"I'm so sorry!" Madison squealed as slipped on the ice taking her sister Kaylee down with her causing both sisters to laugh uncontrollably as they lay on the ground.
She and her little sister were chasing each other in the yard throwing snowballs at one another. It was the first snow of the year and it fell hard the night prior. Their mother watched from the window of the kitchen window. She smiled as she listened to her children scream as balls of flurry hit them.
The growl of a grown man interrupted their play as their father came charging out the back door. The girl's cries of joy got even louder as the large man barreled through the snow only to get trapped in a deep drift where the fire pit was, sinking him up to his waist. His daughters bust into even harder laughter at their fathers situation.
Without hesitation, he started to scoop up the snow around him and lob them at the children. It wasn't an easy task when they moved behind him to throw snowballs back, it was unfair really and they would get him now before he got out and caught them.
"Kaylee, go around, get him from the front!" Madison ordered.
Her little sister ran to the front grabbing snow as she went and threw them at her dad. She started getting balled herself and she took cover behind the bush that was near the back porch. It didn't offer a lot of cover but it protected well enough as the snowballs her father threw her way missed and hit the house.
"One, two Maddy's coming for you!" Kaylee began. A song her and her sister made up about themselves to remind each other that they could always rely on the other, no matter what.
"Three, four Kaylee's out for more." Her sister shouted back with a grin
"Five and Maddy's got my six." Kaylee said, though she never knew what that meant, she said it anyway; she heard her father say it now and again to his army friend that had no legs. He always told him that he had his six.
"Seven, eight Kaylee's never late!"
"Nine, Ten Maddy and I win again!" Kaylee shouted as their father called a white flag of surrender.
Secretly he gathered big ball of snow to get his baby girl with. As Kaylee stepped out from behind the bush and into full view he threw the snow at her. Madison saw the motion of the throw and yelled for Kaylee to duck. She hit the ground before the ball smacked into the house where her little body once blocked.
Madison ran and jumped on her father grabbing surrounding snow to dump on his head. A giggle from Kaylee's direction indicated her joy at being missed. She straightened herself dusting the bracken off her coat before charging to jump on her dad as well. As she took her first step, the icicle that hung from the roof broke off its weak base.
The only thing he could hear was the ear shatter cry of his smallest child before she hit the ground. He knew that cry, not from his children but from grown men, it hurt him then to hear that sound and nearly killed him now hearing it come from a child and not just any child but his very own little girl. Madison leapt off her father and ran instinctively to her sister, pulling her out from under the roof where more icicles waited. Their mother burst from the back door barefoot and slipping on the ice near the railing, her husband managed to swiftly dig himself out of the pit he was in, but he still struggled to pull himself free. Fear gripped him tight at the sight of Kaylee motionless on the ground.
Time moved slow for him in that moment, his hands scrapping at the snow, he looked up to see his wife slip and hit the ground as well but recovered quickly as she scrambled in the snow to her child shouting in words that he couldn't hear. He watched as his oldest daughter sat over her sister, for a brief second he thought she was choking the little girl but he saw her hands were coving something. Yes her small hands were near her neck but not in the way he thought, she was clutching something red. As his brain moved at adrenaline speed he caught sight of the red snow surrounding both his children.
"Help" the words reached his ears in a fog like he was trying to listen through water or the sound proof headphones he used for work. He could hear his own words as he shouted Kaylee's name. As he freed himself he scramble across the snow to the tiny person that he now saw had something sticking out of her, something that didn't belong. He had seen things stick out of people before, a rod or bone but this was odd, it had no color but that of the bright red and fresh blood that covered the snow.
"Maddy move!" he commanded, he ripped his gloves off to cover his daughters wound as best he could. He wanted to pull out the object that he could now feel was freezing cold. He tuned to Madison "Call 911 now!" The panic of his wife failed to reach his ears, he was in full medic mode he had to remain calm, he hated having to detach himself from this but if he wanted his daughter to live he had to, he could allow his panic to consume him later. He looked up to see the spot that was missing piece of ice that had dangled from the roof.
