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He is gone.

Her chest constricted painfully, her breathing shallow. It felt as though her heart was literally breaking into pieces. Tears sprang to her eyes unbidden, and sobs wracked her body as she tried to be rid of this pain that would never go away.

And the desire to close her eyes and fall back into the oblivion of lovely dreams where he was still with her held her prisoner.

But then she remembered her.

Laney.

And the world tilted back.

Helen gingerly sat up in bed. She waited for the flare of pain in her body but none came. There was stiffness in her muscles, and the aches she had already gotten used to, her throat was dry, and her eyes were sticky, but there was no pain.

She slowly reached toward the bedside table and picked up a glass of non alcoholic fruit shrub. She gulped down the entire glass, enjoying the soft feeling of a cool drink passing through her scratchy throat and easing the sharp sensations.

More. She needed more.

Helen moved closer to the bedside table and poured herself another glass from the pitcher. This time she drank slower, enjoying the taste of berries moistening her lips.

Taking a deep breath, she looked around the room once more.

It was dark.

It was always dark in her room, but this was different. Too dark.

Was it the middle of the night?

If so, she would not be able to see Laney, or rather, interact with her. She’d tiptoe toward her room and take a peek at her sleeping form. But that wasn’t the same. She’d missed her little girl so much. She wanted to take her into her arms and hug her close to her body. She was always so soft and warm when she’d just woken up. Helen would burrow her face between her neck and shoulder, taking a whiff of her wonderful baby smell.

Then they would go and assemble her favorite puzzles together. Helen smiled, imagining her babe’s proud expression every time she placed a puzzle piece into the right place.

She was the definition of the word beaming. She was a little ray of sunshine in Helen’s life. The only sunshine she truly needed.

Helen gingerly stood from the bed, feeling dizzy and out of balance. It took her a few moments to feel firm on her feet. She tested the feeling by wiggling her toes and fingers. She turned her head this way and that, then raised her arms over her head and stretched her spine.

Her joints cracked from disuse, and her muscles protested, but it felt good to be up again.

The doctor’s grim face entered her mind, his bushy eyebrows drawn low above his eyes. He was in his last years, his entire head covered with silver. His round spectacles with thick lenses failed to hide the disapproving expression on his face.

Helen supposed he had trained himself to retain that kind of expression all the time so that people expected grim news. It wouldn’t do to deliver bad news with a smile on his face, now would it?

He had said that she shouldn’t try to get up. That she should spend the rest of her life tied to a bed. But what did he know?

His “remedy”—the bloodletting—didn’t work. He was the reason this particular bout of illness was so difficult for her to recover from. At least, that’s what she tried to convince herself of. The doubts whispered in her mind, but she shook out the gloomy thoughts.

She was up again. It was all that mattered.

Helen slowly walked toward her window and tugged open the drapes with one quick motion. Bright light streamed into her room unbidden, forcing her to squint and look away.

She shut her eyes briefly and had to take a few moments before she endeavored to look out the window at the bright, sunny day.

Daylight.

She smiled faintly as she watched the ladies walking by with their parasols in their hands across the street. A man was pushing his cart of vegetables, his trusted dog by his side.

It was a beautiful day, but what made it even more special was the fact that Helen would finally be able to see Laney again.

She turned and rushed to the bell pull, almost tripping on her nightgown. Curse her stiff joints and muscles. She needed to warm them up.