sol atetationn ditel Ame ictemeiemaatiimminatd

 

January 22, 2003

Gallery

http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca

Poetry/Fiction/Essays/etc.

 

© page 18

 

 

AN INFANTICIDE

A young woman is playing with her daughter in the
front yard of their home. The sun is warm and
bright.

The suburban streets are empty. The only sound is a
car several blocks away. The little girl, perhaps four
years old, notices something at the other end of the
yard and goes to look at it. Her mother takes a
book ,

she had left on the grass next to her and reads for a
few moments. The car can still be heard, somewhat
closer now.

“Look, Mommy!” she hears her little daughter say.
“Look at the beautiful flower!” But when she looks
up

from the page her daughter is not there. Scanning
the

yard she notices a violet in a garden where only
daffodils grew before, and the violet begins to
shimmer like a mirage. It dances down the sloping
lawn

and onto the street, and turns into the little girl at
the moment she is struck and killed by the car. The
little girl makes no sound. The car pauses only a
second, then drives sedately on, and the woman
never

sees who was driving.

by Sean Mcllroy

 

 

the other pres