The girl sat at a wooden table with a lace table cloth. A warm, black coffee sat in front of her. Her small, calloused hands wrapping around the orange mug. The wooden chair was hard beneath her, the old wood leaving splinters in her thick jeans. Across from the table was a large window above a counter with a sink. This is where the girl stared.
Outside was a typical country setting. An iron, rusted clothes line sat in the middle of a dusty clearing. It was a little too tall for the girl as the winding mechanism had broken years ago. A tyre swing hung from an old oak tree a little too close to the ground for her two young children. Her oldest, a smart young man named Johnathon was now pushing his little sister, Mary, on that very swing. Mary was screaming with laughter, begging her brother to push her higher and higher.
“Higher!” she screamed, “I want to fly with the birds, Johnny!”
The girl sighed from where she sat. Oh how she wished she could fly with the birds. She looked around her and took in her what little surroundings she had. The table had three more hard wood chairs placed around it. Behind her sat an older, antique style oven. Around the other three walls, empty cupboards and counters hugged the walls. To her left a door leading outside was open and she could hear the laughter of her children drift inside.
“Johnny, make me go higher!” The girl smiled at Mary’s demands of her older brother. They’re so innocent, the girl thought to herself, I must keep them that way.
It was then that the girl remembered the lock cupboard in her husband’s back shed. She stood and picked up her orange mug, drinking the now cold coffee in one gulp. She threw the mug towards to sink under the window, not caring if it made its mark. She took one last look at her smiling children, then turned and left the kitchen.
The lock cupboard was located at the back of the shed, on the highest shelf out of the children’s reach. The girl stood on her tippy toes and put the key she got from her husband’s underwear drawer and put it into the lock. Inside she found what she was looking for. It was the colour of a night sky and was as cold as a dead man’s grasp. Being careful to re-lock the cupboard and hide the key in the depths of her jean pockets, the girl started to walk towards to sheds door. Must keep them innocent…
Holding what she took from the cupboard close to her, she went to find her children on the tire swing.