contest was another option. A chance—however small—to change her future if she won. Maybe all she needed was to just take the risk and enter the contest. Maybe believing she had a chance to win would be enough to quiet the past and give her hope. Hope that would surely bring back her compassion.
Her brain was too exhausted to think logically. She wasn’t actually considering entering Kyle’s contest, was she?
She had an idea of sorts. Something she’d considered over the last few nights in the lull between calls. Something she’d woken up thinking about yesterday afternoon.
Ava slipped out of her mom’s room, grabbed her laptop and returned. She opened the contest website and clicked on the entry button. She’d enter and not tell anyone. If nothing came of it, at the worst, she was out a few hours’ time. She’d wasted more time scrolling through TV stations, searching for something to watch.
Filling out the entry form gave her a chance to decompress—something the facilitators of the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing group recommended.
More than an hour later, her mother woke up. Her smile barely twitched across her lips; her voice was no more than a raw scratch. “Glad you’re home safe.”
Ava set the laptop on the bedside table and held her mom’s pale hand. “Sleep, Mom. I’m here.”
“I have two guardian angels,” her mom whispered. “What would I do without you both?”
Ava waited for her mom to drift back to sleep. She wasn’t qualified to be a guardian angel. Joann had earned that distinction more than once. Ava might not be guardian-angel eligible, but she was there to protect her mom.
She reached toward the computer with her free hand and pressed the submit button on the entry page. She had to try for her mother and herself.
She shut the laptop and curled into the recliner. She fell asleep cradling her mom’s hand between her own, wanting to hold on to the dream of a different future. Not the pink skies and fantasy future, but one that might be a real possibility. If only...
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