It felt like more time than what really went by before the paramedics showed taking over and taking the little girl away. He instructed his wife stay, to get changed drive to have a neighbor drive her to the hospital. Of the abundance of neighbors that surrounded the yard, one was more than willing to help.
Madison was ordered to stay home while the Mr. Perkins took her freshly clothed mother to the hospital. She sat in Mr. and Mrs. Perkins living room her clean cloths with a hand me down coat given by the Perkins younger son Joshua. The young teen did what he could to entertain the 11 year old, but she refused all games so they sat together on the couch while he watched t.v., he watched out for her as she sat there in near silence outside of the low volume of the show that was on. He looked over and saw her small frame start to shake, she was crying.
"Why did I have to tell her to go in front?" She questioned more to herself. "She would have been fine if I kept her by me."
Joshua didn't know what to say, he merely pat her back the way his mother would when he was upset. He had no clue how to comfort a girl, crash course was all he could think "Kaylee will be ok." He said; his voice broke ridding it of the confidence he intended it to have, he cleared his throat he tried again "It was an accident. Coulda' happened to anyone." He bit back, realizing too late that last part he said was not the thing to say. He could only imagine her desire to be at the hospital too, to be there for her sister, he'd want to if one of his brothers were in the hospital.
Maddy curled in a tight ball on the couch and cried, ignoring the pats and gestures of Joshua and his mother Judy.
*****
Sitting in the waiting room Kaylee's parents waited agonizing over the fate of their baby girl. Kaylee's mother Jody paced back and forth in the small room ignoring the pain in her feet, she knew there had to have been something wrong but she could care less. A nurse passing by noticed the red stains growing on her shoes and stopped the mother requesting she take a look. The nurse discovered that she had cuts on her feet and took her away to tend to her wounds. It didn't take long, it was all mild; Jody's husband Dylan went with to distract himself while they waited for news from the surgeon.
Not long after they returned to the waiting room the doctor came with news about their child. All his experience in the war, he saw many things and was able to process it and deal with it, death was a part of what was happening he had even seen children die. But all that experience did not and could not prepare him for the next words that came out of the doctors' mouth. He could hear the cries of his wife, new scares that etched their way into his mind and all he could think was why. He and Jody sat in a ball in the waiting room with the few others that looked at them with pity. There was no grater loss then that of a child.
*****
The Perkins phone rang loud and demanding; all that could be heard was "Oh God." Joshua was standing in the hall and watched as his mother hung up the phone. He knew; he knew that his words to Maddy were now a lie, her sister was not ok. He grabbed the keys to the car and handed them to his mom as she passed by him to the living room. He followed on his mother's heels ready to help Maddy as his mom was about to break her heart.
Nothing was more painful to Mrs. Perkins than hearing the silent cry of the girl in front of her. She asked Joshua to help her get Madison into the car so they could go to the hospital; it was only right that she say good-bye to her sister.
The drive to the hospital was swift; Mrs. Perkins helped Madison out of the car and took her to the waiting room where her parents were. Never before did Madison ever see her dad seem so fragile, so breakable. The image of her parents crumpled on the floor branded in her mind, before they took her into their little huddle.
"I want to see her." Maddy whispered into her father ear. Somehow she knew she would get less resistance from him. "I want my sister."
"Madison, I don't think that would be a good idea." Dylan began to say...
Shoving away from her parents she demanded harder. "Let me see my sister!" She nearly shouted. Her mother was speechless at the outburst of her little girl; she looked at her husband to make sure he would deny her request.
With a heavy sigh, he looked up at the doctor for approval or advice on what he should do. "Can we?"
Disapproval was clear in the doctor's eyes but complied, "Give us a few minutes." The implication in his words told Dylan they wanted to make her at least some-what presentable. Their surviving daughter didn't need to see Kaylee covered in blood. After about 10 minutes Madison and her parents were escorted to the room Kaylee was held, it smelled strongly of bleach and cleaning chemicals. Madison couldn't bring herself to look at her sister; the guilt she felt nearly consumed her. She ignored her mother's cries and her father's attempts to hold and comfort them both. After what felt like forever Madison finally looked up to see her sister's face, she was so pale. She leaned in close to whisper into Kaylee's ear....
"I'm so sorry."
The End