Be Kind
She was too late. She saw from the picture window the car driving away. Her mother snuck out again. And this time she had made it to the car. “Damn you, Ada Farley,” she said under her breath.
She ran out the front door, leaving it wide open. Down the long drive she ran, calling her mother’s name. Screaming for her to stop. She knew her mother had hearing loss as well as dementia, but she was hoping her mother might see her in the rearview mirror. The car turned onto the highway. No such luck.
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“That will be sixty eight seventy two,” said the toothless middle age woman behind the cash register. She smiled at Phyllis and her little girl. “My, what a pretty little girl you are.”
The little girl paid the woman no mind as she sucked on her pacifier in the baby seat of the shopping cart.
Phyllis paid the woman cash. “Thank you,” said Phyllis, “he name is Sarah. She just turned one last week.”
“Well, she certainly has her mother’s good looks.”
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Ada forgot where she was going. Ahhhh, oh yes! To the market to get Frank the kielbasa he so liked. Every Saturday. It was Saturday, wasn’t it? Ada’s mind started to wander to an image of Frank lying in a casket. The thought scared her. She went off the road, and put on her brakes. She was in the middle of someone’s yard.
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Phyllis could see her car from the sliding doors of the grocer store. Will wonders never cease? Usually it took her a while to find her car. But this time she didn’t park in the rows perpendicular to the grocery store. She parked on the outer lane that paralleled the highway. And her car was directly down the aisle, shining brightly in the sun.
Phyllis looked both ways and then crossed the parking lot to her car. She looked down at Sara, still content with her pacifier.
Ada rolled down her window and stuck her head out. She looked around. What was she doing here? She drove out of the yard and onto the highway. Ahhh yes, she remembered…Frank’s kielbasa.
Ada approached the market. This wasn’t the A&P! The sign said Hartford. Where was the A&P? As she turned down an aisle of cars, she barely missed hitting a Pontiac. She tried to brake. Her foot hit the gas peddle instead.
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Phyllis was unloading her groceries into the trunk. She heard a screech from someone’s tires, and turned her heat to see a car coming straight for her.
The impact crushed her upper legs and pelvis between the two cars. As the life drained out of her, she saw Sarah’s lifeless body in the trunk; the pacifier still in her mouth.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Ada approached the market. This wasn’t the A&P. The sign said…something on her neck. A wasp! Ada started to swat at her neck. The wasp stung her, and fell down her blouse. It stung her several more times. She opened the door, screaming.
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Phyllis was unloading her groceries into the trunk. She heard a scream coming from the front of the grocery store. She could see an old woman swatting at her shirt. There was a car slowly going down the next lane toward the building. It rolled straight into a brick section of the store and stopped. Phyllis doubted there was much damage to the bumper or the store.
Several people were trying to help the old woman. Phyllis turned and put the rest of the groceries in. She took Sarah and the empty cart to the cart corral, and picked Sarah up out of the cart’s child seat. Sarah clung to her mother’s shoulder, still sucking on her pacifier.
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Sarah knew she shouldn’t have trusted Pam. Pam was known to be a wild teenager. But Sarah didn’t expect Pam to take her to a drinking party. And when Sarah wanted to go home, Pam just laughed and told her to chill. Sarah called her mother, but all she got was the answering machine. So Sarah decided to hike the two or so miles back home.
The road was dark. There were street lights every so often, but no houses. Sarah felt scared. But he had already decided to walk and she as about halfway home anyway. Just a little further and she will be at her housing development. She folded her arms across her chest, and picked up her pace.
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He played with the radio station, while occasionally glancing up to see that the car remained on the road. He couldn’t find anything that satisfied him. Nothing could satisfy him this evening. He was too angry.
He had left the bar after many attempts to pick up women. The last one made such a fit, that he was thrown out of the bar. Bitch. He only copped a feel, and she started screaming bloody murder.
He looked up from the radio, and saw a young woman walking the other way on the other side of the road.
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Sarah could see the car lights. The only lights she saw that night. The car passed her, and she turned to watch it. The brake lights went on. Sara felt a chill run down her back. The car turned around.
