We All Live

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"We ah lih inna 'lello submahine, a 'lello submahine, a 'lello submahine..."

Ben furrowed his brow, leaning closer to the windshield as if such actions would immediately cut a path through the sheets of rain coming down and splashing up. He couldn't see a speed limit sign on or before the old bridge through the watery curtain, though it really didn't matter; in a storm like this, and with a toddler in the backseat, he'd be a fool not to drive as slow as possible. He'd lived in the area long enough to know how treacherous such an old structure cold be in this weather.

Oh well, at least Cassie was entertaining herself.

"We ah lih-...Daddy! Daddy 'lello submahine daddy!"

Ben spared a glance towards the rearview, not surprised to see the child waving elatedly at something off to the side. "'Lello submahine people daddy! Hi submahine people!"

"That's very nice sweetie, now daddy has to pay attention to the road okay?"

"'Kay daddy! Buhbye submahine people!"

Ben smiled. Anything yellow was a submarine to the kid; he'd caught her trying to flush a balled up fast food wrapper while singing the song once. As long as it kept her mind off the storm, he welcomed whatever piece of refuse had caught her attention.

She was still singing later that night, when he absentmindedly turned on the news. He headed to the kitchen to get Cassie a snack, when the toddler began shouting at the television.

"Daddy! Daddy the 'lello submahine on tv daddy!"

When he stepped back into the living room, the glass of milk fell from his hands, shattering on the hardwood at his feet.

His little baby girl looked back at him, excited and wide-eyed, as the announcer just beyond her pointed little finger recounted the tragic accident. The bridge they had been on just hours before. A taxi cab, new to the area, that had driven a touch too fast on the bridge, and ended up skidding off into the rising waters. Bodies with broken fingers from pounding on glass that refused to break, held down by damaged belts and doors too warped to open against the tide.

A vacation photo, sent by text moments before the accident, of a happy family, two elementary kids and a baby.

And in the background of the photo, trailing behind in the rain, Ben's car.

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