Wednesday, January 25, 2012

FSF: Radiance


Thanks again to Lillie McFerrin for setting up the Five Sentence Fiction challenge!
Today, something a little less fictitious - observed this past weekend at the hospital:

Five Sentence Fiction: Radiance

He's been away since Christmas, ever since the ambulance took him away in a delirium, sirens wailing, leaving two small boys and their distraught mommy behind.

Three weeks passed in an ongoing cascade of fever, blood clots, a leg amputation - barring him from his family, threatening to sever him from his soul. Every precious hour lay under siege, while ICU added the sterile yet well-meaning imperative: no children may visit where death treads so near.

Then the fever turns - the amputation is healing - he is moved to a real room, with a window and a television, a smiling nurse and half the number of drips and IVs. Two red-haired boys stumble into the room, clamber to reach his bed first, their round faces suffused with joy as they bring dawning hope in their outstretched arms.


3 comments:

  1. Such a heartbreaking story with a shot of radiance at the end :) 'threatening to sever him from his soul' works so well in this piece. Awesome writing!!!

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  2. Beautiful Angela. Sounds like you have visited too many hospital rooms - very real picture of what it can be like. Got a bit teary at the end.

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  3. That was so beautiful. I got teary too.

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