Alphabet Soup

ALPHABET SOUP

"Mommy, where's Daddy?"

Little Danny's mother leaned over the sink, thin body shaking with sobs. The dishwater below her was dirty and cold, wavering grey water mirroring her gaunt reflection. Cheekbones jutted out with the sharpness of a rock face, and her crystal blue eyes were dulled with tears that slid from her eyes to the water, making waves and distorting her reflection. She'd been standing there ever since the phone rang. She hung it up thirty minutes ago, and still she stood there, so still. The last few plates she hadn't washed still floated in the water.

Danny toyed with the spoon in his bowl. The porcelain side was decorated with tiny, stenciled blue flowers. Red liquid rested in the bowl, spotted with alphabet noodles. Danny organized the letters in his soup into words. He always sorted them when he made soup, because he wanted room to make all of the words. Daddy always told him that you could tell how he was feeling because he wrote it in his soup.

"If you don't wanna do those plates an' stuff, Mommy, I can wash them. I don't want you to be sad."

She just shook her head and leaned farther over the sink, bawling now. Danny was afraid. His spoon clacked against the fragile side of his bowl as his tiny little hand shook. "Are you hurt, Mommy? I'll call 911! Mommy?"

He left the half-formed word "scared" in his bowl as he ran up to her, throwing his tiny arms around her bare twig-like legs. A bony hand touched his face, but it was so cold it made Danny shiver. "Mommy? Mommy, I'm afraid. I love you!"

Silence and stillness, both complete and frightening, rained down on him.

A whoosh of air blew through the house, and his father was suddenly behind Danny, wearing the dirty work jeans and t-shirt he always wore to do his work. His dad smiled. It lit the room with happiness. Danny's dad looked into the soup. "Don't be scared Daniel, honey. I'm here."

But the words were only hollow echoes of the ones he so badly wished he could hear.

Daniel...I'm here.

"No you're not." Daniel whimpered as he sat up in his chair and looked at the empty room that had been empty since his father had not come home from work, since his mommy had gotten the phone call that had made her so sad...and since she had left the sink, walking numbly up to the bedroom, where Danny had heard that terrible bang, like a rocket going off.

Danny sat in front of the soup, eyes filling with tears that no one wiped away, and he played with the letters in his freezing soup. When he left the table to curl up on the floor, one simple word was left in the bowl, wavering with Danny's sobs and the way he rocked on the floor. The wavering word read... A...L...O...N...E

This began as an entry for the
"15 for 15 Contest --- Closed"  [18+]

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