ADVERTISEMENT
But this time, the victim was not me, it was my sweet little Abigail. When I finally arrived at the coordinates, I saw her standing by a rusted metal post, clutching her favorite purple backpack tightly against her chest. Her face was flushed bright red, her eyes were swollen from crying, and her hair was matted to her cheeks with cold sweat.
There was no shop in sight and there was absolutely no one around to help her. There was nothing but the distant drone of heavy traffic and a dry, suffocating heat that made the horizon tremble. When she finally saw my car pull up, she started running toward me as fast as her little legs could carry her.
“Mommy, you finally came for me!” she cried out.
I pulled her into my arms and hugged her so tightly that I could physically feel her sobs breaking inside her small chest. “I am here now, my darling girl, and you are safe with me because the nightmare is officially over.”
She was trembling all over like a leaf in the wind. “Grandma told me that I ruined everything and that if I stayed in the car, my cousins would catch my sickness too. I tried to tell them that I just felt a little motion sickness, but Grandpa told me it was way too late for excuses.”
I pulled away just enough to look directly into her tear filled eyes. “Did you just get a bit carsick from the winding roads in the truck?”
She nodded slowly, her mouth pressed into a thin, tight line. “I felt so sorry for them, Mommy, and I really wanted to hold it in, but I just could not stop it. They told me that because of my accident, the whole family was going to miss their big flight to the beach.”
ADVERTISEMENT
