The Deserted Driveway

Daddy Blackbird #3

Steve and our daughter Ada enjoying a family day out on the roof of our local National Trust house

I looked out onto the deserted space where Steve would always park his car and I felt like I was going to be physically sick.

The fear and worry mixed together with the anxiety in the pit of my stomach had created a nasty knot I couldn’t untie.

Where the hell had my husband disappeared to?

Being winter, it seemed dark and cold all the time but the frosty tarmac was lit up by the nearby street lamp, almost like a spotlight drawing attention to this vast, vacant void. It was a ghostly sight, and an unavoidable vision that came to represent so much emptiness and loss in our lives.

I felt a shiver travel down my spine as I thought about how cold he must be, wherever he was. He hated the cold. Was he suffering? Was he safe? I needed answers…