My Entry For The Stach Short Story Contest

Does death occur by losing a modicum of life with each tick of the clock, or does death happen in a snap?

Morenike had only parked her ride for a few minutes to quickly purchase few items omitted on the list. She had left her baby inside the vehicle, “I’ll be back in a jiffy anyway, no need to stress”, she thought to herself. She came back several minutes later to behold a lifeless baby, cold, innocent, devoid of a blameful expression.
Was it her fault? As fatalists opine, would the baby have died anyway? Wiping off tears with one hand and driving to the hospital with the other, she agreed that she wouldn’t tell a soul: not her siblings, not her parents.
The child never had a beautiful welcome into the family anyway, her father said he was utterly disappointed in her, her mother wagged her head for days, "You are pregnant for a married man! This has never happened in this family"
Her only only solace was in grandma's words. "All is not lost my child, you're young, you should go back to school, you should build a career, you should move on, all cannot be lost".

word count: 199
@ufakobong