Where Forever Lies (29 page)

She
flinched as he shut the door on her, not giving her or him any time
to change their mind. She watched him walk towards his house, giving
her one last wave as he headed inside. Letting out a frustrated
breath, she backed her car out of his drive and headed towards her
mom’s, the feeling of desire and need coursing through her
body. She didn’t know how she was going to endure the wait
until next week, if they kept teasing each other so much.

Pulling
into her mom’s drive, she noticed a light still on in the
living room and was glad they were still up. She didn’t like
picking up Kyra so late but she knew she’d fall asleep on the
way home and more than likely stay asleep once she brought her in.

She let
herself in and as she walked down the hall she could hear them
laughing. She peeked around the corner and saw them sitting on the
couch watching cartoons, a smile spread across Kyra’s face.

“Hey,
guys,”

“Mommy!”
Kyra yelled, as she ran up to her, throwing her arms around her waist

“Hey,
baby, did you have fun tonight?” she asked, as she picked her
up and gave her a kiss.

“Uh
huh. We are watching Sponge Bob.”

“I
see that,” Paige said, putting her down.

“So,
did you have fun tonight?” her mom asked, as she leaned back
against the couch, her eyebrows raised in question.

Paige
smiled, “Yes, Mom, I did.”

“And
when am I going to meet this guy who has swept you off your feet?”

She knew
her mom had been dying to meet Tyler. She asked about him every time
she stopped by, but Paige wasn’t quite ready to make the step
of meeting each other’s parents. “You’ll meet him
soon enough, Mom. I’m trying to take things slowly for now. But
I know you’ll love him, he’s a really great guy.”

Her mom
smiled, making the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth more prominent
and said, “Good, I’m glad you’ve found a guy who
treats you well. You deserve it and so does Kyra.”

“Thanks,
Mom,” she said, as she grabbed Kyra’s things. “I’d
better get going, though, and get her to bed. We have a big day
tomorrow of shopping, ice cream, the park and then later that evening
we’re going to Tyler’s to watch a movie with the kids.”

“Well,
just let me know when you need me to babysit again. I love spending
time with her,” her mom said, as she slowly got up off the
couch.

Paige
walked over and gave her mom a hug. “Thanks for watching her.
I’ll talk to you later. You don’t need to watch us out,”
Paige said, as she grabbed Kyra’s hand.

She gave
her mom one last smile as she headed down the hall and out the door,
feeling the exhaustion finally taking over her body and her bed
calling her name.

Once they
finally got home, Paige carried a sleeping Kyra up the stairs and
into her room, carefully tucking her in her bed and giving her a kiss
goodnight. She gently brushed her hair out of her face as she stood
there and watched her sleep for a few minutes, studying everything
about her. She didn’t know what she’d do without Kyra in
her life. Everything she did was for her, to give her a good life and
make sure she had everything she needed. Paige leaned down and kissed
her one last time before quietly closing the door and heading into
the living room.

She was
exhausted but wasn’t quite ready to go to bed, just yet. Her
mind kept thinking about all Tyler had said to her earlier. It was
beyond sweet to hear him take the initiative to open up to her about
his feelings; she could tell he was nervous doing it. But to hear him
say the things he did meant so much to her. She’d been in
relationships before but she never recalled moments like tonight.
There had never been a time when she, or the guy she was seeing, had
poured their heart out to one another. She had told a few guys she
loved them, and she thought she did at the time, but now, after
hearing Tyler confess his feelings, just saying I love you doesn’t
even compare. Everyone can say those three words, but to tell the
person how those words make you feel, that is something that truly
comes from deep inside their heart.

With a
glass of water in hand, she gazed out her sliding glass window at her
view. Even though it was beautiful, she found herself wishing she was
with Tyler and looking out into the fields of nothing that she used
to find so boring. She was finally seeing their beauty. The calmness
and natural beauty of the country was pulling her in and the crowded
city seemed to be pushing her out. She thought back to those three
words she had said to him, ‘Everything is perfect.’
Smiling, she realized everything was perfect. Her life now felt
complete. That missing spot in her life was now filled and Tyler had
filled it perfectly.

