The Gate
 
It was the day of Susan’s third birthday, and her mother was busy preparing everything for the party. A small affair by today’s standards. No children’s entertainer or bubble machine or reptile handler with snakes up his sleeves.
Just family and a couple of older children who didn’t want to be there at all.
Mum, Jane had already baked the cake, a lopsided sponge decorated with spindly pink icing words – Happy Birthday Susan!
Jane did all of this by herself, Susan’s father was away working and the steadily growing bump in her tummy was a reminder of his last home visit.
It was a sunny day, so Jane placed her daughter on a blanket in the back yard, shaded from the sun by the old willow tree.
Jane could see her from the window, happy and serene, surrounded by a collection of soft toys expecting a tea party.
Susan was a quiet child, perfect really, never any tantrums or unnecessary tears, like a little doll.
As Jane was busy buttering sandwiches, she heard her daughter giggling. It was only minutes later when she noticed the silence, suddenly louder than any noise. Her mother’s heart told her to run, and she did.
 ‘Susan!’ screamed her mother, ‘Susie, where are you?’
Jane thought back to the unusual laughter just moments ago, had someone been there making her laugh?
Then she saw the gate, not locked as it always was, but open.
Someone’s taken my baby, she tried to scream but her words stuck fast in her throat as if by uttering them her perfect life would be destroyed.
Jane raced down the path that led to the front of the house, she was a mother, a super woman she would find her baby no matter what.
As little Susan sat hidden in the tiny gap under the house, she heard the bang; before she knew what it was part of her knew it would change everything.
The car threw her mother’s body up into the air and when it crashed back down to earth the damage was done and it was irreparable.
These days Susan lives alone, she never married or had children. She was told her mother had died in an accident and she has no memory of the incident.
Sometimes she has dreams, terrible dreams when she awakes confused and full of guilt and aware that she had done something evil and will one day be punished.
Although she can’t remember that far away sun filled day, she does have glimpse of an unlocked gate and the long-ago excitement of hiding waiting to be found.  
She sometimes has a vision of a woman, apron tied around her waist, running, and shouting her name. Sometimes she hears the bang and the thud and the scream of the neighbour but then the memories vanish and all she is left with are the lies and untold truths and the intense feeling that she deserves misery for the rest of her life.