Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26952862-20150904165525

An old woman sits within a hospital room, silent and thoughtful. Her name is Mara. She is quite frail and over the years her health has been quickly deteriorating. But, she is not the patient today.

No, the patient is her eldest daughter, Anne, who had fainted earlier that day. Anne is a sufferer of crippling mental illness, so much so that she isn’t even capable of forming complete and coherent sentences. But Mara speculates that the earlier incident isn’t related to Anne’s illness, but perhaps a side-effect of a new medication she had been put on.

She has recovered quickly enough, though, now fully awake she sits on the edge of the hospital bed and stares into space. Her and Mara await the approval of the doctors who will decide if Anne will go home, or stay overnight.

Suddenly Anne stands up, teetering around the room in her usual fashion for a moment before shuffling over to the mirror that is hung up on the far wall of the room. Mara watches her in amusement as Anne stares at her reflection, slowly raising her hands to touch her hair. She continues to admire herself for a few more minutes until Mara finally asks her what she’s doing.

Anne lowers her hands and gives a small approving nod. Then, without looking away from her reflection, she speaks in a measured voice. “You know Mother…”

Mara   pales at how normal her daughter sounds.

Anne continues, “I like my hair. It’s exactly like the hair I had before I died.”  