Short Story - Beautiful Eyes

            Grace looked out at the glistening horizon stretched out in front of her. She couldn't help but smile at the unmistakable beauty. The water looked as if there were billions of sparkling diamonds floating peacefully on the water.  She turned her face upward toward the welcoming heat of the sun and let her mind go blank. She stretched out her tired arms and wiggled her painted toes in the hot, wet sand. She listened to the sound of the waves not far from where she stood now. As she began to walk toward the sea, she closed her eyes. Then everything shattered.  She remembered. It was just like watching a terrible movie.
             She saw her mother, Amy, beautiful, and loving. She saw her father, Henry, funny and patient. She saw her brother Michael, with his beautiful eyes. Nobody Grace had known had eyes like his, a beautiful, bright blue. He was only six when it happened. She was fifteen. The family had been packed into the old, rusting pick-up truck they had owned years before Grace was born. While singing along to the static, barely working radio they were headed to Oklahoma, where a beautiful cabin with a lake, only a few feet from the back porch, was waiting for them. .
             "Mommy, Mommy, I see a train!" squealed Michael, as the truck neared the railroad tracks. Grace had to hold in her laughter as she watched Michael try to lift himself up higher to get a better view of the train that was rushing by. Michael had loved trains ever since he laid his eyes on one. Michael couldn't even count the amount of stuffed train characters he had sitting on his warm bed at home, or the amount of toy train tracks, and train sets he had. Grace couldn't recall how many times she had stepped on one of the miniature trains that Michael had failed to pick up after playing with them in the living room. .
             "You missed one Mikey!" Grace had yelled to the other end of the house one night as she got yet another surprise under her bare foot.