A day to remember. Traffic holding its breath. Sky a tense diaphragm above the city. Red and blue lights flashing, sirens wailing in the mid-afternoon air. An overturned truck leaking ominous fumes, emergency crews hurriedly evacuating the area.
My heart pounded as I glanced at the dashboard clock. Each second ticking away; like an eternity, precious time slipping through my fingers.
Desperation fueled what happened next. Ignoring the barriers, I abandoned our car. Sprinted towards my son's elementary school; ignoring frantic shouts of STOP! Inside I found him, crouched in a corner, safe but terribly frightened. Gathering him up in my arms, we fled.The ground trembled, the sky roared, the world seemed to collapse behind us.
In the aftermath, as dust settled, chaos subsided, I marveled at how, in the midst of life altering moments, heroic action can overtake the darkest of circumstances.
Kim provides a line from Seamus Heaney's poem "Twice Shy" as inspiration for Prosery in the Pub.