Standing in front of the police at my reception my heart breaks knowing the last thing he heard before the truck hit.
Holding my daughter's hand I explain that her daddy wants her to call him uncle now instead, to make it easier for everyone.
That day her mother drove their car right past her fathers headstone into a tree, killing them both on impact.
He knows she can't remember their baby dying and due to the accident she never will.
Bailey doesn't even look back when the bear tears into Jeremy, running to the car with a vow to never go camping again.
LOVE, EVERLASTING WORLD FLASH FICTION
Location: Canadian Rockies along the modern-day Alberta/British Columbia border
Date: 11,000 BCE
Hungry winds howl their song into the endless winter air as Sharp Eyes forces her bloody feet forward with hope in her heart. Even as her blood soaks through the hide of her shoes with the only sight that surrounds her being the same vision of soft white earth surrounded by towering walls of ice.
Sharp Eyes did not look behind to safe grounds, only ever forward toward the new horizon she could feel was beyond this cold.
At her back her chosen life-mate Silent Foot brought up the rear, helping the elderly, the children, and the maimed keep pace with the rest with an eye out for predators. Possessing the speed of a short-faced bear yet the silent step of Saber-tooth he was the ideal hunter. Even after days of marching through the white waste his step never falters.
They had found each other after a stampede took both their families. What began as a bond of survival bloomed into one of true comfort when watered with time and understanding. In their journey to a new place to settle they had picked up a few outcasts, the orphaned, the old, and those deemed too weak for their people.
No sound need pass between Sharp eyes and Silent Foot for them to say what is needed. A precise look, special motions of the hands allow them to coordinate, to tell each other stories, share their days without fear of predators. If a sharp-toothed beast, or hunkering mammoth charges the group, it is Sharp Eyes who uses her keen sight and senses to keep their newfound tribe safe while Silent Foot leads the beast away from the group. When they build camp to rest the two sit back to back, in complete silence watching the shadows for danger.
The cycle of the sun and moon's dance through the sky had passed many times since the couple had first begun their journey. Long nights had melted into long weeks to long months. Yet the couple pushes forward.
This will be the day they can stop the long walk.
Sharp Eyes can feel it deep in the marrow of her bones, in the shift of the wind blowing her hair across her face. One glance to Silent Foot is all she needs to see that he can feel it too.
Dawn breaks, the sun cresting over the walls of ice to paint the white floors and walls of nature with it's color. Lighting the path forward for the weary travelers.
Scars lining their bodies and spirits Silent Foot takes Sharp Eyes hand in his as their eyes rest upon the sight they had come so far for. Before them lay a valley where endless plains of white gave way to vibrant green. An oasis of earth and steam.
Silent Foot presses his forehead to Sharp Eyes then kisses her softly on the spot. Without word he stalks forward into the thick morning mists at the opening to this new world that lay before them. Sharp Eyes holds the restless refugees behind her as she waits for her life-mate to emerge.
In the tense silence the scent of wet earth mixed with other unfamiliar scents hangs heavy in the air. Sharp Eyes breathes it in deeply wanting to imprint the smell into her very being.
Silent Foot emerges, inclining his head to show the path froward is safe and the land is good. Taking one another's hand once more Sharp Eyes and Silent Foot lead their people forward into their new dawn.
Green plants none of them had seen before littered the warm, mist shrouded valley. Deeper inside, they find Caves with bubbling with warm water that washes the aches and pain from the body. It is peace, it is safety, and it is their new place.
In a land of retreating ice, where danger rests in every corner of every shadow, this well hidden oasis was a haven unlike any the pair could have hoped to find.
First act of permanence in the valley is Silent Foot building a home for Sharp Eyes, not one of temporary material but instead one of the earth and abundance that surrounded them.
In that valley at the end of the world they built a home, one of the firsts of it's kind. One that stands tall long after the original builders are dust on the wind.
If I wasn't such a beautiful young girl my parents couldn't make as much money off my image therefore the eyes on my body pay for the food in my belly so the world gets to devour me whole.
The many eyes of her peers stare back at her laughing at the pathetic state of her, not single hand dares reaching back to help the gasping girl.
Bobby drove off in his trucks leaving his trouble to the snow while he looked ahead to the sun.
Years of her parents toughening her up had robbed her of the ability to show alarm or weakness because they had to be crueler to her than the world would be, right?
When her mommy asked her who she loved more and she said scout her mommy threw scout away, saying a girls favorite thing shouldn't be a dog, it should be her mother.
I only cried years later when the weight of everything I had lost came back, when I realized that it would never get better because they died at their worst so that's always how I'll remember them.
He tightens his grip on her to the point of pain, replying "Because you had to be born and kill her"
"I'm your half-brother" he tells me, destroying my vision of the man being lowered six feet into the ground in only four words.
Her mother could only watch in horror as massive wave formed behind her daughter, the shadow of a mouth inside, swallowing her daughter whole.
His parents only arrived 6 hours after he had already passed, having been busy with work, crying as they realize their 10 year old left the world alone.
Maria had many friends in the dark corners people tended to avoid, and they were always hungry for new flesh which she was happy to provide.
She had locked the doors, cut the phone lines, making sure all her classmates descended to the afterlife they were meant for.
She wished their was an easy title for it like with her other tragedies, a title to slip into as grief washes the person underneath away.
Outside, the little boy hold his swollen cheek, as his father rears his hand back, furious at the boy for saving both his burdens.