see？”

Pointing to a spot on her dress，she said， “Right here is where my mommy kissed my dress，and here， ”pointing to another spot，“and here is another kiss， and here，and here.Mommy said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would have her kisses for everything that made me cry.”

Then the lady realized that she wasn t just looking at a dress，no，she was looking at a moth- er …who knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get.

So she took all the love she had for her beautiful little girl and put them into this dress， that her child now so proudly wore.

She no longer saw a little girl in a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped…in her mother s love.

“你喜歡我的連衣裙嗎？”她問一位正走 過她身邊的陌生人。“我媽媽專門給我做 的。”她說道，眼里冒出了淚珠。

“嗯，我認為你的裙子真漂亮。告訴我， 小姑娘，你為什么哭呢？”

小姑娘聲音有些顫抖，回答道：“我媽媽 給我做完這條裙子后就不得不離開了。”

“哦，是這樣，”陌生的女士說，“有你這 樣一個小姑娘等著她，我敢肯定她很快就會 回來的。”

“不，女士，您不明白，”女孩透過淚水 說，“我爸說她現(xiàn)在和我爺爺在天堂里。”

女士終于明白孩子的意思了，也明白她 為什么哭泣。她跪下，溫柔地把女孩摟在懷 里，她們一起為離去的媽媽哭泣。

忽然小姑娘又做了件讓女士感到有點 奇怪的事。她停住了哭泣，從女士懷抱中抽 出身，向后退了一步，然后開始唱歌。她唱 得如此輕柔，像是在低語。這是女士聽到過的最甜美的聲音，簡直就像一只非常小的小鳥在吟唱。

小女孩唱完后解釋說：“媽媽離去前經(jīng)常給我唱這首歌，她讓我答應(yīng)她我一哭就唱這首歌，這樣我就不哭了。”

“您瞧，”她驚叫道，“真管用，現(xiàn)在我的眼睛里沒有眼淚了！”

女士轉(zhuǎn)身要走時，小女孩抓住她的衣袖：“女士，您能再停留一小會兒嗎？我想給您看點東西。”

“當然可以，”她回答，“你想要我看什么呢？”

小女孩指著裙子上的一處，說：“就在這里，我媽媽親了我的裙子，還有這里，”她指著另外一處，“這里有另外一個吻，還有這里，這里。媽媽說她把所有這些吻都留在我的連衣裙上，這樣我遇到什么事哭了，就會有她的親吻。”

這時，女士意識到在她眼前的不是一件連衣裙，不是的，她在凝視一位母親……這位母親知道她將離去，無法隨時守候在女兒身邊，吻去她知道女兒必然會遇到的種種傷心事。

所以她將所有對她美麗女兒的愛傾注在這件連衣裙上。現(xiàn)在，女兒如此驕傲地穿在身上。

她看到的不再是身穿一件簡單的連衣裙的小女孩。她看到的是一個……被媽媽的愛裹著的孩子。