[Hope] Just out of Reach

"It's just not fair Dad!"

Hope beat her fists on the kitchen counter, rattling plates and reverberating into the floor. She's blearly eyed, fighting back tears, sniffing her nose at each pause in speech and losing her composure. She fights a losing battle against her emotions, sweeping your coffee mugs from the counter to hear them smash, yet only growing further upset at the mess.

"You and mom aren't even the same, not even close! You said you only needed love!"

She's come straight to you from the doctor's, trying to cope with the crushing news. She'd hoped to be a mother right away, her marriage and honeymoon several years behind her. Trying for so long and bearing no fruit her husband finally convinced her to admit that there might be a problem. Surely enough, the nurse assured her that her womb was barren, and forever would be.

You remember helping her build the nursery, bright young newlywed and her stallion bubbly with affection and love.

Now, a scant few years later, their house is quiet, without the hooftaps of foals or the warm love of an expectant mother.

Hope buries her face in your chest, smearing it with her tears, wracking sobs tearing at her body. All you can think to do is stroke her hair, as she chokes out the mantra you've releated for her since she was barely old enough to ask why she was different.

"With love, anything's possible. Right, Dad? With love, anything's possible? So why, dad, why?"