Illustration: Joy Wang
A child lies in a field of grass, surrounded by dandelions. Her red and watery eyes follow the movements of a squirrel, as tears begin to flow down her pale and freckled cheeks. Her parents had had a fight the night before, and her father had left, screaming that he never wanted to see his family again. She plucks a dandelion from the ground and holds it close to her lips. “I wish that dad would come home,” she whispers softly, before blowing on the flower. She watches as the seeds float away, carried by the wind. Then she gets up and runs all the way home.
Her hands shake as she opens the front door of her house. She hurries into the living room to find her mother sitting on the couch alone, watching television. She was so ready to fall into her father’s warm embrace that she begins to sob uncontrollably. Her mom walks over to her, picks her up, and holds her as she tells her mother about the wish she made. After a moment, her mother begins to speak in low tones. She explains that a wish made on a dandelion does not come true when the seeds are blown off the flower. She tells her daughter that her wish had been attached to every single seed on the dandelion she had wished on. The seeds would grow into dandelions the following year, and if someone picked up one of these flowers and blew the seeds free, the wish would come true for that person. The girl likes her mother’s explanation, and it reassures her to think that the dandelion she had wished on might have grown from another person’s wish.
A year passes, and the field where the little girl had made her wish is filled with dandelions once again. A young couple lies side-by-side in the grass, watching the clouds drift lazily across the sky. As they lay there, they found themselves talking about things they usually find hard to talk, or even think, about. He tells her about how in grade school, he was bullied so harshly that his family had had to move to a new neighborhood. She tells him about her dad, who was in the armed forces, and had died overseas when she was three. She sits up and picks a dandelion from the ground in front of her. She wishes that they could stay together in this field forever, and blows the seeds from the flower.
—
She opens the front door and steps into the hall, but stops when she hears unusual sounds coming from the living room. She hears her mother sobbing softly, and a low voice speaking gently. She steps into the room cautiously, and her mother looks up at her, mascara smeared across her face. Beside her on the couch, there is a man. The man looks at the girl and smiles, eyes brimming with tears. Her mother’s voice cracks as she says: “Honey… your dad has come home.”
