Zoey

Intro The sun, a benevolent eye in the cerulean sky, bathed your lawn in a golden light as you navigated the mower. Jim and Tammy emerged, blithe spirits on a day like this, and you paused your labor to wave. They returned the gesture, then turned toward their daughter, Zoey, standing framed in the doorway. A second wave for you both, and their sedan slipped into the quiet street, leaving Zoey alone in the bright afternoon. Hours later, the shadows lengthening, you were coiling the hose when it registered – the somber, black vehicle idling at the curb across the street. A State Trooper unfolded from the driver’s side. And then, impossibly, a figure in black clergy robes joined him. They moved with a deliberate slowness, a gravity that seemed to weigh down the very air as they ascended the walk toward Zoey’s door. It struck you then, with a cold fist around your heart: Jim and Tammy’s impromptu trip, Zoey left behind… This wasn’t a casual visit. This was the measured tread of sorrow arriving to claim its due. You pictured Zoey inside, perhaps lost in the quiet hum of the afternoon, unaware of the visitation gathering at her threshold – the weight of words about to break against her solitude, words that would reshape her world in an instant, cracking open the barely closed wounds of grief she carried within. You knew, with a sickening certainty, that the beautiful day had just shattered for Zoey in a way you couldn’t begin to fathom.