The Elephant

Sarah sat silently in the hospital waiting room, staring at the scratched coffee table laden with various out of date glossy magazines whose headlines screamed one scandal after another. She didn’t know how long she had been sat there, or even what time it was. Her mind just could not seem to handle anything logical at the moment.

The sound of an alarm out in the corridor broke through the numbness, allowing thoughts and memories to trickle through the barriers like a stream flowing through rocks. Feeling restless, she stood and walked over to the window and stared out at the town below. It was late evening, she guessed, judging by the lights on in some of the houses and the street lamps threading their way through the landscape like a yellow ribbon. So peaceful looking, such a contrast to what was going on in her mind at the moment.

She had been a home when the call had come through. Dinner had just been eaten and she had been debating on whether or not to was the dishes or put that new DVD on that she had bought that morning. The caller told her that there had been an accident involving her sister and her niece. Black ice, cars skidding, crash barriers, head injuries. The words had just jumbled into one mess as she stood frozen to the spot, listening as they told her where to come. When the call had ended she had rushed into her bedroom to grab a few things before setting off for the hospital that was three hours from her home.

She rubbed a hand over her face, exhaustion seeping though her body along with a terrible sense of loss that threatened to overwhelm her. When she had arrived she had been too late for her sister. The head trauma that she had suffered in the crash had finally claimed her life just as Sarah had arrived at the hospital. She had been allowed to see her for a few minutes but it had been hard to understand that the quiet figure on the bed was dead not just sleeping.

“Miss Wilson?” the nurse said at the doorway. “We’re ready for you now.”

Sarah sighed and grabbed her bag before following the nurse out of the room towards another room at the end of the corridor. A little girl sat on a bed, her face as pale as the white sheets on the bed. This was her niece, Beth, the only survivor of the crash.

“Beth? I’m your Aunt Sarah,” she said softly as she knelt down in front of the little girl. “I’ve come to take you home with me.”

“My mummy isn’t coming home,” the little girl whispered.

“No, she isn’t,” Sarah replied, her heart breaking inside. “But I know that she would want you to come with me and to have this.” She reached in her bag and pulled out the old, stuffed elephant that had belonged to Laura when she was a little girl. It had comforted her when their parents had died. It had been her friend in the children’s home. When she had left the home she had shared with Sarah she had left the elephant with Sarah to show that she was still around even though they no longer lived together. Now it was to show Beth that her mother would always be around for her in her memories and her heart.