The mother, staring at the ceiling at 3:00 a.m. She rises and walks across the hall to her daughter's room. She picks up the stuffed white kitty from the bed and cradles it in her arms. She sinks against the foot of the bed as wave upon wave of huge, gulping, breath-defying sobs shake her body, from her toes through the top of her head.
The father, lying on the hardwood floor in the family room. His lower back in so much pain that he cannot sit or stand or lie on a mattress. He rolls to his side and curls himself into a ball. He hopes that the dog won't need to go out until daybreak.
The brothers, legs and arms tangled together on the top bunk. They climbed up there together to sleep under the glow-in-the-dark planets affixed to the ceiling, because it might be safer in the orbit of Jupiter than it was in the school.
Tonight.
Tomorrow night.
The next night.
**********
In case, at some point today, you said, "I can't imagine."
I keep imagining...and praying those psalms.
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteYou know and I know that whether or not we can imagine, there is no word, no gesture, no prayer that will heal these families. The best we can do is work to make sure it doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteNo trouble imagining; only trouble sleeping. Completely gut-wrenching. Those poor poor people. Shattered.
ReplyDeleteLast night I met with my spirit group. I so wanted to close my eyes and imagine something else, but every time it came back. When we first entered silence, it stretched on and on.
ReplyDeleteYes. We all must imagine. Again and again and again.
ReplyDeleteWe have to at least try to look, without blinking. Because for us, it is imagining -- for them it is living.
I have done almost nothing but imagine since Friday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by a comment that Obama made this weekend: "The reason these stories (about the children) have such an impact on us is because we can imagine how hard it can be...."
ReplyDeleteBecause of your blog writing, I have become more attuned to the phrase "I can't imagine." Obama's words were one of the first time I have heard someone say: I CAN imagine.