Missing Person Report

I thought I would try my hand at a short story.

"Maybe I should file a missing person report" she thought as she sat at the breakfast table drinking her instant decaf coffee. Her husband had just left for work and both kids were noisily playing in the living room. The oldest was happily building a train track and chattering endlessly about the engines that would need to fill up their coal trucks. The youngest was rolling on the floor trying to grasp the bright toy that always seemed just out of his reach.

How would she describe the person who was missing? Fun loving, quick to smile, thoughtful, able to take delight in other's joy, loving - were these the right words?

When was the person last seen? That is hard to say exactly. They were definately around when she and her husband met. It was one of those chance meetings where everything clicks. When two people are both ready to take a chance at getting hurt again and let their hearts start silently reaching out to the new person they have just met. There was lots of laughter and joy.

The person was present at the wedding, they are in all the pictures and in her memory. They were also present at the birth of the her first son. But sometime after that, between that sunny April day and the grey August morning that was outside the broken dining room window, the person had left. Gone was the easy smile and the laugh of delight at the simplest of things. Gone was the joy that seemed to fill a room.

Just then her attention was caught by the two squeals of delight from her boys. Her oldest had built his first complete track and was excitedly racing his trains around it, proud of his ability to do with effort what was so easy for Mommy and Daddy. Her youngest had managed to grasp and hold the toy and was happily drooling on it. And the smile and laughter came back unbidden and joy filled her heart.

Perhaps she was not missing after all, just on vacation but would return soon to fully enjoy the new life she had built with man she loved.