Week 9: Juggling

 

            “How are you going to live on your own if you can’t even remember the last place you put your coffee cup?” Ginger’s words had stung Loretta with the sharpness and precision of a killer wasp. Sure, some things were more difficult to remember than usual, but Loretta did not want to admit to her dear Ginger that something in her brain had gone awry. She knew what that meant.

            The nursing home.

            In the 70 years that Loretta had spent on Earth she had been able to do so much, see so much, and experience so much. 70 years down the drain, all because her brain was refusing to work. There wouldn’t be many chances left for Loretta to prove herself before Ginger would conduct the inevitable. Loretta had heard many horror stories over the years about the dreaded “nursing home”, being confined to a single room, trapped away in an ailing mind, family slowly but surely forgetting to visit and eventually stopping all together.

            It was those factors that made Loretta even more so determined to prove to Ginger that she was wrong. Everyone had days where they were forgetful. Loretta thought she was no exception to that rule.

            Gently buttoning the large red buttons on her burgundy wool coat, Loretta smiled. She still had the nimbleness of her fingers, she still had time.

            “Where do you think you’re going?” Ginger, Loretta’s dear daughter, walked up to Loretta as if she was about to stage an intervention. Ginger’s fiery red hair glimmered in even the dullest of lights, her grey eyes sparkled with anticipation. Loretta could see her younger self in Ginger, minus the fact that she stayed far away from her parents after reaching adulthood.

            Why did Ginger stay? Loretta found her brain failing to make any connection.

            “It’s about time that I make a little trip down to Cooper’s. I remember the way there and back…trust me…” Loretta felt her voice falter towards the end. She turned towards the mirror in the hallway and examined herself, waiting for Ginger’s permission. The sun had caught up to her, and her face was like cracked leather. Her hair, once as fiery red as Ginger’s, had subdued to a murky gray. Her hands curled up and uncurled without even trying, her fingers once full of youth, were now crippled and addled with arthritis.

            Loretta sighed. She had no choice but to prove herself with this journey…if only Ginger would let her go.

            “Fine, but you need to carry this with you,” Ginger flipped out an old Nokia cellphone, the numbers were especially large on the keypad, Loretta would have no problem trying to read them without her glasses. Ginger thrust the phone out towards Loretta, as if she was a teacher giving a student back a test they had failed. The only thing Loretta could think of was, now how do I use this thing again?

            This truly was Loretta’s last chance at proving her independence, if only she actually remembered where Cooper’s, the local corner store, was.

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