The Heart Heals

She stood there. Just stood there. As the air came back into her lungs, she became aware enough to look around at the scene she couldn’t have imagined. Slowly, it seemed, her mind began to react. Seconds had been minutes, hours… Slowly, reality set in. She knew she had to move, although she hadn’t tested her legs; she had felt locked in place during the melee. Whatever the source, it had dissipated, at least temporarily, and caused mass confusion among the people running and screaming, going nowhere and fighting each other in place of the ghosts left behind by the, the… what was that anyway? Emma closed her eyes and sat on a crumpled bench. “I’m not crazy. What I just witnessed was amazing and terrifying…” She opened her eyes as a crying child wandered into her small personal space. “Hi! Are you okay? You can wait here with me until your parents find you.”

“Mommy? No. Daddy? Bye. Hurts.” Crying continued and the little girl crawled up onto Emma’s lap and buried her blond curly head under Emma’s chin.

“What hurts? Do you have an owie?”

The little girl looked up at Emma, then down at her legs. She lifted her pant legs and started to cry loudly. The blood had dried, but the wounds were the length of her calves. Scrapes, just bad scrapes, Emma thought. “Oh baby, I’m sorry. Did you fall?”

“Yes, fall down, go boom. Owie,” she said. “Need kisses.”

“Well, I think we should find some water and wash up a bit, don’t you? Then I will be happy to kiss your owies to make them better.”

“No,” she hesitated. “Mommy kiss. Please. Find Mommy.” The tears ran down the dirty little cheeks making rivulets and puddling on the once pink shirt with ruffles.

“Let’s wash up anyway, okay? See how dirty I am? Plus I’d like a drink when we find some water. How about you?”

“Umhum. Drink.” She nodded her head and sniffed, wiping her eyes. “Es go.”

“I’ll carry you if you like,” Emma smiled at the little round face with big dark eyes. “We can’t go far though so we don’t miss your mommy and daddy when they come to find you. What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Lissa. What’s yours?”

“Emma,” the woman answered as she stood and said, “Let’s go piggy back.” She turned and the little girl grabbed Emma’s neck and wrapped her legs around her middle. “Good.” Emma smiled and looked around trying to discern what direction might be safest. Not toward City Center or the collapsed buildings. Not with the crowds of people headed for the Hill, running blindly in fear. “I know where to go. How about the school on First Avenue?” She mostly said that to herself, but Lissa copied her, saying, “School? Like school.”

Emma’s legs were still unsteady but she walked slowly stepping carefully over debris and odd things she was surprised to see. People must have dropped their belongings in the moments following the first blast. It took her a few seconds to realize that perhaps she should collect anything that might be useful somehow. She put Lissa down and picked up a paper bag that had some apples in the bottom. “Can you walk for a bit, Lissa?” The girl nodded and grabbed Emma’s free hand tight.

Emma looked more closely at the ground littered with personal belongings, paper, pieces of what had been growing things an hour earlier. “Look,” Lissa said, and pointed at a red purse with money sticking out the side pocket. She bent over and picked up bills and some change. “Pennies!” she exclaimed. “Keep pennies?” She looked up at Emma who nodded.

“Of course, keep the pennies. Put them in your pocket.” Lissa handed over the bills and other change to Emma who said thank you. “You have a good eye!”

“Two. Have two eyes. See water there.”

Emma spotted what the little girl had seen. Several bottles of water were tossed on the grass. This area had been part of a park where Emma had her lunch on a sunny afternoon a few days ago. It was usually filled with walkers, joggers, runners and others who had nowhere to go but perhaps they did, Emma had remembered. She wondered if they all got to where they were going, and where they all were today. There was rubble of the building kind—bricks, glass, wood splinters, and remnants of offices and equipment from those workplaces.

“Are you cold, Lissa? I think it might be cold later, so if you see something that might keep you or us warm if we’re still outside, please tell me, okay?”

She nodded her answer, and smiled, then asked, “Do you use a phone? I know mommy’s number -- could call her.”

Lissa seemed to be more lucid than when Emma first saw her, and for that Emma was grateful. She found a spot of grass to sit on, and opened one of the bottles of water. “Let’s wash up those legs, shall we? You’ll feel better and we can walk to the school, or go piggy-back again if you want.” There was a bit of a smile from the girl who was maybe three or four, obviously too young to be out in the middle of the disaster that was becoming more apparent the farther they were from Emma’s office building that was destroyed. She began to think more clearly as well, and was struggling to recall the moment she managed to escape the crumbling and creaking and other noises following the blast, or bombing, or whatever it was that hit her familiar neighborhood so suddenly on what was a sunny, late-spring day. The sky had turned muddy gray from smoke and gusts of wind blowing dust and debris in and around and on everything that remained and was barely recognizable. It was still early in the day, Emma thought, but her watch was on her desk, or somewhere it landed—most likely smashed into bits by the force of the unknown power source from the airborne flotilla of the regimes that had threatened the county which was the seat of the local high government in the territory she had lived and worked in for the last five years. She had hoped she was far enough removed from the escalating strain and threats from the Group of Five: the terrorist conclave of people trying the only way they knew to become the ruling powers in the entire western region. It had been a see-saw of on-and-off-again skirmishes, not gaining, not losing, not negotiating and sometimes the evilness peered out from the hidden valleys and attacked with whatever they could muster. The seeming peace of the last couple of months was enough to let the populace relax and pretend their lives were safe and things were going to get better if they prayed enough and hoped enough, and complained enough to the local leaders. Emma knew some of them, and she was not impressed. She had concluded that those “leaders” were as afraid, if not more so, of the Group of Five who cared little for the ordinary masses in favor of their power and their ideas of running some kind of autocratic oversight. What they hoped to gain in the long run, she couldn’t imagine. Certainly, what she witnessed this day was not an auspicious beginning to their proposed goal.