Sarah tried to stay calm. Maybe it was someone she knew. Maybe it was a Good Samaritan. Maybe it was someone who forgot something at home and was merely turning around to retrieve the item. Sarah turned back, and walked briskly.
The car slowed near her. The window rolled down. Maybe it was a psycho pervert.
“Do you need a ride, Miss?” a husky voice came from the car.
Sarah kept walking and looking straight ahead. “No thank you. I live up ahead.”
“I don’t think so,” came from the car, “there isn’t a house for miles. Let me take you home.”
“No thank you,” said Sarah, “I’d rather walk.”
For a moment Sarah thought the man would leave her alone. She kept walking, and the car stayed behind. Maybe he would turn around and go back the way he original drove. No such luck.
He shut off the car headlights, and opened his door. Sarah started running.
She knew she had some distance on him, but she wasn’t sure how much. It was dark. And he could decide to follow her in his car until she got tired. Just then she heard his footsteps right behind her. She ran into the woods.
Branches scratched at her arms, but she kept going. One got tangle in her hair, but she reached up and broke it. She kept going. She could hear him clambering after her.
“You can’t get too far in these woods,” she heard him say from behind her.
The woods fell away to a field. Sarah ran through the tall grass. Her right foot slipped, and she stumbled. She looked to her right and saw darkness. Deep darkness. She must be on the edge of a large crevice.
Sarah turned from the cliff and ran into her assailant. He threw her to the ground. She screamed.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
The woods fell away to a field. Sarah ran through the tall grass. Her foot caught on a rock, and she fell to the ground. She heard running water, like a river or stream. She realized she was hidden in the tall grass. She could hear him coming, but she stayed put. Something hard hit her on her left side.
He knew she was here. Somewhere. He ran. He tripped on something, and fell into darkness. He fell far. His body flipped in mid air, and suddenly stopped His crotch landed on something hard, rupturing both his testicles. He continued to fall into the darkness.
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It was Mother’s Day, and Sarah spent it by the side of her mother’s hospital bed. How long had it been now? Two years since her mother’s diagnosis? She had breast cancer. Advanced. And her mother wasn’t expected to live more than six months at the time. But she had made it over two years.
But Sarah knew hope was fading. Her mother was fading. If only they had caught it sooner. If only her mother went for regular checkups. If only she had convinced her mother to get regular checkups.
But back then Sarah was too into herself. She had been in college at the time and was too busy to be concerned with the health of a parent. With her own health, for that matter. Staying up late and taking caffeine pills in order to study longer.
In fact she never even thought of her mother’s health back then. Her mother had always been healthy, and her main concern was school and friends and nothing else.
She could see her mother’s breathing was labored. It wouldn’t be long now. Her mother looked so thin a pale.
A tear ran down Sarah’s cheek.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
It was Mother’s Day, and Sarah spent it by her mother’s side at her mother’s favorite restaurant. She smiled at her mother, and held her hand.
“Mom,” said Sarah, “I’m so glad you are still with me. You fought quite a battle with cancer, and I can’t imagine what my life would be like without you.”
A tear ran down Sarah’s cheek. He mother wiped it away with one finger.
“Honey, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be here. You’re the one who convinced me to get a checkup. I am extremely lucky they got the cancer early.”
“Yes, it’s funny though. One day I saw a pamphlet on my windshield about breast cancer. Normally I would just throw it away, but it was so bright. The lettering was gold, and the paper itself was pretty. I had to read it. And somehow it just took me in. It made me believe I had to convince you to have a checkup. So I would say if it wasn’t for whoever put that pamphlet on under my wiper, you wouldn’t be here.”
They both laughed as the dessert cart was pulled up to the table.
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“Hera, what is it with you and that rewind button? And what is so special about this Sarah? You know we haven’t interfered with the lives of people for centuries!”
“I know, Zeus. But there’s something about Sarah. Something special. I don’t know what it is quite yet, but I will figure it out in the future.”
“I don’t want you using any more tricks.”
“You should talk! And what have I really done anyway? Used a wasp, a rock, and a pamphlet is all. It’s not like I sent Pegasus down to save her.”
June 2009
