The mid spring air was finally beginning to develop a coolness to it as Jocelyn sat on the swing that hung from the towering oak shading the frontlawn. She sat gently rocking her now nine year old daughter who had come home from school completely in tears because her father was dead. Jocelyn, for all her bitterness against her former husband, wept too. Their problems had never been that they didn't love each other. In fact, Jocelyn knew in her heart there would be no greater love in her life other than McCoy. Their problems had been that they loved other things more. Leonard had been a workaholic, and during the later half of their marriage when he wasn't working her was in the old barn drinking. Her addictions on the other had had been shopping, which since her parents where the ones to pay for her desires, she saw no problem with.
The Darnell family had come from old Southern money, tracing their roots to one of the most successful cotton plantations in Georgia. So when Jocelyn wanted something anything all she had to do was bat her big blue eyes at her pa and she had it.
Jocelyn turned towards the ole barn. Despite the fact he had refused to fix anything on it, even giving it a fresh coat of paint was too much for him, it was clean and crisp. His excuse always had been, 'he was a doctor, not a painter'. When they were married funds had been too tight to hire someone…after all residents didn't make a whole hell of a lot. Now though she, had hired the neighbor boy who had just returned home for the summer from college to do everything around the ole Georgian home that needed a man's touch. Well almost everything. She wasn't ready to take any relationship to that level, being a bit gun shy after the pain Leonard had caused her.
"Look Mama, a falling star...make a wish," Joanna's small voice broke Jocelyn's attention on the barn and drew it back to where her daughter was pointing. A dim amber light had dropped from the heavens. At first Jocelyn considered it was nothing more than a falling star as her almost night year old suggested. After a point in the dusk sky the light blended with the setting sun. She studied the light form; in her experience falling stars didn't have such a long lasting tail. It seemed to continue forever. However, it was clear, even to Jocelyn that something was going on somewhere. Little did she know that something was happening some two thousand miles that would threatened the lives of herself and her daughter. Never-the-less, Jocelyn closed her eyes and made a wish.
The small girl looked into her mother's eyes and smiled, "Know what I wished for mama?"
Jocelyn knew, at least she had a good idea what the child would wish for. In fact, she too had wished it. Even though she knew some wishes were impossible fantasies. She kissed her daughter's forhead and told her, "Shhhh don't tell, Joanna. Remember what papa said about telling wishes?"
Joanna looked at her mother, her almond shaped blue eyes shined as she repeated her dad's words, "'Ya, don't tell what your wishes are because they won't come true.' Mama, I want this wish to be true." She settled back into the crock of her mother's arm relaxed her head on Jocelyn's shoulder as they gentle swung in the swing.
They sat in silence as the light continued. Even after the Georgian sky had turned black, and intensified the bright thin line.