“Come on… we’re doing the ‘jay’.”
“I’m tired. Not today.”
“C’mon pleeeeeeeease” she pleaded as she gave me her best puppy dog eyes.
“Go to sleep. We’ll play tomorrow.”
She smiled, held up her pinky, and said “Promise. Wait. No. Pinky promise.”
I signed as I hooked my pinky to hers. “I promise.”
She looked at me with one tiny eyebrow raised.
I smiled “I pinky promise.”
She unhooked her pinky, smiled and ran back to her room with her tiny feet as she yelled “You can’t break a pinky promise!”
I chucked, finished my coffee and got ready for bed.
Tomorrow… if only tomorrow came.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I jolted up from my bed as soon as I caught a wiff of smoke.
I looked around my room. All I saw fire and smoke. Everywhere.
The flames clung onto my pants as I ran to my baby girl’s room. I could hear her crying as I opened her door to find a true horror. I heard firetruck sirens but I knew they’d be too late. The fire was slowly creeping towards her. The roof had caved in as she sat in the far corner of her room surrounded by glass. Even from the doorway, I could see her tears as she rocked back and forth.
“I’m going to save her. Even if it costs me my own life.” I thought as I used my bare hands to push away the slabs of wood, laying my eyes on her the whole time. The wood jagged into my skin. My hands were bleeding and hurt like hell but I knew it would hurt a million times more if I were to lose my baby girl.
I was 4 feet from her when a pillar of wood fell down crushing her. I yelled her name but she didn’t answer. I tried to get to her but found that I was stuck. Tears came gushing down my face as I stared at her unmoving body.
Four hours later I woke up in a hospital bed, facing the white ceiling. I looked around until everything that happened came rushing back to me. Tara. I ripped out the tubes from my arm. Tara. I ran outside the room and found a doctor.
I put my hands on his shoulder as I shook them with all my might.”Where is Tara? Where is my baby girl?!?”
“Sir. We need you to calm down and go back to your room.”
“Where is my baby girl?”
“Sir. Please you really have t-”
“WHERE IS TARA?”I pound my fist against the wall.
“Look. I know this is difficult for you but yo-”
“Difficult? DIFFICULT? You don’t understand do you? She’s all I have.”I dropped to my knees as I sobbed. “She’s all I had.”
“I promised her. I promised.”
I felt hands under my arms as the doctor pulled me up and started walking me back to my room.
“I promised. I promised my baby girl.”
I was still shaking with tears as the doctor sat me down.
“I’m sorry.” He looked at me with pity in his eyes. “We tried. We really did. But at the end, we couldn’t save her.”
I tried to say something but nothing came out of my mouth. Those two words were being repeated over and over in a trance as if they were burned in my brain. “I promise”