She set
her glass in the sink and headed to bed. She finally felt content
with her life. Life had taken plenty away but it was finally giving
back. It was giving her peace and fulfillment and so much more. A
future.

As she
crawled into bed, tomorrow she would think back to her last thoughts
and wonder how she could be so naïve. She would realize that
life never gives out handouts. It makes you work for everything you
want, everything you need, and everyone whom you love.

With it
being a Saturday, the mall was packed with weekend shoppers, everyone
squeezing by each other as they went from store to store, hoping to
catch some good sales. Paige and Kyra had been shopping for two
hours, now, and had already gotten a chocolate chip cookie from the
cookie shop and Kyra had picked out a stuffed brown and white dog,
which she named Bob. Paige wasn’t sure where the name came from
but it made her laugh.

The crowd
was getting to her, it seemed especially busy today, and she was
hoping Kyra was almost ready to leave so they could eat and then head
to the park and enjoy some sun.

“Mommy,
can I have a penny?” Kyra asked as she held her small hand out,
palm up. In her other arm, she clutched Bob protectively as she stood
waiting. Chocolate was smeared across her lips and chin and Paige
laughed as she pulled out a napkin to clean her off.

“Sure,
but why?”

Kyra
pointed towards the fountain that was located in the middle of the
mall and said, “I want to make a wish.”

Smiling,
Paige took out three pennies and placed them in her outstretched
hand. “Okay, here you go.”

She
tightened her fingers around the pennies and went to run off towards
the fountain when Paige grabbed her arm. “Wait for mommy. You
can’t run off by yourself in a crowded mall, I’d lose
you.”

Kyra ran
up to the brick wall of the fountain and stuck her finger in the cold
water, squealing as she threw her three pennies into the water. She
laughed when she saw the small splash they made and then went to lean
over to grab more pennies when Paige grabbed her by her waist. “Kyra,
you can’t go in there. It’s to look at only. Are you
ready to go get some lunch and then head to the park?”

“Park,
park!” Kyra chanted as she held Bob up in the air.

“All
right, let’s go. We’ll get something to eat once we leave
the mall.”

They
weaved in and out of the many shoppers at the Diamond City Mall,
Paige holding tight to Kyra’s hand so she wouldn’t run
off and trying to keep the couple of bags of shorts she’d
bought for Kyra from hitting everyone. They finally made it to the
exit and Paige stopped outside on the sidewalk as she rearranged her
bags and purse, which was falling down her arm.

“Okay,
honey, we parked down the street which means we have to watch for
cars, ok?” Paige lectured as she grabbed Kyra’s hand
again.

Kyra shook
her head as she studied Bob in her arms, looking ready for a nap.
They took off walking down the sidewalk, beside the main street that
led to all the shopping centers in this area. Paige figured it was a
five minute walk to get to their car and couldn’t wait. Her
feet were beginning to hurt from their two hour mall walking and her
stomach was growling.

As they
slowly walked down the sidewalk, Paige saw her car parked up ahead,
on the opposite side of the sidewalk they were on. She sighed,
wondering what had possessed her to park over there, but it was busy
today and the parking lot had been full.

All of a
sudden she felt a yank on her arm and felt an empty space in her hand
where Kyra’s had just been. She quickly stopped and looked
down, seeing Bob rolling off into the street and the back of her
daughter as she ran after him.

“KYRA,
NO!” she yelled as she dropped her things on the sidewalk.
Everything was a blur, even though it all seemed to move in slow
motion. She saw Bob rolling into the line of traffic; Kyra was
already several steps ahead of her as she ran after him. Her auburn
pony tail was swishing from side to side as her arms pumped back and
forth. Paige felt adrenaline sky rocket inside her, pushing her body
into motion. She looked ahead, the fear feeling like nothing she had
ever felt in her life as she saw a car heading straight for Kyra. She
knew it was too close to stop in time. The urgency of the situation
tore through her, and even as she took off sprinting after her
daughter, she felt hopeless. Everything felt out of her hands. Things
were about to turn bad and she had no way of stopping it. No way of
saving her baby.

