By Jack Joseph

For the “begin with ‘the two stood face to face’ and end with ‘in the end there was only one'” prompt. I’d say “enjoy,” but that’s not the point.

The two stood face to face. She was too young to understand thesignificance of the moment, but her parents knew and they beamed. Their little Emily, who had always seemed smaller than children her age had any right to be, was finally walking. As she took one more step towards the mirror and raised a hand up to her twin, her parents looked on with pride and joy. They knew tomorrow would always bring more happiness than yesterday had, and that they would finally have peace.

As the pencil marks on the doorframe got higher, Emily’s mother began to fade. Emily saw her once flushed and rosy face turned into a pale ghost of itself. They had to spend more and more time in the big white building with too much anonymous equipment and not enough smiles. Her father often seemed to spend more time in his thoughts than he did with Emily and her mother could only weakly brush the tears from Emily’s face. Continue reading →