The little boy giggles, flushed cheeks glowing in the sunlight as he tears through the corn maze

“Mommy, mommy, I’m almost there”

The woman, vapor-like and visible only to the young child, beckons him from the distance

He keeps running

Running

Running

Running

The woman beckons more anxiously

The boy runs more furiously

The little boy pulls his head out of the bucket overflowing with water, an apple clenched between his baby teeth

His mother wipes the water from his eyes as he pulls the apple from his mouth

“Thank you, mommy,”

He smiles at the invisible woman hovering beside him

“I’m gonna go again,”

The child takes a deep breath, filling his rosy cheeks with air,

Then sticks his head back underwater

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,”

The little boy smiles, the gap in his teeth filled with chocolatey goodness, as he watches his mother approach

A perfect cake in her arms

He taps his foot impatiently

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to—”

One fell swoop

The injection worked rapidly

The boy’s heart stopped

He was never born

He never had these memories