first love sort of
It didn't have to be this way or that way. It doesn't have to have happened at all, in fact.
I was reaching for a gallon of milk. To get these fingers into the handle is a full body experience. I wasn't paying attention to much else as I missed a couple times. Then I came back to the real world.. a cry.. crying.. I realized my butt had knocked over a little boy. Empathy hit like a bolt and I turned to see what I had done.
I.. and I mean my but here.. took out the rest of his family. All dead instantly. After all the reports and paperwork, I was officially the boy's replacement family. This was in Wyoming, after all, and that's how things get done there.
On the way home, we stopped suddenly as deer cross the road. I reach my small arm out and try to stop John from flying out the window. I failed. Raised by deer.. I hear he's doing fine.