LOCI fic, part the second
Mar. 30th, 2010 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluecastleToday's ficlet ... Comfort Food: Alex Eames
way back when...
Eight-year-old Alexandra Eames stood on the curb, watching the kids crowding around the Mr. Softee truck parked at the end of the block. She jammed her hands in her jeans pockets and scuffed her sneakers in the gravel by the side of the road and wished she had some of her allowance left. What she wanted to do was to sit in the maple tree in her backyard, racing to eat her popsicle before the hot summer sun melted it down her arm. She usually got yelled at for getting all sticky, but Alex didn't care -- a cold orange popsicle was one of her favorite things in the world. She would sit on a springy branch in the dappled shade of the maple leaves and imagine herself far away from the small dusty corner of Queens where she lived. But even if popsicles cost money, sitting in her tree didn't. Running around to the backyard, past her brother who was grumpily mowing the lawn with their old push mower, she jumped up to catch hold of the bottom branch of the tree and pulled herself up into the tree. In the distance she could hear the song that the ice-cream truck was playing as it drove off down the street.
some thirty years later...
Alex sat in her hospital bed, looking at the bassinet beside her. Her small, red, wrinkled nephew lay sleeping, wrapped up in a striped blanket and a small blue hat. Her partner had just left. She was still holding the musical stuffed lamb he had brought as a baby gift. For the first time since she'd arrived at the hospital she was alone with the small person she had given birth to. A child she had carried in her womb for nine months, but who she would not carry out of this hospital. Her sister and brother-in-law would have that honor. She curled up on her side and concentrated on watching the small boy she would always feel responsible for. Quietly efficient nurses came and went, checking on her and the baby, but Alex just watched on, grateful for every moment she had with him. Eventually, she realized that one of the nurses was at her side, pulling up the tray table and setting a small dish down in front of her. The nurse smiled at Alex, helped her sit up, patted her on the arm, handed her a spoon, and left the room. On the table in front of her was small bowl of orange sherbet. Alex wound the key on the lamb's back and listened to the toy as she placed it in her nephew's bassinet. Smiling to the strains of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," she slowly ate her bowl of sherbet, as she silently wished her child ... her nephew... a happy birthday.
way back when...
Eight-year-old Alexandra Eames stood on the curb, watching the kids crowding around the Mr. Softee truck parked at the end of the block. She jammed her hands in her jeans pockets and scuffed her sneakers in the gravel by the side of the road and wished she had some of her allowance left. What she wanted to do was to sit in the maple tree in her backyard, racing to eat her popsicle before the hot summer sun melted it down her arm. She usually got yelled at for getting all sticky, but Alex didn't care -- a cold orange popsicle was one of her favorite things in the world. She would sit on a springy branch in the dappled shade of the maple leaves and imagine herself far away from the small dusty corner of Queens where she lived. But even if popsicles cost money, sitting in her tree didn't. Running around to the backyard, past her brother who was grumpily mowing the lawn with their old push mower, she jumped up to catch hold of the bottom branch of the tree and pulled herself up into the tree. In the distance she could hear the song that the ice-cream truck was playing as it drove off down the street.
some thirty years later...
Alex sat in her hospital bed, looking at the bassinet beside her. Her small, red, wrinkled nephew lay sleeping, wrapped up in a striped blanket and a small blue hat. Her partner had just left. She was still holding the musical stuffed lamb he had brought as a baby gift. For the first time since she'd arrived at the hospital she was alone with the small person she had given birth to. A child she had carried in her womb for nine months, but who she would not carry out of this hospital. Her sister and brother-in-law would have that honor. She curled up on her side and concentrated on watching the small boy she would always feel responsible for. Quietly efficient nurses came and went, checking on her and the baby, but Alex just watched on, grateful for every moment she had with him. Eventually, she realized that one of the nurses was at her side, pulling up the tray table and setting a small dish down in front of her. The nurse smiled at Alex, helped her sit up, patted her on the arm, handed her a spoon, and left the room. On the table in front of her was small bowl of orange sherbet. Alex wound the key on the lamb's back and listened to the toy as she placed it in her nephew's bassinet. Smiling to the strains of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," she slowly ate her bowl of sherbet, as she silently wished her child ... her nephew... a happy birthday.
