All That Glitters
The Stray Branch 2016The girls smile while waiting for the school bus. Their mother, standing in the doorway,
smiles looking at her girls. The husband/father scootches by the mother, briefcase in hand, smiles
and pecks her on the cheek as his car pool driver shows up.
The father is in his last day of work due to layoffs. The girls will be bullied on the bus
and in school and the house is under foreclosure due to their bankruptcy filing because of the
mother’s cervical cancer bills.
The neighbors wave and smile to the mother and she back to them. One calls her for
coffee but she begs off saying another time.
The scene repeats itself the next day except the father stands next to his wife smiling and
waving to his girls who wave and smile back. The parents go back into the house.
After lunch the police and ambulances arrive and the sheet-covered parents are wheeled
out as the neighbors gather and watch, not understanding what could cause a happening like this
in such a happy, smiling family.
