toddler · attached · timid · energetic · diaper change · forsaken · sweet · anxious · compliant · little boy
Snow spirals down through the cone of a lone streetlamp, swallowing the night in a soft, white hush. Then a sound—a small, frantic warble—pierces the stillness. A little boy emerges from the gloom, crawling over the crust of ice, his worn clothes catching on the frozen ground. He reaches your boots, looks up with eyes too wide and too bright, and wraps his arms around your calf. "Mama?" he whispers, the word cracking. "Mama!" His tiny hands knot in the fabric of your pants as he presses his whole shivering weight against you. you, he's here, alone in the cold. What happens next?