Last Dance at the End of the World by Jacqueline Druga

Author:Jacqueline Druga [Druga, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN – FORGIVEN AND FORGOTTEN

I snapped.

Something in me snapped the second I stepped from the bedroom and closed the door. Suddenly, I was this soup of negative emotions. Rage, fear, and panic swept over me and I just wanted to run.

In fact, I did.

I grabbed our coats and my daughter, got in the truck and drove.

I was breaking, I knew it. To do what I did to Maranda whether it was the humane move or not was spawned, in my opinion, from a dark place in my soul. One that recently went black after I lost Beau.

Only a speck existed, the only light I held on to was Daisy.

How much longer would remain to be seen. When that extinguished, no doubt, I would be like the others, a shell of a person, but in a different way.

“Daddy, why are we leaving?” Daisy asked when I put her in the truck. “Daddy, what about Mommy. Where are we going? Daddy what about my booster seat?”

It took everything I had not to say we were running away and never going back. In fact, that’s what I wanted to do. Never look back, never go back, just keep going. The only intention I had on stopping was to get gas.

It was all different. The roads were slushy and the highways untouched. Barely any tire tracks at all, just the ones I assumed were from the military. How clear it was that there was very little life. It was like driving around after a snowfall on Christmas afternoon, no traffic, everyone home.

Finally, I came up with an explanation to my daughter. “We’re exploring,” I told her. “We need to see if people are sick elsewhere. Because there’s no more news.”

“That’s a good idea. Are we going to Aunt Linda’s? We are.” She pointed out the window. “We just passed the Sugar Shack.”

I hesitated before answering, but in my mind I was thinking it was a plan. One I hadn’t thought of. I was so wrapped up in my wife and children, I hadn’t thought of my sister.

“Yes,” I told her. “We need to go check on Aunt Linda and Uncle Steve.”

“Okay.” Her reply was simple. I wasn’t sure how much she absorbed about all that was going on. She seemed naïve, and that was fine with me. The less she comprehended the better. I didn’t want whatever remained of her life marked by more death and sadness.

Instantly after stating we were headed to Sweetwater to see my sister, I started making plans. I desperately wanted to believe that my daughter would not fall victim to the vaccine effect, but it was just a matter of time. Because of her age, she was one of the last in town to get it. They waited until she turned four. Perhaps because she had it so much later than anyone else, maybe I’d get another year.

There was no way to know if it worked that way. We were cut off from all news and information, for all I knew, things could be different elsewhere.

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