How It Started

A mother’s love stretches far further than the things we see them do, a mother would do anything for her child, and Mary Carmichael shows us the extent that a mother’s love reaches. A cold December afternoon, in a small town just outside of Philadelphia, Mary a 35 year old woman, ginger hair dropping down her back, tied together in a ponytail, her youthful face shining through the snow, as a large smile appears on her face, a small child parading towards her in a pink coat, shouting “Mommy, Mommy!”, Mary’s smile got bigger, “Yes my darling?” she chuckled, “Mommy I caught a worm! See! See!” she yelled, her voice full of excitement. The little girls pink hood falling backwards revealed her face, one which is full of pride, her sapphire blue eyes peering at her mother. “Mommy, you’re not looking”, she said, her eyes moving onto the worm in a small jar in her hand, small holes poked into the lid, Mary giggled some more, “It’s very special dear”, Mary wrapped her arms around her child, slowly taking her hand walking her back to the car.

After strapping her daughter into the back seat, she adjusted her mirror just enough to see her, and then started the ignition. As soon as the car revved, her daughter clicked the button and the window rolled down, “Sarah… Sarah, not all the way down, okay?” the window carried on dropping, right down to the bottom, “Yes Mommy” Sarah giggled, as her mother pulled out of the school gates, and turned the radio on. “… Our main story of today, the riots which have been taking place further up the east coast over the past few days has quickly spread south, and west, within a few hours, multiple people have been taken to hospital, with spaces quickly running out, some hospitals have had to resort to closing their doors, relying on medical clinics to help the overflow…”, Mary peered into the mirror checking on her daughter, “Let’s put something better on Yeah?”, Sarah giggled and screamed, “Kaylee Storm, please mom! Please!” Mary peered into the mirror again, a small smile appearing in the corner of her mouth, “Okay, for you sweetie”, she pushes the CD into the radio, and suddenly, a teenage pop-star sounding similar to Miley Cyrus, starts singing. “Now sweetie, when we get home, it’s time to clean your room, okay?” Sarah rubs her hands together slowly, “Yes mom…” Sarah, started to shiver, she reached over to the window control button, as her mother pulled into mother gas station, “I’ll be right back dear, stay there, okay?” She turns around and looks at Sarah, Sarah sits back in her chair, and nods slightly at Mary, “Good girl”. Mary slides out of the car, before walking a few metres to the gas station. Sarah can see her, and is watching her eagerly, Kaylee Storm still playing in the background, and Sarah sings a couple of the words, but can’t keep up with the music.

Back from getting snacks, Mary climbs back into the car, a truck pulls up next to them while Mary hands Sarah some cheese bits. The truck drivers face, all pale, his eyes darkened like the night sky; he climbed out, stumbling down the steps and ending up on his hands and knees on the floor, saliva dripping from his mouth, before suddenly a torrent of blood poured out of his mouth, he stays there, kneeling down, Mary catches him out of the corner of her eye, she turns around, putting the keys in the ignition, trying not to see him anymore, but when she looked again he was nowhere to be seen all that remains was a pool of blood slowly starting to trickle towards the drains. Turning the keys in the Ignition, Sarah once again reaches for the window switch, the truck driver from before, climbs through the open window, his hands clawing at Sarah’s neck, saliva dripping into the car, he sinks his teeth into Sarah’s arm, he had only just pierced the skin when he Mary put her foot down hard on the accelerator to move away from him. Sarah looked at her mother and then at the cut on her arm, a tear slowly fell from her eye onto the floor, and she started screaming, “Mom! Mom! It hurts!” Mary looked back into the mirror, “It’s okay dear, we’re not far from home, and we’ll sort it”.

Mary’s eyes darting from the road onto the mirror, and likewise, she pulled up to a small semi-detached house, onto the driveway, quickly clambering out of the car and grabbing Sarah, she ran towards the house, Sarah’s head buried in her shoulder, Sarah crying the words, “Mommy, Mommy” pushing the front door aside Mary goes straight to the kitchen, placing Sarah on the counter and grabbing the first-aid box from under the sink. Flicking the locks open she grabbed alcohol rub, gently she rubbed the cut, Sarah’s crying only got worse the more she rubbed, “It’s okay sweetie, shush-shush” Mary glanced at Sarah’s eyes, full of tears, and bright red, “I’ll call Doctor Wells, stay here sweetie” Mary walked over to the phone hanging on the wall, punching in a few digits but all she got was the engaged tone, she tried again to no avail, looking over at Sarah she realised the man was puking blood, she rang 911, but the lines were dead, she couldn’t get through, biting her lip she looked over at Sarah, “It’s okay sweetie, we’ll get you some help…”, The TV suddenly flicks on in the corner of the room, Sarah with the remote in her hand seems to be giggling along with the TV, Mary thought to herself, “She’s fine… See, what’s wrong, she’s laughing and joking… We could just wait; see if anything happens, what harm could it do..?”