Rambling

Waking Aislin form a hard sleep, Nora crawled in bed and nestled into her daughter’s arms. The roles were reversed; Mother was scared; child wore a brave face and offered comfort.

Nora’s agoraphobia had started slow with a bit of anxiety while grocery shopping. It was magnified by Nora’s position as an in-take nurse in the local emergency room. She’d seen the pain humans inflicted upon each other. The symptoms became crippling before Aislin left for Colorado. Nora refused to be vulnerable and refused to leave the house. She still worked graveyard at the hospital; however, that was the extent of her excursions outside the house.

Aislin snuggled into Nora as a child holds a doll. “Are you coming to my show?”

“I’ve been showing your work since you were four,” she said. Although Aislin couldn’t see her mother’s face, she knew that Nora was smiling as her words turned up like the corners of her mouth. “The refrigerator was never big enough for you.”

This was all Aislin needed to hear. Her mother would stay home, rambling around the small house, talking to Albert, and ignoring all else. The weight of the rest of the world seemed to be pressing down on the house trying to find a crack or open window.