Sighing with concern and resignation, she set the phone down on the internally warmed passenger seat and pulled out of the parking lot, searching through the few shivering pedestrians for the familiar figure of her son. Distracted, she didn’t notice the dark sheet of ice as she approached the stop-light. Skidding out into the intersection, a perfect calm wrapped her in its white feathered wings and time stopped. She sent a plea out into the ether that Erek would be ok. And then the blackness came.
