Sage ? Carl Grimes

ANGELS ON THE MOON by THRIVING IVORY

CARL

The silence was stilling. It was almost as though the wordless moment captivated everything we ever wanted to say.

I felt something tug at the bottom of my jeans, and I glanced down to a little girl, her blue eyes looking up at me with joy. She continued to pull at my jeans to get my attention, and then wriggled her little fingers to try and get me to pick her up.

Her hair was a light color and sprouted from her head, framing those cheeks of hers that indented a smile that only contained a few teeth here and there. Her young, blue eyes were like the ignition to a dying flame after nights in the cold, blizzarding snow. Looking into her eyes was like walking into a foreign house and finally realizing you were home. The innocence in her pale skin was soft with vulnerability and youth. She was wearing on a little blue blouse with leggings and small shoes that had bows on the tips of them.

In my baby sister's blue eyes, I saw the innocence I once withheld in my youth.

"Bubby?" the little girl frowned.

My heart had found a way to sink down to my stomach and tie knots of remembrance.

The little girl tugged on my jeans a little harder, wanting to grasp my attention and extended her baby hands outward so that I would pick her up and hold her. She instantly was drawn towards me because she remembered exactly who I was.

Without further hesitation, I crouched down to Judith's level and wrapped my long arms around her small body, bringing her into my chest. I shifted my weight onto my knees, and her little arms looped around the back of my neck and pulled her closer. Judith giggled into the crook of my neck and clutched the collar of my flannel as she hugged me with her innocent little arms. My eyes were squeezed shut and I felt them swell up with tears at the feeling of her innocence again.

"Cawul," she whispered close to my ear.

Her voice was so small and fragile, as though it could break like glass, but it was still standing as frail as could be. A tear trickled from my eye and landed on her blue shirt.

"Carl; that's me, baby. That's me," I breathed, my chin quivering. "I'm your big brother, do you remember that?"

Judith knew very well who I was and made that evident with the way she clutched onto me like her life depended on it. Her smell was so pure to be around again; she reminded me just of my Mom. She had the incense of daisies and it reminded me all too much of my childhood. Judith was the memory my Mom left to keep safe with me, and the last few months, I had lost that entirely. I lost the purpose to my life but those hardships had sparked me a new one along the way, Sage. And to think that this little girl with the smell of daisies was holding me close again; my faith had hindered itself and brought me back from surrender.

Judith continued to giggle because the tears curling from my eyes were soaking up her little shoulder, acting as though it tickled. I looked over my little sister's shoulder, and two people stood there with tears in their eyes.

Glenn shook his head at me in disbelief, his eyes glistening from the moonlight's beaming glint. His wife stood beside him, her hands beginning to tremble as she raised them to her mouth to cover her widened mouth. Tears endlessly streamed down her sooted face.