30 Day Image Prompt Competition

Day 26 Prompt 2 - Pink Ice Cream

         The yard was empty. The pink bicycle lay on its side, wheel spinning lazily in the afternoon sun. The playhouse was empty, Barbie and friends laid out on the yellow towel, sunbathing in their dainty little bikinis. The tennis set lay abandoned on the lawn, the bright pink towel handles glowing against the green grass. It looked like an army of children had been playing in the yard yet it had only been two.
         An army that was not in sight.
         Trying to quell the rising panic within her, Laura hurried back into the house and looked in the kitchen. The girls were always popping in to the kitchen for a snack but there was no sign of them. No open packets of cookies on the counter, no dribbles of cordial from the drinks they had made. Nothing but a tidy kitchen as she had left it.
         She left the kitchen and entered the lounge. No cartoons blasted out of the television. The CD player was devoid of Disney CDs singing their happy tunes. The coffee table was clear of drawing pads. No marker pens lying on the carpet minus their lids.
         Telling herself to keep calm she crossed the room to the staircase and hurried up to the first floor. The bathroom door was open, the towels hung in an orderly manner on the towel heater. Her bedroom door was open, the bed undisturbed by bouncing children, no shoes littering the cream floor where they’d been discarded after wearing.
         The Princess Tower, as their room was called, stood before her. The door slightly ajar. No sounds came from within the room as she pushed the door open and looked inside, her heart pounding in her chest. The two single beds lay in the usual disarray. The princess duvets flung carelessly over the mattresses, night clothes peering out from beneath the edges.
         Toys were scattered across the floor. Cuddly, furry animals mingling with dolls wearing a variety of outfits. Colouring books lay open, pencils scattered across their pages. It looked like a whirlwind had entered the room. Entered and disappeared.
         The panic was rising even stronger within her. They should have been in the house but there was no sign of them. No sign, no sound. No cries of frustration when something didn’t go their way. No screams of laughter as they raced around. Nothing.
         She heard the ice cream van outside and raced down the stairs, fearful that they had gotten out onto the road. As she ran out of the front door, she saw the brightly coloured van driving away down the road. She looked around but could see no sign of the girls. No sign of anyone walking along the quiet street. Only the ice cream van disappearing into the distance.
         As she turned to go back into the house her eye caught something lying on the floor by the front gate. Walking over to it, her heart stuttered in her chest as she saw the pink ice cream lying on the tarmac floor. It had been lying there long enough for the strawberry ice cream to have melted and run across the black, rocky surface.
         Who had bought her daughters an ice cream? What had happened to make one of them drop it? WHERE WERE THEY?
         Panic was rushing through her body, a raging torrent of adrenaline that had her heart racing, nerves stretched to breaking point. She was torn between racing up and down the street, pounding on doors to see if the children were there and running inside to ring the police to report them missing.
         Could she report them missing? Didn’t you have to wait a certain time before you could report someone missing? Did that apply to missing children? She had only left them playing in the yard whilst she popped to the bathroom before starting to prepare dinner. The gate was locked, the yard supposedly secure. Oh, God! Where had they gone to? She turned to return to the house to call the police. She didn’t care if there was supposed to be a time limit before she could report them. She had to do something.
         “Mommy. Mommy, look what we got!”
         She thought she was going to faint upon hearing the sound she thought she would never hear again. Turning, she watched as her two girls raced up the pathway from the house next door. Both carried strawberry ice cream lollies in their little hands.
         “Auntie Jean bought them for us but Kasey dropped hers so she had to buy her another one. I kept hold of mine.” Lily held up her ice cream for her mother to see. Pink ice cream dribbled over fingers smudged with dirt.
         Laura looked down into their beaming faces, seeing the ice cream ring around pink lips that were spread wide in excited smiles. Juice stains fought with chocolate smears and soil smudges for supremacy over their Disney t-shirts but she didn’t care how dirty they were. All that mattered was they were there, standing in front of her, safe and unharmed.
         “I’m sorry, Laura. I was planting in the garden and they wanted to help so I helped them over the fence. When we finished I bought them an ice cream to say thank you,” said an older lady as she walked towards them. “I was bringing them back to the house when Kasey dropped her ice cream so we went to get another. Then Lily remembered she had left Monty in my garden so we’d just retrieved it when you came out.”
         Lily held up her little rabbit that went everywhere with her. “We planted ‘tunias and pansies and gerniums,” she said, her forehead creasing as she tried to remember the plants they had planted.
         “I fed the fish,” Kasey said in a superior tone, even though she was only five minutes older than her sister. “Can we have fish in our garden?”
         “Speak to your Daddy about that one,” she replied, relief making her feel lightheaded for a moment. “Thank you for looking after them, Jean. I was preparing dinner for later and I wondered where they had gone.”
         “I tried to keep them in the garden but Lily needed the toilet and that’s when she must have left Monty inside. I’m so sorry, Laura, for scaring you.”
         “It’s fine. Part of the hazards of having children. I can remember scaring my own mother several times when I was a child.” She smiled at her neighbour to take the sting out of the afternoon’s incident. “Come on, you two. Let’s get you cleaned up before Daddy gets home. Say bye bye to Auntie Jean.”
         The two girls hugged the older woman and said bye before skipping up the path and into the house. Laura sighed and followed them up the path. Raising twins was like riding a rollercoaster. Full of breath taking highs before plummeting down to scary depths that gripped your heart with dread.
         Despite all of the highs and lows, she would not trade this ride for the world. She was on it until the end and she intended to live every minute of it. Smiling through the wave of relief that chased away the cold fingers of panic she climbed the stairs, ready for the next wild ride – bath time!