Angels in Waiting (REWRITE - 483 Words)

Samantha was four years old with long dark hair and big dark eyes. Her pale skin flushed with the slightest hint of soft pink like the peonies in her mother's flower garden and when she slept her long dark lashes gently brushed the cherubic curve of her small cheek. Sabrina had a hard time pulling her eyes away from her little sister.

Sabrina was eight years old and a little beauty in her own right. Her bobbed shoulder length dark hair bore a striking contrast to her clear vivid blue eyes, which were a contrast to her soft rose tinted lips.

The girls spent a lot of time playing in the garden among the tidy rows of blossoming flowers, having tea parties beneath sun-streaked blue skies and running and giggling in the sprawling green grass next to their home in the country. It was quite some time before it occurred to Sabrina to wonder where their mother had gone.

"Hey, baby," Sabrina asked, setting down her teacup, "when was the last time you saw mommy?" Confusion flitted across Samantha's small face as she too put down her cup. Sabrina held Samantha's hand and they ran to the stone house to search for their mother.

Samantha entered the cool interior of the house smiling and running through rooms with no thought to anything else. Sabrina's mind was on the verge of panic so she merely followed the path Samantha blazed. The house stood empty: no smell of food being prepared, no clanging of pots and pans in the kitchen, no books lying open on the chaise in the great room. Their only company was sunlight streaming through clear window glass and warming the tile at their feet.

Sabrina called out as she ran through rooms once again. Her small voice echoed in the big empty rooms and came back to her small ears sounding more alone than it ever had.

"Mother!" Sabrina's blue eyes watered as she realized there would be no answer. She spun around and caught her sister's gaze.

"She's gone," she whispered. "How could she leave us?"

The girls held hands once again and ran back outside. Their only company was a gentle breeze and the lilt of birdsong. The girls ran to the little dock at the back of the house. Sabrina was surprised to see their rowboat still tied and mindlessly bobbing up and down to the beat of the creek.

She was looking at the rowboat feeling lost when Samantha's shout of "oh no" made her turn her head. Following Samantha's line of vision she too spotted two small dark-haired forms holding hands beneath the water. The current had turned them slightly so they appeared to be facing each other and almost sitting at the bottom of the creek.

Sabrina put her arm around her weeping sister, "Look, baby, it's us. We're having a tea party."