Just a Little Late

“I was… I was just too late.”

“Hey, Mel, don’t cry! There was nothing you could have done.”

“I could have been there.”

“How would you have known? You get calls like that all the time, Mel.”

“Something should have tipped me off!”

If I hadn’t stopped to talk to Mark, if I’d just headed straight over…

“Mel! Look at me, please, talk to me! Oh, I knew this would happen! I told you not to take this job!”

“Maybe you were right. I’m not good enough for this.”

“Aww, you know that’s not how I meant it! Remember those flowers that one patient sent you? The lilies? Remember?”

“I remember.”

“And what did the card say?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Bullshit, you can’t remember! You spent a week with that thing on your wall!”

“Does it matter?”

Does any of it matter? I just as good as murdered that child.

“Hell, Mel, I just want you to realize it wasn’t your fault. Can’t you just be happy again... Mel? Mel, where are you- what are you doing?!”

“I could have been there.”

Word count: 182