The Accident

The night was cold and quiet. A gentle breeze carried snowflakes through the air, fluttering and light, a beautiful frozen ballet. The moon shown brightly in the vast cloudless sky surrounded by shimmering stars. The night appeared to be at peace.

Vera Day stared blankly into the night, as she had been for the last two hours. She stared at nothing in particular. In fact, she was so unaware that she hadn't even noticed the ice storm no longer raged beyond the glass in front of her. Her eyes widened and darted around at the courtyard outside. The ice storm... She took notice now. An anger began to bubble up inside her. Just a few hours ago a vicious storm had whipped through this town and destroyed so much, and now it was just gone, leaving nothing but what should have been a beautifully icy scene behind. This wasn't beautiful to Vera.

The storm had taken down trees and powerlines, frozen over windows and doors to trap people inside - and the few unlucky people outside. Pellets of ice had pelted every surface of the town, even breaking a few windows. It had also completely iced over the roads. The temperatures were so low that salting the roads would be ineffective and dangerous for the drivers, so it hadn't been attempted. These icy roads were the ones Vera and her family needed to travel in order to make it home from her daughter's elementary school, where she had participated in a winter play that night. The forecast had called for snow but nothing like this storm had been expected, and so the play went on and nobody in town was prepared for the anger nature would unleash - that would cause the Day family's car to speed off the road, flipping over a guard rail to land on it's driver's side in the ditch.

Vera's anger threatened to burst through her chest thinking about the storm claiming all that it had and then just disappearing without a trace. Just before she gave in to the urge to smash the window the door behind her swung open and closed gently. She turned to see her seven year old daughter Amelia walking into the otherwise empty and dark hospital room. The nurse who had escorted her to the rest room a few moments prior - being that her mother was so zoned out the window they couldn't get her attention - smiled sadly at pair and scurried away. Some of Vera's anger was replaced with something more powerful. A combination of sorrow, fear, and love. Her fear had remained from, the accident but the sorry and love were for her daughter. She felt so deeply sorry for everything her daughter had gone through tonight, and more love for her than she could ever tell her, no matter how many lifetimes she was given to do so.

Amelia only took a few steps into the room where she stood starting at the floor, refusing to make eye contact with her mother. She felt more emotions than her seven year old heart was able to comprehend, but what she did know was that she felt sorry. More sorry than she'd ever felt. She wanted to tell her mother how sorry she was for the accident, but she couldn't bring herself to even try. Her chest felt tight, her throat closed up, and the thought of speaking made her tummy hurt. She wanted to say she was sorry more than anything. If they hadn't been out that night because of her play...

Vera placed a finger under Amelia's chin and gently pulled her face up to look at her. The tears and sorrow in her baby's eyes, which were still focused on the floor, forced a gasp to escape from her own lips. She moved her mouth to speak, to reassure her daughter that the accident was not her fault, was nobody's fault - but the words caught in her throat and never reached her tongue. As she looked at little Amelia's face, she took note of each small bruise, cut, and scrape. Her chest tightened at the sight of her battered baby. She wrapped her arms around her little girl and squeezed her tight to her chest. Amelia buried her face in Vera's soft gray sweater and tears flowed freely from her eyes as her shoulders heaved with sobs.

Vera pulled back from Amelia to look at her beautiful blue eyes which were as bloodshot and itchy as her own. Amelia closed her eyes tightly, still refusing to look her mother in the eye. Vera gently kissed each eyelid. Her lips were wet with salty tears and she wiped them on her sleeve before scooping her small daughter into her arms, set her gently on the hospital bed in the room and laid beside her. Both their eyes welled with new, fresh tears as Vera tightly held Amelia where just a few hour before her son had been.

Vera's husband, Davis, hadn't survived the accident and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her son, however, had been rushed into an ambulance and made it to the hospital. It was determined that he would need emergency surgery - Vera could barely comprehend what was happening and therefore was unsure at this time what the surgery was even for, just that it was urgent. Teddy was moved from his room, prepped for surgery, and was being wheeled to the operating room when he crashed. He never made it to surgery. After the loss of her husband and son, the hospital staff had told Vera that she and Amelia could stay as long as they needed to process, and to let them know if anything was needed.

Amelia finally looked up at her mother, her lips quivering her eyes pleading for forgiveness, though none was needed. Vera softened her gaze toward her daughter, hoping to convey this to her. After a few moments, the corners of Amelia's mouth twitched slightly upward, telling Vera she understood, before her eyes softly fluttered closed.

Vera softly pressed her lips against Amelia's forehead, closed her own eyes, and tried to channel all of her love into her daughter as they both fell into a much needed sleep.