Elizabeth Walsham

“It’s a girl.”
A man stood with hands in pockets, his face filled with worry and anticipation. His face brightened as he heard the words spoken by the midwife. A girl. A beautiful baby girl.
He rushed into the bedroom, where his wife lay. Her very being full of joy and weariness, as she looked down at her new-born daughter. He sat down on the bed beside the tired, second-time mother and held his arms out to hold the baby. His wife passed him his daughter and gave him a weak smile.
“She’s—she’s beautiful.” He paused and looked up at his wife. “Just like her mother.” He said in a strong Irish accent. As the overjoyed father played with his new-born daughter’s tiny fingers, Anna—his wife—watched them lovingly.
“A name?” Anna asked.
The father paused, looked at the baby girl again and then looked up at his wife. As soon as their eyes met they smiled at each other. They knew.
“Elizabeth.” They said in unison.
And Elizabeth it was.


16 years, 4 months & 9 days later…

“Dad, can we turn the music up?” I asked my father with a winning smile while we traveled in a car down a country lane as it was growing dark. My father looked at me through his rear-view mirror and smiled back. “No, but we can listen to the six o’clock news; how’s that?” I laughed and sat back, resigned. My father turned off the music and put on the news with a simple twist of the tuning knob. The news blared out with the fast talking of the reporters and people being interviewed. It was interrupted by a women news reporter with the latest breaking news. “We have just received some breaking news; the police have just released the name and identification of a newly escaped prisoner. Who is at this time roaming Ireland, we have been told if his car or person is sighted the police are to be notified…” I drifted off, not really listening and stared out the window, lost in my own thoughts. I was interrupted by my brother, Aaron, as he prodded me and pointed to something out his window. “Look Lib, look at that ruin.” He said in his soft Irish accent. I leaned over to look out Aaron’s windows and sighed gleefully, “Isn’t that amazing? Buy me one, Aaron?” I asked with a cheeky smile. Aaron grabbed my head and tucked it under his arm, while ruffling my hair, “Only under one condition—” He stopped, interrupted by dad motioning for us to be quiet with a wave of his hand and a, “Shhhh!” Aaron let my head go and I sat up, trying to look dignified, but not succeeding. I listening intently to the radio, wondering what dad wanted to listen to. The weather. Typical.
It started to drizzle outside and I looked through the window, chin in hand. Suddenly I had a feeling of uneasy urgency, I looked up at Aaron, then mum and then at dad through the rear-view mirror; they were all calm, happy and normal. I shook my head and returned to my position. Then I had it again, I had the same uneasy compulsion, I sat upright for the second time and frowned, and I felt pressed to say something to my family, and as I couldn’t think of any useless topic to talk about, three words suddenly threw themselves into my head, three simple words. I Love You.I had never experienced this before, it was so strange, this feeling was so odd. But, I took the dive, not knowing why I should say this to them; now, at this time.
“Mum, Dad, Aaron, I—I just want you to, um, know that I love you…all.” I paused, unused to saying that in words. “Yeah, that’s all.” Aaron and Mum turned to me, surprise written on their dear faces, and Dad looked through his mirror at me fleetingly with amazement.
“Lib, that’s beautiful. We all love you too.” Dad replied as Mum nodded with a teary smile and Aaron smiled and winked at me. I felt better after that, but still slightly uneasy. Oh well, I thought to myself, it’ll go away, whatever it is. It had finally gone dark and the rain started to pour heavily, and since the news was off, I was going to ask Dad if he could put the music back on. But as we were passing a connecting lane, a speeding car came out of nowhere and suddenly hit us with devastating force from the side. I screamed as I saw out of blurry eyes Mum and Aaron, their bodies sprawled on their seats. Blood was everywhere. Glass covered my clothes and skin. I cast a glance to the road ahead; I vaguely saw a car heading towards us, showing no sign of stopping. Their headlights blinded me. I screamed again. They hit us head on, shattering more glass and I suddenly felt something violently crushing my arm. Then all went black.