I returned to the airport with my student after an instructional flight. The airfield had been VFR earlier; a cloud ceiling developed while airborne. A recall of solo students that were launched earlier had been initiated.

I saw it: a child's metal spring horse. My own had been bouncy but this, this was stiff with rust. Brown paint, shine gone, motionless in its gallop through the weeds.

I was at the Rewe checkout when a mom entered, pushing a cart piled with crates of recyclable glass bottles. Her son pressed on a bottom crate with his toddler legs. Crash! Smash! Silence.