Safe return for Izzie

 

Quiet calm center nearing a place that only she has encountered when there was almost no calm left

When Dr. Veneer announced that her fifth child was no longer

(She rocks back in forth in the corner of her bedroom, rocks in the old, worn rocking chair that all four of her babies, now grown,

Were soothed to sleep in)

But there is no sleep tonight and there will be no sleep tomorrow either

No real sleep just interrupted bouts of falling asleep only to awaken with a startle and a hot surge of guilt, panic, and utter despair when she realizes there still has been no word

No word on Isabel

There are teams of people in the kitchen, the biggest, brightest, most functional room in the household

The room where Izzie walked her first two steps towards the dog, smiling proudly then slowly tottering only to plop down with a thud and giggles instead of the anticipated shocked cry

So unlike her mother, her mother that would cry if the wind blew the wrong way

And there was no telling which way was the wrong way with her. The girl never had a consistent thought in her body, just finally knew to blow up when she couldn’t take it anymore without warning

Izzie’s disposition is like no other

People are making food, volunteering, walking local neighborhoods, talking in tight lips to each other while speaking to all relatives in crises with a voice reserved for addressing nursing home patients, for victims

They are all trying to find Izzie and as much as she is appreciative, she cannot be downstairs 

And Izzie’s father will be here momentarily, the rock of their family, and his plane was delayed and he has been speechless, speechless with fear, guilt and pure fury, fury she prays will not be unleashed, she prays will be stifled, put out by the happy return of their four year old daughter

Oh, how she knows their marriage wouldn’t survive the loss of their child

It is a fragile and precious marriage much like a porcelain figure you dust off and showboat for a while and return once everyone is safely away

Not a religious woman, she said the Hail Mary

Because if she should pray to anyone in the Catholic religion she will choose the only woman recognized in this patriarch organization

41 pounds, 44 inches, light brown wavy hair sparkly, devilish green eyes

Please find my granddaughter, Hail Mary, full of grace, the sweetest girl in the entire universe, Izzie.