The hieroglyphics on the crumpled paper must have meant something to someone.
Lena smoothed the paper out gently on the flat centre of the steering wheel in front of her. The little sheet of paper was torn from a notebook, a rough edge on one side.
She had spotted it, tucked in beside the gearshift, as she’d been driving, and immediately pulled over to the side of the road to retrieve it.
Robtars
Nutk
Qlfoof
The hieroglyphics DID mean something to someone – they meant something to Ben, to whose unmistakeable hand the squiggles belonged. The rounded letters backed over one another, crashed into each other, fell in a heap over the note-paper lines.
It would be funny if…it were funny.
But without Ben to translate the undecipherable; to race the cart down the supermarket aisles to find the robtars (potatoes?), the nutk (milk, probably), the Qlfoof (catfood, almost certainly); to haul the green bags back to car – well, it wasn’t very funny, really.
A familiar panic engulfed her as she ransacked the paper for clues – there must be an answer to the incomprehensibility her life had become, and where more likely than here in his very own handwriting?
Remembering to take large gulps of air, she folded the little list carefully and tucked it into her pocket.
She leaned far over to check under the seat to see if there was anything else, anything at all, anything that could give her what she needed.
She straightened, combing a lock of unruly hair back with her hand. She placed both hands firmly on the steering wheel in front of her. She carefully checked the rear view mirror behind her, then slid the car into gear.
She would go on.
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5 comments:
Lena courageously goes on in her life which has been brought to its knees by her husband's Alzheimers. Am I right?
I went down several possible paths in unravelling the little clues scattered throughout the story. I loved the description of the note, with its letters crashing into each other and falling over the lines.
I didn't quite see what Lena hoped to find under the seat but then it sounds as though her life makes little sense any more anyway, especially to her.
Kerry
I was thinking that Ben had possibly passed away or was missing. But Lena seems at a cross roads, haunted by something that has happened in her life and has ripped it apart but torn by the need to keep going and hoping to find the answers.
Great writing. Some nice details as you move through the story. Very dramatic.
Heather, I love this. So much said is without being said. I agree with Peta that it seems Ben died suddenly, unexpectedly, yet part of the beauty of the piece is simply that mystery. On one hand it stands perfectly alone but on the other I was left begging for more.
Very enigmatic and an amazing piece to have been dashed off the top of your head. What is happening in Lena's life? She seems to be in a very fretful stage, unsure of herself and what's happening. We are left with a mystery.
I agree with Peta that it's very dramatic.
Heather, you leave us with a puzzle! It is so well structured and we can really get the panic in Lenas life and then that life must go on.
Not sure how you wrote all this in 15 minutes. You must type a lot faster than I can.
Gordon
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