All right, this was the last ball.
I rolled my shoulders and narrowed my eyes on the basket, focusing like I was back on the football field. I locked in.
Third pitch clean arc, soft hands. The ball kissed the rim, circled… stayed. BOOM! It’s in!
The pink llama was handed over.
I turned, grin wide, looking back to where Ivy was getting her face painted just ten feet away.
But Ivy wasn’t there.
11:30 a.m. — Midway Chaos
“Ivy!” my voice cracked. I shoved past strollers, balloons, sunburned strangers, toward the face-painting station. I found her cotton-candy tufts crushed into gravel.
“Ivy Reign! Daddy’s here!”
Nothing.
11:35 a.m. — Main Gate
911 rings in my ear.
“Four-year-old female, one brown eye, one blue eye, brown hair, black Chucks, blue sundress, last seen with butterfly face paint on, please, please find her.”
Static sounded like surf in my skull.
12:02 p.m. — Command Post
Police radios buzz. Carnival noises blur. My hands shake around a white foam cup of water I can’t drink.
Maddison appeared at a dead sprint, hair wild, migraine forgotten.
“Where is she?” Her voice shredded my soul.
I stood, words ash in my throat. “She was right beside me. I?—”
She pounded her fists against my chest. “How could you? The backpack, what about?—”
I didn’t flinch. I deserved every hit. “I forgot it.”
Officers moved toward us; I waved them off. Maddison tore loose, ran toward the Ferris wheel, screaming Ivy’s name. I chased, catching her by the shoulders.
“We’ve searched every ride, every tent. She’s not here.” My voice belonged to a stranger.
Maddison’s knees buckled. I tried to hold her; she shoved me away, sobbing, and staggered into the crowd, calling for our daughter, but only echoes answered.
I watched her vanish between the tilt-a-whirl and the funnel-cake stand, as my world shattered.
Somewhere, a ride operator yelled, “Two minutes to launch!”
Two minutes.
That’s all it took to lose everything worth living for.
The pink llama slipped from my hand, landing face down in the dust.
When the words finally stop, I don’t even realize I’m shaking until I see my hands.
