Aubrey (Axis Rising)

055:

*****055:

Aubrey

I literally forced myself to roll over, leveraged my legs and sat up, feeling the strain in my lower back as I did and looking at the wall calendar pinned with a push pin to the wall next to my bed. August 6th. I was thirty-three weeks.

I. Was. Thirty-three weeks!!!!!

Nothing had ever felt better! Today marked thirty-three weeks.

Rafe was gone. Already out the door for work. He had rehearsal in town this morning.

We'd already had devotional and yoga, meditation and a taekwondo session, after Rafe's run.

Then I'd gone back to bed, and Abbie had done homeschool. The speech therapist had come in and the kids and Angie were on their way to grief counseling at ABCSC this morning. I couldn't go.

Angie actually came to the bedroom door as if my musings had conjured her. "How are you feeling, mija?"

"Good." I said with a smile. "I just realized I've made it to thirty-three weeks, and no more major contraction episodes."

She high-fived me with a huge whoop and then helped me make it to my feet.

"Listen, mija, I'm going to take the van today. On the way up here, my car was making some weird noise underneath and I called Marshall and he said he'll come get it this afternoon and take a look. He didn't want me driving it, okay?"

I smiled and shrugged. "You want me to take a look at it?"

"Are you a mechanic?"

"No, but I'm just bored enough to consider becoming one!" I laughed as I headed to the bathroom.

Angie's laughter was infectious. "The keys still by the door? We should be back in about two hours, not stopping to play today, I've gotta be back. I told Abbie already, she's only got two hours."

"Yes, the keys should be in the bowl by the door." I called.

"Great! Found 'em." I heard her voice from far away and the sounds of the car starting and the kid's calls as they all got in their car seats.

I went out to the kitchen looking for something refreshing. The lower back pain was just a part of my life now. I pressed one hand to the place hoping to ease it as I did every day, all day. Outside looked hazy and hot again. Hazy and Hot, the story of my life.

I heard the screeching of tires as if from far away, and the crash as if I was in a slow moving dream. I grabbed the counter and propelled myself around it, moving faster than I thought possible.

I made it to the front door and jumped out, made it to the front walkway and searched the street. Not too far from the house, I could see the van, smashed in on one side, sitting at an odd angle as if it had been pushed off its axles. A white windowless van was sitting to the side, front fenders smashed. Had they been pulling out?

I started running. Yes, when motivated I can still run.

The air was disturbed beside me as bodies flew past from next door. Bodies I didn't even recognize as I tried to see if the kids and Angie were moving. I couldn't hear through the blaze of noise all around.

"Aubrey, get back in the house. I called Rafe." It was Jeremy, racing past me at top speed.

I saw the white van move, I saw it back up before the passenger door on my little red van opened and Angie got out, sliding to the ground, waving her arms in outrage. I saw someone from the white van lifting the kids out of the back seat. I could even see that whoever it was had Felicity.