Accompanying Misery
It was suppose to be a joyful day as a new life was brought into the world. But it had ended in loss. The soft clicking of the wall's clock seemed to add to the weight that was heavily on his shoulders as his mind raced with questions.
'What had gone wrong? Did she suffer? How could this have happen? Why her? Why did this have to happen to him? To them?' But the top one he kept repeating was, 'What now?' The echoing of multiple footsteps alerted him to what he had been dreading this whole time. It was the three of them, her two siblings and mother. He had called them hours before…before it.
Their excited expressions and tones seemed to stab him like daggers. Her mother was the first to notice how quiet he was. Asking what was wrong; he hung his head and stared at the floor. He couldn't bear to look them in the eye. The words seemed just as jumbled coming out of his mouth as when the doctor had told him them the first time. He was afraid they would make him repeat himself, as they just stood there and stared at him. But as they sank into the chairs next to him, he knew that they had understood just enough. Now, as they joined in with his sorrow, that same question popped into his head for the hundredth time.
'What now?'