A few more streets before they reached the location of the school, Emma put Lissa down and held her hand tight. There was activity ahead of them that she could hear but couldn’t identify. It sounded like the kind of yelling and screaming resulting from a fight rather than fear. Emma picked Lissa up and walked several streets over to bypass the group of disagreeing and probably frightened neighbors who lived around the school perimeter. She could see that the school building was mostly intact but had suffered some damage to windows and the outdoor playground and part of the gymnasium roof. But it would give them some protection from weather disturbances and some place to rest and reset, Emma thought.

The pair scurried into the first open door which was askew from a blast of rubble from a small storage building close by. Emma could hear voices from farther down the hall so she stayed clear of that area of classrooms. They were close to the kindergarten rooms judging by the torn artwork strung up in the hall, and by the remains of several tables and small chairs which had been tossed by the flash of force earlier. She and Lissa were quiet as they peered inside through the broken door and side windows. It was empty of humans for now, and the first thing she did was find a comfortable place for Lissa who was tired, and so sad her tears were starting all over again.

“I want my Mommy, Emma,” she cried quietly at Emma’s shushing sound. “Where is she?”

“I wish I knew sweetie. We will do our best to find her and your daddy. Are there other members of your family, like a brother or a sister, maybe a grandma?”

“I love my Nana Bumby, but she’s not here anymore. My brother Leo is in a big school far away. I think I’m supposed to get a baby sister or brother soon I hope. Mommy says the baby can’t stretch her tummy much more. It’s funny to see the baby wiggle inside her.”

Emma noticed that topic was enough to draw her out and calm her at least temporarily. She sat beside the little girl and patted her gently on the back as Lissa leaned in to Emma’s arm. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. Emma thought Lissa must be dreaming as she twitched and shook more than Emma thought might be normal. Dreams, nightmares, memories must have flooded her unconscious mind. A child that Emma doesn’t know has been dropped in her care, and she’s not sure what to do except keep her safe for now. It did occur to her that there may be a missing and lost and found list of people posted somewhere in town that would be available soon if it hasn’t been started already. Surely, soon… although she hadn’t seen any kind of rescue operation yet, or any professional assistance beginning to assess damages, provide care and aid to those suffering the most.

Emma was thirsty. She realized it had been hours since breakfast before she went to work. And the water Lissa found was used to clean her scratches and the accumulation of dirt from wherever she’d been. So far, Lissa was too single-minded to have any additional information about who she was with, where they might have been going, or how she got to the place where Emma saw her first. Emma wondered if Lissa even remembered anything from before the trauma they had both suffered.

Lissa awakened with a startled look before realizing that she was with someone she didn’t know, and she wanted to go find her parents. When her tiny world of reality set in again, she told Emma she was hungry and thirsty. They decided together to see if they could find the school cafeteria or perhaps some storage area where canned goods and other safe foods might be stored. Emma tried one of the fountains but the water looked dingy and smelled of some kind of fuel. Hydration was going to be a problem until the beady two-eyes of this child spotted a palette of bottled water and some snack kinds of items in a closet not far from where they had settled in for however long it was going to be. Emma decided to put some of the furniture against the door to the room so that no one would bother them, or worse… Lissa watched as Emma moved a desk and some broken tables and chairs to the inside of the door frame. She hadn’t tried the lights or any other power source as she had noticed that there wasn’t power in any buildings left wholly or partially standing. It was dark enough already outside because of the smoke and gusts of wind lifting the fine remnants of most anything that was in the blasted area. It would be darker soon. Because they were in a school room intended for children, there were mats and light blankets rolled up in a box that had only been tumbled around the room with its contents still inside. Lissa looked at the colors of the mats and picked a purple one. Emma pulled out two orange ones for herself, and they left the blankets for choosing later if they needed the covers.

Wishing she had pants, she thought about another reconnaissance tour later after she felt safe wandering around a strange place. She told herself that she had been in enough school buildings that they couldn’t all be so different from one to the other. She also wanted to find a light source, maybe a flashlight in a drawer or cupboard that somehow had withstood the terrorists’ targets.

Lissa found some crayons and rumpled paper and asked if she could draw pictures. Emma told her that was a great idea before they ran out of light from outside. While Lissa was busy being creative and quiet, Emma sorted through every nook and cranny looking for items they might find useful. In one small cupboard with shelves storing cleaning supplies, she found a small flashlight that worked. She grinned as she thought of her own desk and how she was sure the flashlight she kept needed new batteries. A lot of good that would be, and she realized how important the simple matter of having a light source, even a small one, was necessary in most emergencies.

Emma glanced at Lissa’s busy hands drawing lines and shapes in bright colors. Fascinated, she asked Lissa what she was drawing. “I’m making a sign for Mommy and Daddy to see so they know it’s from me. We can put it up somewhere. Is that okay?”

Emma bent down and gave Lissa a big hug from the back. “Of course it is. I think it’s a grand idea. When you’re finished with this one, you can draw another one of us in this place! I will hang it up at home to remind me of you always!”

Lissa smiled and nodded. It was then that Emma saw a heart in the drawing. It wasn’t exactly a heart, but looked more like a frame around something. Emma asked Lissa what it was, and she answered, “It’s a locket like the one I wear—I’ll show you. It was a present for my birthday. The pictures inside are of my family. They’re tiny, but I know everyone by heart (she giggled). That’s funny! I can’t draw their faces in this picture, but I can draw eyes and smiles, or you could help if you want to. Maybe print the names under the heart…”

The end of this story is being written, but it’s too long to fit the rules. Use your imagination to make it a positive ending. Sending love in a locket to my family…

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