Kathilynn Lehmer

First Day

She sat in his still dark room watching him sleep, his blonde curls, newly cut, fell across his eyes. His round cheeks remained pink even in sleep and his little ski-slope nose turned upwards just like hers. His coloring, his features, even the way he slept, sprawled across the entire bed , were all her. But his body, solid and muscular, even at five was all his dad’s. Tears streamed down her face as she inhaled the last few moments of this cocoon that had enveloped her, Joey, and her husband Derrick. She had resisted the inevitable, but it had come. The red alarm clock with the fireman’s hat on top startled the air with a jarring ring and bounced up and down, announcing that it was time to get up.