Date:         Thu, 16 Jan 1997 08:54:24 -0800
Subject:      SUB: Valentine's Contest: "From the Heart": Short Story

There's still time to send your entry! Check out
http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/val97/val.html for details.

Please reserve all critiques on contest entries until after Valentine's
Day!
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                           From the Heart

  The dark of the night was shattered by  the squeal of wheels on wet pavement,
bonejarring  jerks, and mysterious crunching sounds. Nancy was thrown forward
and lost all sense of where she was.

  The next two hours were etched in the hidden  part of Nan's memory.
Those that can be found in the read only memory where one must force open
the files.

   The pain was thus erased. The sense of injury vanished. The fear and
confusion were dumped in an  forgotten trash bin never to be retrieved. In
the new file created and saved by the four-year-old were trivial pieces of
a puzzle with a foggy picture.

   The dark night clutched the people who crawled out of the  rubble pile by
the side of the shimmering street. Each individual was temporarily lost from
view. Nan shivered and looked for her father.

   He didn't seem to be there but she was too stunned to cry.  She was frozen
to the spot and just looked into the piercing blackness.  It held dark
figures and soon red flashing lights.

   A woman's voice reached her first,  "Are you O.K. honey?"

   Nan's tears began to flow.  An arm encircled her shoulders and the closeness
of the the speaker comforted Nan. Gently the shadowed female led the child away
from the wreckage.

   "Are you hurt?"

    Nan was struck dumb.  She looked up and peered skyward toward the shadowy
figure who went with the voice.

    "Come and sit with me in my car. Do you like stories?" The door was open and
a inviting light beckoned the pair.

     How the plaid blanket came to cover her, Nan could never quite
remember. It's lilac fragrance  enfolded her.  The soft velour seats cuddled
the small form.

     The conversation was one-sided but tears had stopped.

      "Once upon a time there were four little bunnies.  Flopsy, Mopsy,
Cottontail, and Peter.  The four lived with their mother under the root of
an oak tree........"

      The tale droned on while more and more bodies rushed around. A large
white vehicle appeared and many grown up shapes  filled the night.

      The warmth of the car, the soft voice and the mental images of little
rabbits with their mother distracted the child.  The motherly form nurtured
without overwhelming the little one.  Love flowed without extensive symbols
of affection.

    "Father!"

   The appearance of the loved face interrupted the flow ot the story.
"Oh," you hurt your hand....You're bleeding?"  Nan scrambled unsteadily down
from her seat... hip pain became a reality.

      "It's all right, Nan...It doesn't really hurt."

      From behind the Father's knee Nan's two-year old brother shyly viewed
his sister.   A smile of welcoming recognition greeted the little girl. He
ran to hug her.

      "Oh,...where's Grandma's soup bowl...I promised to give it back!"  Nan
wailed.

      "Father, this lady was telling me a ........"

      "It's time to go, Nan."  A man in a dark uniform helped Nan find a
place in the large white van with the round red light.

   Inside, on the left seat a coatless man sat holding his head and moaning.
Crusty dried blood was smeared around  his nose.  His presence in the night
was invisible until Nan saw him across the aisle  from her on the right side
of the vehicle.

      As the siren wailed,  Nan looked through the windows in the back
doors.  She could still see the lights of the old blue Chevy. In the mist,
try as she might , Nan could not see any  other car, except one other with a
crumpled hood.

     In Nan's memory, years later the savour of that lady's perfume and the
soothingsense of unsolicited love in crisis captured Nan's imagination. The
lady in the dark never finished the story but she left emotionally bright
gifts to last a lifetime."


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Michelle
winebird@inreach.com