Vaxxer
"Come with me.""
"I can't... you have to do this on your own."
Jara's breath labored heavily as she clung to Sasha's hand. The warmth of his palms continued to grow in hers, as waves of cold built up around the frightened child.
"But Papa, what if I don't come back?"
"Then your mother and your little brother will be there and you can make home with them until I arrive." Sasha kissed his daughter's clammy cheek, pulled her in tightly and caressed her chestnut colored hair. "I will build a fire and sit outside your room with grandfather to await your return."
"And I shall dream that I am already home." Jara clutched the quilted comforter as her father tucked her in.
"Would you like the hounds at your bedside?"
"Can they come with me, Papa?"
"No, my dear." The old man began to cry as he motioned his father-in-law to bring in the dogs. "But they will walk with you, as far as they can, to the other side." Sasha composed himself in one last moment of strength and looked deep into his daughter's eyes. "Mags can go with you, though." He placed an oddly stuffed bear with steel button eyes in her weakening arms.
"Just concentrate on holding Maggie all night and she'll make it with you." Sasha kissed the bear goodbye and the notion inspired an additional wave of strength in his little girl.
"I'll miss you daddy." Her eyes were sad, but understanding.
"No. No missing." He held her tiny left hand up to his heart. "Because you are always right here." He gracefully led her hand back down to the teddy and kissed her forehead as her lashes batted slowly and the strength in her eyes waned."Goodnight..." Sasha got up and went for the door, turning back to his daughter as he quietly made his exit. "...but never goodbye."
"You were strong in there, son." His father-in-law commended him and poured two glasses of bourbon. "May the fever be kind and take her quietly."
Sasha put his hand over the older man's glass and raised his higher. "No." He pulled his hand back and clinked the glasses. "May this be a successful cure, so no father shall feel this pain again."
