The mother turns the key in the ignition of the 2003 Volkswagen Beetle. It's starts with a low gurgle slowly increasing into a loud roar alongside the increasing turn of the key. They pull out of the driveway to their suburban house just north of (school in New York).
"Okay sweets, we have to be at the surprise by 9:30, 9:00 if we want to earn some brownie points." She winks to the young girl pitched in the passenger seat. She is small for her age and needs a car seat.
"Yay! I want brownies!!"
The mother chuckles "that joke will be much more fun to tell when you're older."
She reaches down to kiss her daughters forehead, taking her eye off the road for a split second. When she looks up she is met with an abrupt flash and the burst of a horn burning into her ears. The little girls screams fill up the car. The sound of glass breaking, metal crumpling, fabric ripping. What's happening? The girl watches her mommy fly through the air and smash through the window. She cries harder. As she looks forward she is faced with the ground hurdling toward her only to be stopped by the smash of the dash. She hangs from the roof? No. She hangs for the car has been flipped. Frantically looking around she whispers with a hoarse voice, "Momma?"
The mother is now where to be seen except for a small piece of her dress hanging from the broken window. Two blocks away an ambulances squeal can be heard.
"MOMMA!!!!" The little child screams for her mother. She hears nothing but the sound of the siren. She looks around flustered and panicked. She squirms in her seat ripping and pulling at the seatbelt that restricts her.
An paramedic pulls the cars door wide open, revealing a blinding light which flashes across the girls eyes.
"Hey, hey it's okay. Calm down it's going to be fine." His calm voice stops the girls whimpers and sobs. He unbuckled her pulling her form the upside down car.
"My-m-m-my momma." The girl whispers.
"It's okay." The man carrying the young girl states.
"Your mother will be fine. I've got to take you to the hospital"
The girl looks up at the man, then turns to see her mother on a bed surrounded in red splotches. She doesn't know what to think, she doesn't know what it means. What any of it means. She closes her eyes and cries herself to sleep on the mans shoulder. Hoping it's a dream.
I love you momma.
