The next day Sam noticed something he hadn't noticed much in the last few weeks.  Winter sunshine in the morning.  It was a bright Sunday and still very cold.  Louis hadn't been having much fun recently going through a breakfast - day care - home - bed routine.  Following his reflection on the bathroom floor the previous day Sam woke up much more alert than he had been previously.  He felt guilty thinking about a 'new Dawn' but he let it pass.  He couldn't and wouldn't be sad forever.  He wrapped Louis up warm with his winter coat, hat and mittens and drove out to woodland trail and picnic site.  It was disabled and pram friendly so Sam was able to push Louis in his stroller and they had a good walk on the trails.  Sam loved the crunch of the wheels of the stroller as they cracked the hard frost, the blades of grass looking like thin white matchsticks.  He looked up at the sun shining through the branches of the trees, still bare and weeks from the first buds of spring.  He looked between the spaces of the branches and saw the light in a completely different perspective.  He felt like he believed in Heaven and Brooklyn was there watching them all the time.

Sam saw a stick on the ground and picked it up.  They walked a little further on and Sam saw what he was looking for.  A patch of hard dried mud, which in summer would be squelching and difficult to walk in without one's feet sinking.

Sam stopped the stroller on the path and scratched in a little message. 

[IMG]http://i64.tinypic.com/54wzf4.jpg[/IMG]

If Brooklyn was watching she'd see it and know that they were thinking of her and that they were okay.  Sam blew a kiss to the sky and even though the next rain or snow would remove the message he felt happy that he'd left something there for her.  For the briefest of moments Sam allowed himself a smile.

When Sam got home he gave Louis his lunch and when junior went for his afternoon nap Sam did something for the first time since Brooklyn went out that night - he picked up his guitar.

Sam wasn't the greatest singer or lyricist but he strummed slowly and felt somewhere there was a song, a song for Brooklyn...

[I]'Now she's gone, now she's gone, Brooklyn's gone away,
I only wished I had one more day,
but Brooklyn's gone...'

'Fast asleep, resting now, to early to move on,
But I see her every day, in our son,
Brooklyn's gone.'

'She never got a chance to pull through,
but each new dawn I knew, that I loved you,
Brooklyn's gone.'[/I]