Protect the lifeless

She begins the six-step walk to her car, the killing machine. Snap, click, skid, snap, click. This is her life now. She activates the vehicle, its roaring engine electrocuting her pain. Today is the greatest day that she will ever know. Nobody will listen to the rest. She starts to drive. She halts at the upcoming stop sign. “Why? Obviously no one else does.” She cannot feel— her body is trapped in ice. “It is done. Continue with your life. Just move on.” She stops the car in front of her recently emptied four-bedroom house. She moves along, wondering if she can still call herself a mother.