Waiting for Morning by Karen Kingsbury

extend his hand. For a moment, standing there in his white coat, he looked just like Tom. Hannah took his hand and let him support her as she struggled to keep from passing out. But she stayed there between Tom and Alicia, unwilling to move from their sides.
    “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Ryan.” Dr. Cleary seemed to wait until he had her attention before continuing. “There’s something I need to tell you. Sgt. Miller was with your husband at the accident scene before he died. He wanted me to give you a message from Tom.”
    Hannah felt her shoulders drop, and she reached for Tom’s hand as naturally as she had for the past twenty years. But now his touch was cool and unresponsive. She shuddered.
    Dr. Cleary’s voice grew softer. “Before he died … Tom said to tell you and the girls that he loved you.”
    A single sob caught in Hannah’s throat, and she looked down at her husband through a blur of tears. She struggled tospeak, and the silence hung awkwardly in the air.
    “I want some time with them,” she said finally.
    “Take as long as you like.”
    Forever. A lifetime. A chance to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, and our thirtieth and fortieth. Time to grow old together and watch our daughters become young women. Time to see Tom walk Alicia and Jenny down the aisle, time to share grandchildren and retirement and vacations on warm, sunny beaches—
    Dr. Cleary interrupted her thoughts. “I need to get back to work, but Rev. O’Haver will be outside in the hallway if you need him.”
    The men left, and Hannah was finally alone. She studied Tom and sobbed softly. She hadn’t had time to say good-bye. If only she had gone on the camping trip this year. Maybe she would have seen the truck … she could have warned Tom. It was all her fault. If she’d been with them, they would have come home earlier, and this never would have happened.
    Tom still looked so alive, as if he were sleeping. She still held his hand, but now she turned to Alicia. Beautiful, self-assured Alicia. Her firstborn.
    She took the girl’s lifeless hand in her free one. “Mommy’s here, Alicia.” She thought of proms and graduation, college, the wedding her daughter would never have … and she began to weep once more. Alicia’s hair stuck out in matted tufts from underneath the bandages. Hannah let go of Tom’s still hand and reached over to smooth the silky locks, making her daughter more presentable. Alicia looked so lost on the stretcher, almost as if she were a small child again. Where had the time gone? Hannah remembered being at this very hospital fifteen years earlier for Alicia Marie’s birth, celebrating life and the promises it held for their tiny daughter. She was such a sweet baby, such a happy little girl.…
    Alicia’s hand was cold, and Hannah ran her thumb over it, trying to warm it as she’d done when her daughter was a toddler. Alicia always had cold hands. Hannah wanted so badly topick her up and rock her, to take away the hurt as she’d always been able to do in the past. She sniffled loudly. “Alicia, Mommy loves you, honey.” She sobbed twice. “I’m here, baby. I’ll always be here. Wherever I am I’ll take you with me, sweetheart.”
    She remembered a week earlier when Alicia had stayed up late talking to her about boys and how she’d know when she met the right one. Now there would be no boys—no future. Alicia was gone, and it grieved Hannah beyond anything she’d ever known.
    She turned back to Tom. “Why didn’t you come home earlier, you big oaf? You never were on time.” She tried to laugh, but it became one more sob, and fresh tears filled her eyes. “If only you hadn’t been so late.…”
    She let the thought hang in the still air, and she squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, she struggled to speak. “I guess … if Alicia had to go, it’s better you go with her.” She gulped loudly, and when she spoke her voice was barely a whisper. “Stay with her, Tom. She’s so