1

On this stormy day, 17 year old Alex had just gotten home, close to 10p.m from his long day of working and and finishing his homework. The house was empty, thunder was rolling, lightning was cracking. His mom had gotten off of work an hour before he got home but still wasn’t here. He thought nothing of it and continued into the house. Drenched from the storm he takes off his shoes. “Mom? You home?” he shouted. With no response from his mom he headed upstairs to take a shower.
He put his stuff down on his bed, put his phone on the charger and then headed to the bathroom. As he was heading to the bathroom, a loud rack of lightning hit the house. Then he noticed that the kitchen hadn’t been touched yet. “Why are the dishes still in the sink?” he muttered to himself. His mom would always do dishes when she got home. Still semi concerned, he went to her room to see if she ever even came home. Her bed was still made, lights were off, her house shoes were still hung up behind her door. “Where the hell is she?” he asked himself with confusion. 

Suddenly a loud alarm went off on the TV. Scaring Alex with its loud repetitive sirens it read “WARNING! DANGEROUS LEVELS OF WATER ON THE ROADS DUE TO STORM. STAY OFF THE ROADS.” Alex read this and figured his mom would’ve seen it at her work and continued to the bathroom. He turned the shower on and got in. 

“Finally” he whispered to himself with relief after a long day.

2

Two deer were walking through the dense forest, the mother, Sara, and her small fawn Paige were minding their own business. Sara, who often came to this part of the forest to visit a safe pond to drink, beckoned Paige to follow her.

“Paige! Slow down! We’ll get there soon.”

“Mom hurry up!”

As Sarah and Paige were walking through the woods Paige, being very excited ran ahead of her mom. As they were approaching a road Sarah yelled to Paige “Honey slow down! I don’t want you getting hurt!” As Paige got to the street it began to pour the rain. As the rain began, hearing her mom being concerned about her, she stopped in the middle of the street and waited for Sarah to catch up.

As Sarah got closer she heard a noise. What sounded to be an engine. “Paige get out of the road!” As the car was getting closer, Paige was in a daze as she had never seen a car in person nor the beauty of the head lights before. Sarah kept yelling at Paige “Go across the street! Now!” 

The car was getting closer and faster. Within seconds Sarah ran out and hit Paige out of the way. Knocking her out of her daze she took a glimps of what just happened. Her mom, dead. Hit by the driver of the car. Paige was in shock of the situation. “Mom? Please answer me. I love you, please don’t leave me.” she whimpered standing next to her mom, her head on Sarah. Stranded and alone she gave her mom a kiss and went back the way she came. “It should’ve been me not her. Why didn’t the car slow down? Why did they take my mom from me?” she ranted as she walked away from the scene. 

3

While Alex continued his shower his phone had finally powered back on after being dead for hours. There were multiple missed messages from his mom. One reading “Hey babe, I got out later than usual. I’ll be home shortly after you. I love you, see you soon.” 

As Alex got out of the shower he got dressed, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and finally made it to his room. Like every typical teenager he immediately checked his phone, seeing so many missed messages from his mom. Relieved, he called her. No answer. “Dude, you just texted me 20 minutes ago. Pick up” he replied to his moms texts. He waited and waited. Suddenly he heard a car start to pull up into the driveway. Then two men knocked on the door.

“Are you Alex?”

“Yes? Who are you guys?”

“We work with the police department and we came here regarding the disappearance of your mother.”

“W-What happened?”

The policed talked to Alex concerning his mothers missing. They told him “Son, your mother was on the roads during the storm. She ended up going head on with a deer and her head hit the steering wheel and she never woke backup. I’m sorry for your loss”  After hearing the news Alex was in shock. He couldn’t move, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, his hands felt like weights, his heart fell to his feet, he was heartbroken. 

“How did she not see the dear in front of her?” he asked quietly.

“It appears on hor camera footage from the lightpole, she was texting and driving on the slick roads, as she raised her head it was too late to have a second thought and what to do next. We’re truly sorry son.” the police officer responded with sympathy. 

Feeling like he was a walking corpse, Alex shut the door in the police mens faces, quickly stormed upstairs but not feeling as if he was moving, like he was frozen or going so fast he didn’t even notice, and thought about everything. All his regrets when it came to his mother. Tears rolled down his face for hours. Not saying a word all this time but only in his head. His eyes closed trying to remember what his mom was even wearing that morning, trying to remember what her voice sounded like, what her hair smelled like, everything about her. His heart heavy with grief he exclaimed, “How could she be gone. I didn’t even get to say I love you or goodbye”. Shoving his head into his pillow as he screamed with heartbreak suddenly, out of no where is phone starts to ring. “Mom?” he exclaimed.