A Day Like This

by Kelley McNeil

“You can take a nap in the car.” I cradled her head into the soft nook of my shoulder as I carried her. She was getting bigger now, and I sometimes wondered, as mothers do, when the last time would be that I could pick her up in my arms.

In my head I heard her voice, clear and present. The delicate details of her life numbered in the thousands, millions. Was it possible that the human mind could generate such a realistic and punishing illusion? Surely not. And yet this was what they had told me.

We may never fully know what lies beyond the horizons of the mind. But perhaps peace may be found in allowing ourselves to embrace the unknown to see what unfolds when we get there.”