Not A Simple Dress

张鹏程

“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.

“你喜欢我的连衣裙吗？”她问一位正走 过她身边的陌生人。“我妈妈专门给我做 的。”她说道，眼里冒出了泪珠。

“嗯，我认为你的裙子真漂亮。告诉我， 小姑娘，你为什么哭呢？”

小姑娘声音有些颤抖，回答道：“我妈妈 给我做完这条裙子后就不得不离开了。”

“哦，是这样，”陌生的女士说，“有你这 样一个小姑娘等着她，我敢肯定她很快就会 回来的。”

“不，女士，您不明白，”女孩透过泪水 说，“我爸说她现在和我爷爷在天堂里。”

女士终于明白孩子的意思了，也明白她 为什么哭泣。她跪下，温柔地把女孩搂在怀 里，她们一起为离去的妈妈哭泣。

忽然小姑娘又做了件让女士感到有点 奇怪的事。她停住了哭泣，从女士怀抱中抽 出身，向后退了一步，然后开始唱歌。她唱 得如此轻柔，像是在低语。这是女士听到过的最甜美的声音，简直就像一只非常小的小鸟在吟唱。

小女孩唱完后解释说：“妈妈离去前经常给我唱这首歌，她让我答应她我一哭就唱这首歌，这样我就不哭了。”

“您瞧，”她惊叫道，“真管用，现在我的眼睛里没有眼泪了！”

女士转身要走时，小女孩抓住她的衣袖：“女士，您能再停留一小會儿吗？我想给您看点东西。”

“当然可以，”她回答，“你想要我看什么呢？”

小女孩指着裙子上的一处，说：“就在这里，我妈妈亲了我的裙子，还有这里，”她指着另外一处，“这里有另外一个吻，还有这里，这里。妈妈说她把所有这些吻都留在我的连衣裙上，这样我遇到什么事哭了，就会有她的亲吻。”

这时，女士意识到在她眼前的不是一件连衣裙，不是的，她在凝视一位母亲……这位母亲知道她将离去，无法随时守候在女儿身边，吻去她知道女儿必然会遇到的种种伤心事。

所以她将所有对她美丽女儿的爱倾注在这件连衣裙上。现在，女儿如此骄傲地穿在身上。

她看到的不再是身穿一件简单的连衣裙的小女孩。她看到的是一个……被妈妈的爱裹着的孩子。