Crossroads

by Laurel Hightower

The way the cops at the scene, the doctors, even former friends, had latched onto that lack of seat belt as though that evened things out—as

She wasn’t going to go through life uncomfortable, and the baking made her happy.

the shittiest horror movie was light-years ahead of a football game, any day of the week.

Maybe it was just about losing another part of her history.

it had to mean she was communicating with something, that someone had heard her calls and was accepting her offerings.

Parenting came with sacrifice,

sacrifice went one way, and laying on the guilt wasn’t part of it.

He sighed, and slumped to the ground, resting on the curb, his long legs bent, forehead resting on his knees. “I’m so tired, Mom.”

Maybe he NEEDS to move on

And if she had a choice in which reality to stay in, she wanted to be here, with him.

She wondered now, considering the angles, whether the thumb would be the easier choice, but she didn’t want to give that one up. Not yet. It seemed solid, an anchor, and she’d leave it for last.

If she wanted her son to live, to escape from the hell she’d inadvertently delivered him into, she’d need to give her life for him.

All I’ve ever wanted since then is to be where he is.

was the same she’d noise heard the night

Sacrifice was about loss. It was about giving up things you loved,

It was about doing the things that were hardest, that scared you the most.