Train of Guilt

(Inspired by beamingbalance)

"Hurry, mommy.” The little girl tugged her mother’s hand lightly. She didn’t want to miss the train. It was the rare occasion when she felt special. Her daddy loved and cared about her. Her sister was too young to tag along. Both parents belonged to her for a while.

"We have time.” The young mother reassured the little girl. She had a faint smile on her face. That made the little girl even happier. It was not often to see her mother in a good mood.

Her daddy worked in a different city. He came home once a week or every other week on weekends. They didn’t own a car, so he took the train for his trips.

The pavement rose to a slight slope. That was where they stopped and waited for the train. It seemed that they never had to wait long. She could hear the chucking rhythm getting close. Her heart was full of excitement that she could hardly wait.

The train passed with speed, loud noises and a hurl of wind, messing up her hair and her dress. In a fleeting second she thought she saw her daddy by the window, throwing something out.

"There it is!” She shrieked. The young mother walked over and picked it up. It was a variety of snacks in a plastic bag, thrown by her daddy as a treat for them. He was on his way back to work.

They walked home slowly, all the while the little girl examining the snacks and savoring how her daddy was thinking about her when he bought these treats. They tasted like candies for a princess in her memory.

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The little girl grew up to know why her mother was not a happy woman - her father was having an affair at the time. That was also why he kept his family in a different city.

When the little girl, now a woman, had her own puppy and had to leave for work, she couldn’t bear the look in the puppy’s eyes.

"Why are you leaving me?” The round brown eyes said. “Don’t leave me here alone.”

So she threw some treats to the puppy. The puppy would be busy looking for them when she quietly closed the garage door to leave.

That’s when she realized it was not an act of love, something he was incapable of giving, when her father did what he did many times by the train track.