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Connect The Dots: A Short Story

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I look up from my ‘Connect the Dots’ book and watch my mother tenderly stroke Grandfather’s hand.
“Keep fighting, I know you can do it. You’ll be out of here soon Papa.” She urges forcefully, as if firm words could liberate the man from whirring ventilators and thumping heart pumps. Grandfather didn’t stir, he never did now. As if the machinery that drew his blood out of his veins and forced it back into him had stolen something vital with its twisted cold plastic.

A frustrated thud on the door tears my attention to the door. I tilt my head. ‘Was it Aunt Kate this time? Or was it Uncle Evan?’ Both were quick to anger and favoured kinaesthetic expression. Grandfather liked to exclaim that it was the fire in their blood; from Grandmama of …show more content…
The doctors outside say it’s very important for your recovery.” She speaks to him the way she speaks to me. High voice and expressive face, like she’s stuffed erasers under her cheeks and bitten a pencil to stop her smile from going crooked.

“Do it. End it. Please.” His voice wavers, and then rises determined, before ebbing into a whisper almost drowned out by the babble of the machinery.

“Don’t ask me that.” She reacts, standing tall over him. “I love you Papa,” her voice cracks and she drops his hand, tears falling like luminescent gemstones onto the wet floor. She faces the narrow window, where a grey gnarled Oak fights for breath in the quadrangular courtyard. The gaunt fingers of the Oak spread thin to grasp the vivid sunlight which stretches into the room. The beam of warmth almost touching the darkened patch of carpet. Turning back, Mother averts her gaze by bowing her head. “We agreed you’d stay and get better.”

He is silent again. Machines whirring and thumping. Nothing to mark what had just …show more content…
He is still and relaxed. A picture of painlessness and contentedness. Suddenly the sheets twitch. I slip off the seat in fright. My heart batters my chest until I can coax it into slowing. ‘Just Grandfather, he’s just the same old Grandfather. Nothing different.’ I convince my trembling heart. The sheets twitch again which only brings more stress to the little guy in my chest. This time it’s with practice that I quiet my heart. ‘Is he signalling me?’

I step forward with trepidation, eyeing the towering bank of electronics and hydraulics. The machinery bubbles in warning leaving my feet glued to the carpet. The sheets twitch again urgently. ‘Hurry. Grandfather needs you!’

The window’s light falls above Grandfather’s head on the pillow, crowning him like a sleeping angel. The rest of his body is hidden by shadow and sheets. The tall bed means that I can only see the side of his face, even standing on my tippy-toes. Stark blue lines divide his face like a map of the Amazon, however each landmass is grey and desolate rather than lush and vibrant. Turning my gaze down the side of his body I watch for the laborious rise and fall of his shrunken torso.

He is very ill, mother tells me. I can believe it.
He will get better, she repeats. I didn’t doubt

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