January 10th, 2007

Ireland paced back and forth in front of Sailor and Lyric. Sometimes being the eldest Malucci child paid off. She had two people to do her evil work for her. Now that Sailor was walking and talking she was more useful. Lyric had a big conscious so sometimes it was hard to work her, but Ireland knew she could mold Sailor into what she needed because she was young enough.

"Okay, the cookies are on top of the counter. Momma made them this morning." Ireland said, "We're gonna get them."

"We get in trouble, Landsie." Lyric warned her oldest sister.

"No we won't, stupid. Lori is gonna be in the den 'stracting Momma and daddy." Ireland said. Lyric cocked her eyebrow.

"We should ask." Lyric said.

"Miss goody two shoes." Ireland stuck out her tongue.

"I'm not wearing shoes." Lyric pouted as Randi walked in.

"Do you girls want a cookie?" She held out a plate, "I made them this morning." Lyric grinned, relieved that she didn't have to lie.

"Tanks Mommy." She said taking one and giving one to Sailor.

"Thanks, Mommy." Ireland muttered as she took one.

"Daddy is on the front porch." Randi said, "It's snowing."

"Can we got watch the snow?" Ireland asked.

"As long as you get your jackets on, you can go outside and play." Randi said as the girls bolted out of the living room. She looked down at Sailor and picked her up. "We'll go out too."

"It's such pretty snow, don't you think, Girls?" Dave asked as his family came out onto the porch. Randi shrugged.

"I'm not a big fan of snow." She said with a shrug. Ireland and Dixie jumped off the porch and started to play on the sidewalk.

"You've never complained before, Randi." Dave said.

"You never hear me at work." Randi chuckled watching Lyric spin around in a snow pile. "They're going to catch a cold."

"No they wont." Dave said watching Ireland throw a snowball across the street. Dixie bolted across the street to fetch it. Dave's heart in his chest stopped when he saw a car coming, "DIXIE STOP!" Lyric stopped staring with wide eyes as the car hit its break and slid on the ice hitting Dixie. The dog went flying.

"DIXIE!!!!!!!!!!" Lyric screamed. She bolted for the dog, but Dave grabbed her arm. The family ran over to the dog, "She bleeding!"

"I know." Dave's hands were shaking as he bent down in front of the whimpering dog. "She's alive…I think she broke her leg."

"Fix her, Daddy!!!" Lyric sobbed throwing her arms around the dog. Randi held Ireland back as Dave looked at her.

"I can't baby." He said. "There could be internal bleeding."

"You're a doctor!!" Lyric screamed, "FIX HER!!!"

"Take her to the hospital, Dave." Randi whispered startled that her most quiet child was screaming. She had never heard Lyric scream before.

"You're a doctor, Daddy!!" Lyric sobbed.

"We'll take her to the doggy hospital." Dave said picking Dixie up.

"We'll stay here." Randi said.

"No! I going!" Lyric cried. Dave nodded as he loaded the very stunned dog into the back seat. Lyric crawled in the back and petted Dixie's head; "You okay. Here's my cookie. You be okay now. I'm gonna fix you, okay?" Ireland burst into tears and clung to her mother.

"Dixie's gonna die!!" She wailed. Randi led her back into the house and put Sailor down.

"She's not going to die, Ireland." Randi said gathering her into her arms, "They're going to fix her. I promise." Randi wiped her own tears. She hoped Dixie would be coming back to them.

* * *

Dave sat in the waiting room of the local animal clinic. He held Lyric tightly in his arms. Lyric had been hysterical. It had taken him so long to get her calmed down. She loved animals so much and always hated to see them get hurt, but this was too much for any of them.

"Dr. Malucci?" He looked up to see Dixie's doctor standing in front of him. Lyric's lips started to tremble as she looked at her.

"How is she?" he asked hoarsely

"She's alive. Dixie is a very lucky dog. She had no internal bleeding." She said, "She had two compound fractures in her right front leg. We've set them and got her some medication. Give her one of these pills to her before she goes to bed for the next week. She'll be pretty uncomfortable." Lyric looked up at her.

"She's okay, right?" She sniffled. The doctor smiled and nodded.

"She's fine. You just got to be careful with her leg, okay?"

"Okay." Lyric whimpered.

"I'll bring her out." The doctor went to the back. Dave hugged Lyric.

"I told you she'd e okay." He said as Dixie limped out of the back.

"Dixie!" Lyric squealed and jumped from Dave's arms. She ran up to her dog and threw her arms around her hugging tightly. Dave ran his hands through his hair. It felt so good to see Dixie up and about. He didn't know what he would have done if she had died.

March 24th, 2007

Dave took Sailor out of her car seat as Randi got the other two out of the car. Dixie carefully hopped out of the car and limped ahead of them. They were visiting Aaron today. The snow had melted last night and they wanted to make sure there wasn't a lot of slush engulfing the tombstone.

"It's getting warm out." Randi said taking Lyric hand.

"It's about time." Dave smiled leading his family down the slushy pathway. "School ends soon and we can take the kids."

"Yeah but we have a lot to do. Ireland will be going the First grade. Lyric is in her second year of preschool. Sailor is being a hellion."

"Then a vacation is a good idea." Dave chuckled. Ireland smiled as she walked up to the tombstone. She wrapped her arms around the cold stone.

"Hi Aaron." She whispered. Randi smiled softly. It warmed her heart to see that Ireland loved Aaron so much and that she wasn't forgetting him. She wanted Aaron's memory to live on forever.

"It's being well kept up." She said placing some flowers down.

"At least there isn't a whole lot of slush on his place." Dave said as he pushed what little slush there was away from it.

"Daddy, are these all dead people?" Lyric asked looking around the graveyard.

"There are a lot of dead people here, but there are a lot of memorials like Aaron's also." He said. "All these people are resting and their families want to have the memories live on for a while." Lyric nodded her little head with a large frown.

"So sad." Lyric sighed. Dave tugged on one of her pigtails.

"Don't be sad we're all going to be here someday." He said.

"Dave!" Randi laughed, "Don't tell them that." She knelt down in front of the tombstone. She ran her hand over his name and sighed.

"Mama!" Sailor fussed in Dave's arms. Randi smiled as she stood.

"I'm right here, Darling." She said kissing Sailor's hand.

"Can we say a prayer, Daddy?" Ireland asked. He nodded.

"Do you want to say it?" he asked. Ireland nodded and closed her eyes. Randi smiled at her husband and they all bowed their heads.

"Dear god, this is Ireland Malucci. I live in Cago. My brother is Aaron. You know him, he's an angel." Dave glanced at his smiling wife, "We miss him, but I know he is safe and happy up there in heaven. I am trying to be a good girl because he is my twin and I don't wanna make him sad. Anyway, God, I love Aaron very much and take care of him as much as you can, okay? Amen."

"Amen." Randi smiled opening her eyes, "You did a good job."

"I guess so." Ireland sighed as she glanced at Lyric pat Dixie's head. "Can we go now, Mommy?" Randi nodded slowly.

"If you're ready we can." She said softly. "You ready?"

"For lunch." Dave said taking Lyric's hand, "Everything seems to be fine here." Ireland looked at him a small frown.

"Graveyards aren't fine, Daddy. They're sad and not happy." She said, "They'll never be fine." Dave looked at his daughter oddly.

"Okay…" He said, "Let's go to the car then." Randi blew a kiss towards her son's memorial. She had done pretty well today. She didn't breakdown in tears. The Malucci family walked to the car. Ireland looked over her shoulder to the tombstone.

"Goodbye, Aaron." She whispered softly.