"Hush Little Baby"
2:45am was the time on the small bedside alarm clock on the wooden dresser by the motel bed, when Sarah Hotchner-Beiderman was awoken by the cries of her baby brother. Moaning slightly, from being jolted awake, Sarah ambled out of bed and headed over to the white bassinet that the motel had offered while they stayed there the night.
She glanced over her shoulder briefly at her teenage husband, Leo Beiderman, who was still fast asleep in bed. How he could sleep through a baby crying after all they had been through was beyond her. But then again, maybe Leo had always been a sound sleeper, and she just didn't know it. Or he was really exhausted. Truth was her and Leo hadn't really been married that long. Only a few months to be exact. Leo had married her in a vain attempt to save her and her family from annihilation from an Asteroid. To take them to a safe haven. When the time had come for the military to pick them all up though, Sarah's parents and baby brother's names hadn't made it to the "Safe Evacuee" list yet. And Sarah had refused to go to the shelter without her family. In a last ditch effort to save her a few days later, Leo had come back for her on a dirt bike. He had found her and her family trying to escape the tidal wave that was scheduled to come after the first part of the Asteroid that had broken off would hit. Her parents had handed off to Sarah her baby brother to take with her and Leo on the bike. As Leo, her, and the baby had escaped the last she heard from her parents was the screams from them as the tidal wave hit. At that moment, Leo had accelerated the dirt bike even more up the Appalachian Mountains.
Now here they were on their way to find Leo's parents and sister, who were supposed to be at the safe haven located in the limestone caves of Missouri. In what little money, Leo had on him, given to him by his father, when he had left his family behind in Missouri, Leo had gotten them a room at a Motel 6 for the night.
Gently, Sarah lifted her baby brother from the bassinet. "It's alright, Noah. Shhh-hhh..hush now. It's alright." She cooed at him, hoping to soothe.
After a few moments of rocking, he settled down.
"Were you having a nightmare?" Sarah asks her baby brother. "I have nightmares too."
Her baby brother, with his blue eyes, that reminded her so much of her father that she missed, only blinked at her.
"Were you having a nightmare about losing mom and dad? I know. I miss them too."
Part of Sarah felt horrible for leaving her parents behind at their station wagon. Meanwhile another part of her was relieved that Leo had come back for her. It was called Survivor's Guilt, this she knew. And she was probably going to be living with it for the rest of her life.
Her little brother started to squirm then a little in her arms, and so she shushed him again.
"You know what I used to do when I would have nightmares? Look out my bedroom window at the stars. I used to find them so calming." She told him, softly.
Sarah used to love looking at the stars. She was absolutely fascinated with them! It was why she had been excited when her school had offered an astronomy class. Now though? She was still fascinated with the stars, but she wasn't sure as to if she loved them anymore. If anything she was now leery. One day she hoped she wouldn't have a love/hate relationship with them.
She glanced back down at her baby brother and realized he had fallen asleep once more. Quietly, she placed him back inside the bassinet. Then she too headed back to bed.
As she crawled in beside Leo, she lightly touched his shoulder. He seemed unfazed though by her touch and continued sleeping. How grateful she had been that he had discovered that Asteroid that was headed for Earth. And how still in shock she was that he had come back for her. But also how grateful as well.
One day she knew that both of them would have to explain to her baby brother about what happened on that tragic day. For now though….things would remain hushed.