Sorry for the late post - I have had internet issues today but at last it is fixed!
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AJ was sitting on a swing in the park. He was swinging back and forth getting higher and higher; coming close to flying. He should he laughing and happy but on every backswing the pressure of the hand that pushed him forward once more seemed to burn uncomfortably into his skin.
He didn't want to look back and see who the hand belonged to… mostly because he already knew. This was something he did with his daddy, when daddy had been wonderful, kind and fun.
The hand pushing him now didn't belong to that daddy. It belongs to angry daddy… shouty daddy… stumbling daddy… bad daddy.
He didn't want it to be daddy pushing him now, it should be mommy or Binks.
More than anything, AJ wanted to get away from the hand pushing him on the swing. He didn't want to jump as the ground blurred past so fast and the swing swung so high he was scared; but not as scared as he was about the knowledge of what would happen when the swinging stopped. Daddy would take him home… take him away…
He felt himself starting to cry as the hand pushed harder into his back and the swing twisted, sending it lurching in a new direction bucking and rocking him from his seat.
AJ lost his grip.
He was falling… falling to the ground… and he could feel the hand following him as he fell. As soon as he touched the dirt that hand would grab him and drag him away…
He didn't want to hit the dirt… he didn't want that hand to touch him… he didn't want to be taken away…
In pain and desperation AJ gave a frightful scream…
…
Miranda was standing with mommy and Marissa. They were talking and laughing. Miranda couldn't really hear the words they said but she could hear their laughter and it made her feel so happy to see her mommy smile like that…
But then it was as if a black cloud blotted out the sun.
Miranda looked up and overhead was a ginormous metal tube. Miranda knew it was the barrel of a gun; a great big gun moving slowly across sky to point at her mommy and Marissa.
Suddenly mommy and Marissa seemed a million miles away.
Miranda knew she had to get to them and warn them about the gun pointing at their heads, but they were laughing and smiling so much they couldn't see it. Miranda ran towards them as fast as she could but it was as if the whole world had slowed down.
There was the sound of a shot and Miranda now found herself racing the bullet.
The barrel of the gun was now behind her and the bullet, a giant round metal ball rolled slowly from the barrel of the enormous gun; trundling forward with a loud rumble. Miranda ran faster, the ball relentlessly following her.
She knew if she stopped it would crush her, she could feel the huge weight of it behind her, images flashed in her head of it catching her ankles and rolling over her, squashing her like a bug.
Miranda also knew if she didn't run in a straight line she wouldn't get to her mommy and Marissa in time to warn them.
Miranda was running so hard… screaming at her mommy to get to safety.
Screaming at the top of her lungs…
…
Bianca and Marissa sat up in bed in unison, woken by the screams of their kids.
"Duty calls." sighed Marissa.
Bianca nodded as a third wail from a disturbed Gabby joined the chorus. It didn't look like they would be having the bed to themselves tonight.
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