Missing Eternity

Part III: Nightmare

The park was empty
without children
as sad as a barren woman
it had rained all day the ground was sopping wet
pulling at my tennis shoes
in the odd quiet after thunder
I flipped over the lowest swing
my old childhood friend

my feet skidded the ground
My eyes had cried out a their tears
I don't know how long I sat there
trying not to think
Gripping the swing chains so tight, I wasn't sure I could ever let go
after almost a lifetime I heard it
The sound of fast breathing
and running feet

Twigs snapped like a glass doll in the hands of a toddler
the dark figure broke thru the brambles
stumbling half drunkenly into the moonlight
Danny?

He jerked around
Our eyes met
And I wasn't prepared for what I saw there
Terror
The only honest human emotion
"Laurel?"