A Moment-a very short story

What was she doing, in the middle of the night, looking for brownies at a 24 hour convenience store? Oh, that's right, the doctor told her it was better to get up, do something, anything, just don't lie in bed staring at the ceiling. So she walked to the Dairy Mart on the corner. If I can't sleep, I can at least get some grocery shopping done, she reasoned, though searching out brownies at 3:00 am really couldn't be considered grocery shopping, could it. The brownies were on the bottom shelf, isle 2, next to the powdered donuts, adjacent to the cherry pies. The brownies have nuts. Shit, she thought, I hate nuts, well really, I like most nuts, I just hate walnuts, and pecans, you know the nuts that look like brains. She still wanted the brownies, and decided she could just pick the nuts off and throw them in the grass. It wouldn't be littering, nuts were biodegradable, and she would be feeding some kind of wild animal. So it was really more like an act of kindness, a prayer to St. Francis.
So with brownie in hand she shuffled to the counter. Yes, shuffled, as a kid her mom constantly complained, "Pick up your feet!" So now when she was tired, or just felt like bothering her mother she would shuffle her feet. The slippers she was wearing were good to shuffle in. They made a kind of sandpapery sound, as she moved across the floor. Normally she didn't wear slippers in public, hating the newest fashion trend. But at 3:00 in the morning, it just didn't seem like it mattered much. Not much mattered these days, except of course the brownies. As she passed the soda coolers, she realized that maybe she ought to get a drink as well. She couldn't drink milk, lactose intolerant. It was to late for soda, but just hated to buy water, when perfectly good water came out of the tape. Water was all that sounded good though, so she stood peering at the bottles behind the glass doors. Waiting for some sort of sign as to what kind of drink to get. Damn it she thought, as the tears started to run down her cheeks. Damn it, I don't want to buy water she caught herself saying. She looked around, did anyone hear me. She whipped her nose with the back of her pajama sleeve. I should have stayed in bed she began to repeat, like a mantra.
She took a bottle of spring water up to the counter. She placed the brownies next to them.
"Hey there, is this all for you." His voice was pleasant, kind.
"Yes, thank you, weird time of night to get a brownie craving I guess." She sniffed, whipping her nose again on her sleeve.
"Here, have a tissue, they're on the house." He handed her a box of kleenex, and started to ring up her items. "It's pretty late for a baked good run, and water too." He laughed trying to ignore the pile of used tissues she was shoving in her pockets. She tried to laugh at his attempt to be light hearted, but blow a bubble out her nose instead.
"God, that was attractive, I'm so sorry...." she let the end of the sentence trail off in a little whimper.
"Hey, I've worked the late shift for 3 years, I've seen worst than a pretty woman blowing snot bubbles believe me. Oh, that comes to 3.19."
"Thanks, here, shit, I know I have some change in here somewhere." She began digging through the bottom of her purse. A bottle of antidepressants, atavan, two crayons, purple and red. She held the crayons in her hand, all the sounds around her stopped. She saw her son running toward her down the steps. "Mama, I need my crayons, I can only find two, wait I have to get some more."
"Zach, we're late, we've got to go, come on, geez."
"Don't geez me mama, it's not nice. I need more crayons."
"If we don't go now we're going to miss the subway."
"Fine." He was good at pouting.
"Maam, are you all right." He touched her hand not quite sure what to do.
"These were my son's. He wanted to go back in the house to get more, but I said no, we're late. It would have taken me 5 minutes to help him find some more crayons. I knew right where they were, under the edge of the couch. He was drawing before bed time, and left them on the floor. Just 5 minutes, 5 minutes, and we would not have been standing on that corner, did you know that 5 minutes looking for a green and yellow crayon, and my son would... I would be in my bed sleeping. Sleeping, instead of buying brownies and water, whipping snot on my pajamas. 5 minutes, and two little crayons." She was shaking now, her chest heaving.
He didn't know what to do. It was way past the point that he could say anything. He remembered the story now, a couple months earlier he had read about the accident. Mom and son standing on the corner three blocks away. A car goes through a red light, hits another car, and takes out a 5 year old boy. He walks around the counter, and wraps his arms around her. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."