Hush Little Babies

HUSH LITTLE BABIES

CHAPTER ONE

I stared into the mirror, thinking, my whole life is a joke. Here I am, young, blonde, thin and good-looking, and the life I worked so hard for, had been taken from me. I stood in the middle of my bedroom, moping like a whimpering puppy.

Screams coming from the back of my house, jolted me back into reality. I ran to my kitchen window, and peering out, saw a child, flailing her arms, kicking and screaming, in the lake, trying to stay above, the cracked ice. My heart raced, as I ran out the door and down the steep hill to Round Lake. The crisp, spring water, was still shiny, with a thin sheet of ice atop. I knew, if I didn’t hurry, the child would freeze to death or drown.

She wasn’t very far from shore, but the damp, cold, and my fear of her sinking, made it seem like a mile away. Her frightened little face, sent panic through my body, as I reached out to grab her arms. The ice was starting to give way, and the delicate, familiar sound of cracking echoed around us. I lifted her, from the frozen depths, of the lake and held her tight as the large piece of ice, we were standing on, drifted away from shore.

The sound of the rushing water, was deafening and my voice sounded, frail, alongside it. “Listen, sweetheart, I need you to be a brave girl now, we’re going to be okay,” I yelled.

“HELP!” I screamed. “SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP US!”

I could barely make out the blurry, silhouette of a man on shore. Behind him were two, other people carrying, what looked to be blankets. We were traveling fast now, and were heading for some large boulders. History, repeated itself, and just as I could imagine the Titanic, we were hit, from the underside. The iceberg, the child and I were stranded on, split down the middle, and dropped us into the frozen, black drink.

I grabbed the child, before she disappeared with the remains of our frozen raft. She held me tight, as I tried to kick and swim toward shore. The current was strong, and the chilling, water, made my body cramp and spasm. My lungs, felt like there was a fifty-pound weight, on them, and I was beginning to feel myself, letting go, lending little or no hope for survival.

I then, realized, the child had stopped floundering. Our rescue crew, frantically tried to reach us, on shore. After several attempts, I finally reached the rope, that the blurry figure, had thrown to me. I could feel the child slipping away. I grabbed for her, and caught her by the leg of her pant. My hands were aching; it hurt to hold onto the rope. Feelings of hope, deteriorated, as my body started to stiffen, from the freezing, cold. The feeling in my hands was gone, as we grew closer to the shore.

“Hurry, we’re freezing,” I screamed. As they pulled us towards shore, I could hear the ice chipping away, until, finally, we hit dry land.

“Oh, my sweet, child,” said the little girls’ mother, wearing no more than a robe, and slippers. Her mother was about twenty-five, five-foot-two, with long brown hair. She wrapped her baby with blankets, as the short gentleman, covered me.

“I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my babies life,” said the distraught, mother.

“I’m so, sorry,” she whispered, in the child’s ear. She looked up at me, with tears flowing and said, “I only took my eyes off her for a minute, to go the bathroom and she was gone.”

The short man, holding out his hand, introduced himself as Sheriff, John Granger.

“An ambulance is on its way,” he said.

“Thank goodness, you went to the child’s rescue; I don’t think we would have saved her without your help,” said Sheriff, Granger.

His breath, blew my way, and I recognized a familiar fragrance, I hadn’t smelled in years. I could not forget that dreadful stench. My father reeked of it, more often, than not. Yes, I thought, au de’ whiskey.

“Thank you, for coming to our rescue, Sheriff,” I said, as he shook my numb arm. By the time the ambulance arrived, I’d started to thaw. Though, the sheriff insisted, I be checked out by a physician, I assured him, I would be okay, and he walked away with the child and her mother.