She placed the baby in the kitchen sink.
“Oh, the soap!” She walked quickly to the bathroom. “There it is,” she said, smelling the soap’s cool fragrance.
She heard the baby crying
and ran
so slowly it seemed.
The hot water was gushing cold: she’d forgotten the laundry was running.
C. Jenise Williamson is the founding coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at Bowie State University. She has published in Painted Bride Quarterly and other literary magazines as well as in the anthology Enhanced Gravity: Washington Area Women Writers. She lives in Greenbelt, Maryland.
There is a strong sense of panic in this potential tragedy/act of reckless endangerment. It works very well as a warning.
Thanks for your comment, Connell. Fortunately, the story is fictional.