Cracks in the Sidewalk

Chapter One

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have. -Bob Marley

That is the truest thing I have her heard. My name is Bailey Lynn Miller, and as of today I am an orphan. Nothing will be the same, nothing can or will go back to the way it was. That's just not how it works, I guess.

I lay in my hospital bed, the crunching sheets crumbling with my every move, even when I breath. My night robe is on, the sheer material not giving me mush warmth. I think of the accident. My brother is lost in that void of emptiness,and I can't be sure that he will wake up. I can't be sure of anything anymore. I want so badly for this to just be a nightmare, but every time I pinch myself, I don't wake up in my bed at home, hearing my mother's laughter and the sound of pages turning as my father reads the Monday newspaper.

I wake up to a new life, one without a family, without a home, without anything worth living for. I leave this place tomorrow. My brother remains. My fingers skim over the bed,and I hold back tears.  I will never view rain in the same way after all it has done to me and my family.

Flashback

The sound of tires screeching against asphalt fills the air and I feel myself straining against the seat belt. My mother screams and the sound of shattering glass echoes through the night as all goes silent. My brother lies limp against the seat, my father isn't in the car, and my mother is halfway through the windshield.

I feel blood trickling down my head as my eyes close, sucking me into the void.