Mommy!
By:Gen1900
Walking home from work was a peaceful time for me. The days’ stress melted away into oblivion and the harsh words my boss yelled earlier, faded far from my thoughts.
I was a cashier at a local co-op which stayed busy for most of the year, but on Mondays only old ladies roamed the isles. And you could count on them buying either a head of lettuce or a bunch of carrots.
Our boss claimed our grumpy assistance was the problem of less service. Actually, he was very wrong. We were happy and he drove them away by screaming the cream of mushroom will never go on sale.
My feet took me to the fence of what was once an up and running playground. A yellow slide stood in eerie silence, casting forlorn glances at the damage birds did to it over the years. A rusty swing set creaked in the cold wintry wind.
It had been three years no five years since May, a toddler, vanished there.
Her Mother claimed she looked at her book for one second and saw her child was no longer laughing on the swing. The police thought she was guilty, but the neighborhood believed it was a predator.
I didn’t know what was the truth so I left it at that.
My eyes took a quick peek at the swings and felt a prickle in the back of my neck.
Rain began to fall in a mist over the town, moistening my thin sweatshirt. I pulled my hood over my head and continued to walk to my apartment complex. These days you couldn’t get a decent coat that could last a guy at least twelve months.
Then I heard it….. A soft, twinkling voice, yet it sounded scared and troubled.
“MOMMY! COME GET ME!” it cried sobbing in short spurts.
It came from the farthest swing that rocked violently to and fro. I literally wanted to run in panic. This could not be happening to me.
A toddler appeared on the swing, her pale face stared at the cloudy gray sky above.
“Mommy!!” she wailed with her golden curls bouncing.
My voice said encouragingly from behind the fence, “You okay?”
She didn’t reply.
“MOMMY! COME GET ME!!” she repeated, louder this time.
“Do you want to find your Mommy with me?” I asked feeling very scared. A man shouldn’t be scared….he shouldn’t. But he was.
She turned toward me and gazed into my face.
For the first time, I realized her eyes were missing! Only her sockets remained attached to that small head.
“YOU’RE NOT MY MOMMY!” she shrieked.
I broke out into a fast run and left the girl to cry.
She sat there until another person walked passed the playground. Her next victim was her actual Mother.
Her Mom was pale like her daughter with a book held tight in her grasp.
She stared at the toddler and said, “Daughter, it’s time to go home.”
The girl sat up very eager to be in her mother’s arms.
“Come, May.”
They hugged tightly with love bursting from their hearts.
“I love you, Mommy, ” the kid whispered with tears spilling from her eyeless head.
“Same, ” replied Mommy.
They walked with linked arms and suddenly vanished into thin air.
Now that May found her Mom, they could rest in peace.
Epilogue
The police found May’s Mother in her house one morning(two days before she reunited with her child). They discovered her in the bathroom with a gun held in her hand. She committed suicide they concluded. But why did she still roam the town’s streets if she wasn’t dead? The thing is she was already dead. She could not rest until she found May. For she was a Mommy and she couldn’t leave her daughter alone at the playground.
Mystery