Her mind raced, reeling through lists, appointments. She had
to pick up her son at 5 and take him to a game. Then her daughter at 6, return
to pick up son, get supper somewhere in there… It was overwhelming, but if she
didn’t think ahead to tomorrow, she’d forget something.
She jumped at a loud honk and noticed the light had turned
green. Better that than not noticing it was red. She’d done that once or twice
since becoming a single parent.
The scales tipped. She couldn’t swallow and her vision
blurred. She pulled over immediately, an accident waiting to happen, and parked
next to a service station.
She gave herself two minutes. For two minutes she could wail
like a baby, scream at the world, swear like a sailor. When the second minute
ended, she would wipe her eyes, blow her nose and go get her son. It had worked
before.
She opened her phone to set a timer and spied a message from
her daughter.
Think Dad’s out there
somewhere?
The picture attached included all of heaven, the bright
amidst the black. It was easy to imagine him floating among the stars.
She didn’t need two minutes.
Be sure to check out all the other teasers by popping over to the blog.
