"Mom! I'm home," Ami called as she struggled through the doorway while burdened with multiple bags of shopping goods. With both arms carrying paper bags, she'd hooked her wrist through a small plastic bag. Loaded to the brim Ami sidled through a half-open doorway.
"Hi, Ami!" a voice called from the kitchen one room away. "Were you able to get everything on my list?"
"Y-Yes," Ami suddenly realized that the plastic bag had snagged on the swinging door handle. With divided focus she called back, "I think… I got everythiiiinng-!" The bag suddenly came off of the door handle and slid forward on her wrist and over her hand. Swinging around in a desperate attempt to keep her hold on the bag, she leaned back for more leverage. The bag nevertheless slid off of her hand. With a shriek she turned around completely and awkwardly put her foot into the air and through the handles of the bag nearly being thrown completely off balance in doing so.
"Ami, hon?" Mother poked her head through the doorway from the kitchen to find the hapless Ami balancing three bags between three limbs and trying to keep her one standing leg from wobbling so much. "Oh, Ami…!" Mother rushed to daughter, and she quickly and systematically took all three bags from the precariously balanced child.
"Ami, you need to carry them like this," her mother rearranged the bags in her arms and looked to Ami as if to show her. "See?"
"Oh, mom, you're just too good at everything," Ami giggled as she followed her mother into the kitchen. The warm aroma of cooking vegetables greeted Ami as she entered the room, and she smiled as she inhaled deeply. "Mmm, you're making a stir fry!"
"Right you are," mother responded brightly as she dug around in the grocery bags. "And these fresh ingredients are just in time."
"Can I help?" Ami asked sweetly already moving toward the stovetop and inspecting the contents of the pan on the burner.
"Just keep stirring those vegetables," mother said over her shoulder as she took an armful of groceries to the pantry. "The rice will be done in just a few minutes."
"Okay!" Ami cheerfully took hold of the spoon and went to work while her mother continued putting groceries away.
"Was everything okay at the market?" mother asked as she began emptying the second bag.
"Uh-huh," Ami responded absentmindedly as she checked the progress of the rice with her free hand.
"Oh, good," mother sounded genuinely relieved. "I'd heard something strange was happening there."
"Wait!" Ami's face suddenly widened in surprise. "There was something going on!"
"Oh?" mother halted her progress on the second bag to look straight at Ami.
"I heard the owner talking about it with Officer Jenny," Ami talked excitedly. "Apparently there's a wild pokémon near the store. I heard that it really makes a mess sometimes when the market moves outside."
"Oh my!" her mother seemed rather upset. "I hope no one gets hurt!"
"No, they didn't say anything about that, I don't think," Ami tilted her head slightly and turned her attention back to the stove.
"I do hope Mr. Winchest will be okay…" her mother looked over her shoulder as though the owner was actually there. "I think maybe I'll take a pie to the family sometime." With that she resumed her work on the grocery bags.
"Oh, I'll help!" Ami brightened once more. "Can we make blueberry?"
"Oh, I won't need your help for just one pie, dear," mother smiled at her daughter's enthusiasm.
"But we'll need a pie for at home, too," Ami suggested sweetly. "Right, mom?"
"Of course, dear," her mother said with a chuckle as she sprinkled some of the newly arrived vegetables into Ami's pan. "Of course." With that she put an affectionate arm around Ami.
"Thanks, mom," Ami rested her head on her mother's bosom. For a moment stir fry and groceries alike were forgotten as mother and daughter shared an embrace, as her mother placed a soft kiss on Ami's forehead.
As Ami looked out over the horizon she could see the sun melting into the distant mountains in a bath of warm color. She slunk farther down on the fence against which she was leaning letting her head fall deeper into her crossed arms. Her eyes once again scanned the dirt road that ran over the hills and finally melded with the far off mountain trail. The road was completely empty, but it felt somehow welcoming all the same. Ami blinked slowly a few times as her eyes grew a tad heavier than they had been a moment ago.
"Ami?" she heard a welcome voice behind her. "Ami, it's getting late."
"Just a bit more, mom, okay?" Ami crossed one leg over the other and leaned sideways onto her ear. Presently her mother arrived at her side and put a hand on her back. "It's nice, isn't it?" Ami offered still looking out over the road.
"Yes, the clouds on the horizon are lending some beautiful color tonight," her mother smiled as she gently moved her fingers over Ami's back. "You know, you come out here a lot at about this time. Is there something on your mind?"
Ami closed her eyes and smiled as she savored her mother's fingers on her back. "I don't know…" Ami said slowly. "I guess I just kind of feel like…" Ami hesitated. Her mother only smiled and waited patiently for her next works.
"Sometimes I feel like if I just look out at the road," Ami said quietly, "then I'll see dad just walking along. Coming home. And he'll smile, and he'll take me in his arms, and we'll walk home like he was never away." Mother's smile faded only slightly.
"Daddy's coming back, right?" Ami looked up at her mother. "If we just wait for him, he'll come back soon. And I'll wait for him right here. And he'll be home soon if I'm waiting, don't you think?" Her mother opened her mouth to speak but couldn't seem to say anything. Finally she merely smiled as a single tear made it's slow way down her face.
"Of course," she said wrapping Ami in her arms again. "Of course, darling." Ami buried her face in her mother's embrace. "We'll just wait for him. He'll come back." At length, mother turned Ami around to look once more at the road, arms still wrapped around her daughter. The pair gazed out towards the road once more now filled with a renewed hope that expected a traveller on the road any moment now. It had been Ami's gift: hope.