Removal

[Michael Brown]

She had grown so used to having the expanse of an over-sized mattress to herself, she could not fall asleep for the longest time and regretted having allowed Tess, in her frightened, semi-delirium, to snuggle in and share her night. Laurie soon enough became aware that it was her own stomach producing the gurgling noises and not her mother’s indisposition. She had never known her body to be so uncompromising while lying alone. The therapist had offered that art was born to help people negotiate the world not to hide in, and when Tess claimed he was trying to drive a wedge between them, and she was thinking of quitting the sessions, Laurie thought he must have struck a nerve, but kept this observation to herself. As Tess was learning to accept that Edward was indeed gone beyond the threads of the slight companionship he had formerly provided, had once or twice wept in twinges of guilt over his demise, and forlorn, was framed more frequently in the black rectangle of Laurie’s bedroom doorway, the younger woman considered she might never sleep alone again, which was in blank opposition to the scheme of her retirement. She was being sucked into a vacuum wherein she could gain no leverage, with its blunted pastel walls mirrored into eternity.

 

 

 

[special thanks to Rob for the line about art.]

[Kathleen Gabriel]

What Sandra said -- a hand-wringing quality. I hadn't identified what it was until she wrote that. 

[Peter McNiff]

I read here the small and large dramas in life where a character struggles with despair.

[Paul D Brazill]

Love it. Bittersweet.

[Gita]

You opened up a fascinating concept: She had never known her body to be so uncompromising while lying alone.  The uncompromising body, and its relationship to a body close by.  Or lack thereof.

Now you  have me thinking about the body's ability to compromise (or not) and I want to take this to Orson, who sleeps alone in a tent. Thanks, MB. You popped open a little window.

[Sandra Davies]

That Laurie fears she may never sleep alone again is ... I was going to say tragic, but maybe it is just that I find it unsettling, although I would not wish her to be content at the thought of her mother in her ber for ever more.

This has a hand-wringing quality.

[Robert Crisman]

Horror, with "blunted pastel walls mirrored into eternity." I feel that Laurie has long sought solitude in retirement, perhaps in fear that Tess would inevitably stand framed in the black rectangle of that doorway. Nice.