Free On A Run by Kimberly Livingston Page B

back on, but Daniel and his family made no movement. They all just stood together, soaking in the last of the residual feelings that the firework display had left them all with. People around them slowly began to fade away as the crowds dispersed in different directions; some toward the rides, some towards the front exits. The crowds were still huge and Hannah could see the sense in staying put for a while.
    She glanced up at Daniel who was looking down at her, smiling with hazy eyes. He didn’t ask her what she thought, he didn’t need to. The look on her face matched his own.
    Eventually, the kids began to get restless about staying in one place, and Linda murmured something about probably needing to get them to bed. As a group, they began to shuffle toward the front gates. Hannah glanced back over her shoulder more than a few times, taking in the lit castle just one more time, trying to burn the image into her memory. She didn’t know if she would ever see this sight again, though she certainly hoped she would.
    They walked back with the crowds through downtown Disney toward the hotels, Daniel carrying a sleeping Christopher in his arms, Anastasia skipping ahead with her mother talking excitedly about the day despite the late hour. Hannah felt quiet inside and listened as Daniel hummed a variety of different theme songs as they popped into his head. When they got to her resort he paused to pass Christopher to his mother.
    “No, don’t…” Hannah quietly interrupted, “don’t disturb him, I can take myself up.”
    “Are you sure?” It was not what Daniel wanted. He was afraid to lose sight of her, afraid she might disappear forever.
    “Really, I will be fine. Look – it is right here.” Hannah smiled convincingly.
    “I will see you tomorrow though, right? Six fifteen. I will meet you right here.”
    “Six fifteen, I promise! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
    Hannah waved goodbye to Anastasia and Linda and squeezed Daniel’s hand and walked through the alcove to the resort halls. When she looked back Anastasia was already dragging him out of sight. Hannah picked up the humming to herself, smiling at the youthful feeling in her heart.
    As she got off the elevator on the sixth floor, she came up behind a family. A woman and obviously her mother had their arms linked, a grandfather behind holding a little boy’s hand and a man, assumedly the woman’s husband, carrying a young girl. The sight warmed Hannah for a moment, until she thought of her own parents, her father, her mother and the fact that she would never share a moment like this one with them again.
    Tears jumped to Hannah’s eyes, she choked them back with a melancholic smile, savoring the thought of them. But, as she closed the door to her room behind her, the feelings overtook her and she began to sob. Reaching for a chair to fall into, the tears racked Hannah’s body, her makeup pouring down her face from the salt of them. “I miss them” she began to say, thinking of her parents equally. “I miss you, I miss you, I miss you.” Hannah couldn’t stop the flood of emotions from coming forth. She slid off the chair and curled into a ball on the floor, her breath coming in a strider of sound as she sucked in what little oxygen she could between the force of the outlet of wails. “Oh God, I just want to see them again. Please, just for a day, couldn’t I just see them for a day?” but she realized, as always, that this could never happen. She couldn’t help herself; however, and, sobbing more, she continued to plead, “A minute then, if I could just see them for a minute. I just want to tell them I miss them. I just want to tell them….” What? That she was sorry for every moment she chose to be away from them. That she was sorry if she was ever mean to them. She could never tell them enough.
    Hannah’s head and heart pounded and the waves of grief finally slowed in exhaustion. “It’s been over ten years,” Hannah thought,