What can happen in a second...

A car can run a red light and hit a child running across the street to keep up with his older brother.

A life can end or be forever altered by a stray bullet.

In the middle of a heated argument, you can see the expression of utter contempt flit across your spouse's face and, in that second, know that your marriage is irrevocably over.

A phone can ring... or not... in the second that will forever be branded as the turning point.

You can close your eyes for a second and miss the look of absolute love on your child's face.

You can turn the key in the lock, walk into the house when you should have been at work, and in the second that will stretch into eternity see your teenage son passionately kissing another boy.

A second is longer than it takes the doctor to say the word you can already see forming on her lips, "cancer".

A second easily carries the words, "you're hired" and "you're fired."

A second to tell someone, "I do" or "I hate you" or "I had an affair" and countless seconds morphing into breadths of time to deal with the consequences.

A second to lose your footing or regain it on a treacherous climb.

A child's first breath or her last.

A second is all it takes for the realization steeped in many sleepless nights to sink in and become reality.

Reading the first line in a book that will change the rest of your life from this second forward only takes a second.

The ringing burst of laughter from a child having the best day ever.

The rushed embrace that lasts a second and is never to be repeated because the plane never made it to its destination.

The last kiss on the forehead before the machines are turned off.

The phrase "pencils down" falling from the test monitor's lips before you realize it really is over.

The answer "yes" when you had been praying for "no."

The answer "no" when you were desperate to hear "yes."

A cry of surrender, followed by humiliating regret.

An intake of breath in response to brutally honest pain; pain that is expected, desired, and feared.

A bow of defeat.

Nothing, to be chased by many more nothings.

Something you never expected.

Everything you've ever been afraid of wishing for.

It only takes a second.