The Sweet Face

I keep seeing her face. It's a sweet face. She has sparkly eyes. She has that look of a girl who has the world ahead of her. The look of the young.

She has been missing for 10 days. A body has been found. Her disappearance is now a homicide investigation.

Her mother's devastation is unfathomable.

Today, as I watched the news updates flash on my screen. I could hear my girls chatting over breakfast. Milk spluttering on the table. Rice bubbles flinging off the table onto the floor.

My girls yesterday formed a girls only club - The Woodland Friends. It started at the garden shop. They took over the cubbie and banned all the boys. And when we returned home they put a hand-drawn sign on their bedroom door and closed it. Inside, they giggled and whispered and schemed.

They are my everything.

I got off the couch and walked over to the kitchen table. I touched them each gently on their head and I willed them safe, happy, healthy lives. I know it's out of my control, but I could feel my energy passing through my fingers straight into their inner beings.

And then our day continued.

bigwords x