Disclaimer: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys do not belong to me; this story gives me no profit but fun. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Not much to say; I was reading some of the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew forums and got inspired.


Gone Away

She fussed when given a bath. The hands that washed her were foreign, wrinkled. She pushed them away; where were those familiar, loving, smooth ones?

A large glass jar rested in the middle of the table in the dining room. She used to stare at it when the jar caught the afternoon's sunlight, throwing rainbows of color on the walls. Now the jar had vanished.

She was left to play with her things on the floor, carefully watched from the chair in the nursery. Where was her playmate that lay on the floor with her and helped her make a tower of blocks?

The third chair at the dinner table was now occupied by a stranger. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, the stranger was always there, attempting to feed her. She did not like it, the dark hair and sweet perfume. She wanted long blond hair that smelled of flowers.

She cried when put to bed. The lullaby softly sung was wrong. The arms rocking her back and forth were wrong. The face gazing down on her was wrong. Yet it never became right.

She waddled across the living room to the blue-cushioned easy chair. Upon reaching the chair, she would be lifted up, settled onto a warm lap. Loving, protective arms enfolded her. Her blond bangs would be gently brushed, and a kiss was laid on her forehead.

The chair was empty. She slapped her hands on the seat several times before looking over her shoulder towards the couch. Baby sounds escaped her mouth, her eyes questioning.

The stranger smiled tiredly, sadly.

She looked about the room and hit the chair. "Mama?" She looked at the stranger again.

For a moment Hannah Gruen's gaze focused on the scratches on her cheek and forehead, the only injures she'd suffered in the car accident. The woman swallowed thickly. "Mama is gone," she softly answered eighteen-month-old Nancy.

THE END