She saw
her daughter stop in the middle of the street, reach down to grab Bob
and saw the car not slowing down. Could he not see her? Why was he
not stopping? In her mind, she had time. She had no choice but to
grab her in time. She would never be able to live with herself if she
didn’t. If anything happened to her daughter, she didn’t
think she would be able to live, period.

She heard
the squealing of the car’s tires as he tried to stop, but
failed. A scream erupted from her mouth as she watched the car hit
her daughter, causing her to fall to the ground and start rolling on
the hard pavement of the road. As the car finally came to a complete
stop directly in her path, Paige ran into the front bumper of the
car. She scurried away from it, her eyes trained only on her
daughter; she felt nothing but the need to get to her. All she could
see was her daughter’s yellow shorts and white shirt covered in
dirt as she lay on her stomach, her body completely motionless.

As choked
sobs spilled from her mouth, she knelt down beside Kyra, feeling her
back for any sign of breathing. Being a nurse, she knew not to move
her but not grabbing her and pulling her into her arms was hard. She
wanted to hold her, to soothe away her pain, to feel her heart
beating against her chest. Her hand flew to her mouth as she felt her
back rise and fall ever so slightly. Her breaths were shallow but she
was breathing and Paige felt some relief at that.

She could
sense people huddling around and barely noticed when someone touched
her shoulder and told her they’d called 911 for her. All she
could do was rub her baby’s head and talk to her, tell her help
was on its way and she wouldn’t leave her side. The pain in her
chest was becoming unbearable as every second ticked by and there was
still nothing coming from Kyra. She felt as if they were in their own
bubble where it was just the two of them sitting here. No one else
was around. All the sounds of cars honking and people talking were
nonexistent. The only thing she concentrated on was watching the rise
and fall of Kyra’s back, making sure she never stopped
breathing.

Someone’s
grip on her shoulders brought her out of her daze and she began to
fight as they tried to move her away from Kyra. “No! I can’t
leave her!” she yelled as she pushed the person’s hands
away. Their hands moved to her waist as they began pulling her out of
the way and she began thrashing around as her view of Kyra began to
dwindle.

“Ma’am,
you need to stay calm and let the EMTs do their job; they need to
check your daughter out and get her to the hospital. You can ride
with them but they need to evaluate her first.”

Paige
brought her attention to the guy’s soft voice as she heard him
saying they needed to help Kyra. She looked up at him through a blur
of tears, seeing an older guy with graying hair and wrinkles around
his light blue eyes. His eyes held hers as he tried to calm her down.

She gave
him a quick nod, knowing he was right. Her fear had momentarily
over-ridden her rational thinking and she took her gaze back to her
daughter as she watched them assess her. She had her arms clasped
tightly around her waist as she watched and every few seconds she had
to wipe the tears that were crashing down on her face. If they didn’t
get her into the ambulance soon, Paige wasn’t sure how much
longer she’d be able to contain herself. It was taking
everything she had not to barge through the circle of EMTs and grab
her daughter.

Finally,
she saw them wheeling her into the back of the ambulance and her
heart broke once again. Her little girl had tubes attached to her as
she still lay lifeless.

“Come
on, ma’am, you can get in now,” the guy said as he nudge
her forward.

At that,
Paige took off running towards the ambulance. She gripped the side of
the door, resisting the EMTs help to get in, and instead she hoisted
herself in with one swift motion. She sat down, tears still streaming
steadily down her face and reached out and touched Kyra’s leg.
There were scratches and road burn all along her bare skin and Paige
inhaled a shaky breath as she asked, “Is she going to be okay?”

“We’re
doing our best to get her to the hospital as fast as we can, ma’am.
Right now we’ve got her stable,” one of the EMT women
said as she continued monitoring her daughter.

Paige
didn’t know what to do. She felt so helpless right now. These
strangers were doing everything they could to help save her daughter
and she couldn’t step in and help. She bit her nail as worry
plummeted through her. The ambulance was flying and every bump made
her bounce in her seat. She wished they would go faster. The sooner
the doctors stepped in, the better Paige would feel.