Late

“Mommy!!!!”

A small girl teeters on unsteady feet, running to her mom as fast as she can manage. Mother and daughter’s matching smiles light up their faces, the only trait they have in common. Emmy had always taken after her father. A sudden tear, so common in the past weeks, comes to the mother’s eye. Emmy would never see him, never understand how much he had loved her. One day, she too would feel lost and betrayed by her father’s sudden death. He hadn’t deserved it and neither did the two left behind. Mother falters, pausing before her child, not wanting Emmy to feel the wetness on her mother’s face when she was lifted of the ground and spun into a hug.

A small girl teeters on unsteady feet, seeing the front steps and unable to stop.

The ambulance arrives too late.