Hands Of Time [Chapter 2]

Suddenly, I am seated at the dinner table with my wife and four children. Even though it is cold and dark outside the atmosphere of the home is warm and bright. The smell of a well-cooked meal, made with hands of love, permeates every inch of the room. I sit and look at the faces of my laughing children, all talking to my wife and me, as well as to one another, all in some garbled simultaneous fashion. In the distance I all of a sudden begin to hear the sounds of the sirens…my heart begins to beat faster. Trying to keep my composure I enter into the table conversation, hoping this will distract my ears from that awful noise, of the sirens. I force myself to share of a funny event that I saw on the way to work, my children listening intently and giggling under their breath as they all look at me intently, hanging upon my every word. I want to reach my arms out and pull all of them to myself; my love for them is so great. There is nothing that I would not do for them! My beautiful wife shares some of the events that went on in the home that day, both good and bad. The kid’s schooling was going well, intermixed with stories of inter-squabbling and rough housing. The sirens seem to be getting louder, but this does not seem to disturb anyone except me, everyone else just keeps laughing, talking and eating. I keep eating and listening, half to my family and the other half to the ever-increasing sound of those blasted sirens. My heart is now pounding! Why would they be coming to this neighborhood? Those sirens only come for unwanted children! I felt a bead of sweat break out on my forehead and slowly make its way down the side of my face. My wife looks at me quizzically and asks if I would like it if she turned the heat down? I force a half-hearted smile and shake my head in negation, trying hard to keep my composure. Finally the sirens reach an almost deafening level as they blare from right outside of my house. “What are they doing outside of our house”, I scream at my wife, in a frenzied terror, trying to be heard over the siren. “Did you call them?” I yelled at her, my face wild with fear! At this she looks at me with a frightened and confused look and then breaks down into tears, shaking her head violently from side to side. I push my chair away from the table and hurry towards the front window. Before I look out of the window I whip my face to meet the grandfather clock’s, 5:57 p.m. As my head turns from the clock back to the window, my heart is filled with dread.