Thanatophobia

“Bye bye miss Alice! See you tomorrow!” six-year-old Julie gets off the yellow school bus waving to her plum Rosie cheeked teacher. She opens the fence door and runs towards her brown roofed house. passing the well lawned garden with its flower patches she fiddles with the knob too high for her to open at once. Rising on her toes, click! She successfully opens the door. Dropping her blue bag on the floor, she hurriedly removes her white and pink shoes and rushes in. “mommy! mommy! I'm home!” she shuts, as she looks for her beloved mother. “Mommy! Where are you?” she shouts again, even more cheerful, her mother must be playing hide and seek with her, it's her favorite game. “Mommy! I can't find you, come out now!” she says, rushing down the stairs to the kitchen once again. Her mother wasn’t on the second floor, perhaps she is hiding in the pantry and not in Julie's closet. “Mommy! I found you! I know you're in there, come out already!” she the little blond girl, jumping up and down, she was usually bad at this game, she played it to become good at it, and perhaps it was worth it, she had found her mom this time, she knew she had. She opened the pantry door only to have a box of floor hit her before touching the brown tiles, they were snow white now. Her mother was not there either. “Oops!” thought that little girl forgetting her mother was a second. Getting grounded was a bigger worry than losing a silly little game. Grabbing a towel from the freshly washed laundry, she tried sweeping it into the bin. “It's powder, it can't be cleaned up like this” her mother would tell her this only if she were there. But she isn't, so Julie struggles. Little efforts alas result in a moderately clean floor. Back to the game she goes, but her stomach suddenly rumbles. She needs a snack. Her mother would have cut her some fruit but the little girl isn't big enough to reach the fruit basket let alone the knife stand. So, the newly bought cereal it is, her mother must have been busy, she didn’t put the groceries away. With flour on one side of the kitchen counter, and crunchy pop on the other, a stomach filled Julie resumes her seek. Her mother seems to be taking this game very seriously, maybe she is in a very good hiding place, perhaps the attic, or even the basement. But Julie isn't allowed to go either place. Another six minutes and spent contemplating when her little brain decides to go into the basement. Her mother had taken her there once, they had slept there and pretended to be camping. And down she goes the rickety stairs. Its dark, a dim light in the middle of the room isn't enough to see everything clearly but just enough to make out the steps. She reaches the last step and find her mother at last. She is lying on the ground. She looks peaceful. “Mommy! I found you! I won!” Julie says, happy she finally won at the game. Her mother doesn’t move. “Mommy? Mommy wake up! I want cookies mommy!” she says. No reply. The little child pushes her mother, back and forth trying to wake her up but all efforts go in vain. The floor never got cleaned properly, the cereal has a mountain of ants covering it. Julie never stepped foot in that brown roofed house again, never plays hide and seek again