Beta Shred #5 (256 words)
“Circling True North”
My door bangs open, sans a courtesy warning tap, and I nearly topple from my precarious legs as Dr. Allyson Walker flies over the threshold. Caught like an archaic bride with a bouffant ‘do in a windstorm, and nowhere to run. I sag against the wall, hand resting casually alongside the screen, tap my thumb on the EXIT box and the screen goes black. Hopeful my surreptitious moves go unnoticed, and I appear the exhausted patient gathering strength to make it from bathroom back to bed, I raise my hand in greeting.
“Hey, doc.” I push off the wall and hobble over to grasp the raised back of the hospital bed, steadying myself.
“Welcome back to the land of the awakened, Jemma!” Dr. Walker beams, looking up from the Disciplines meter on her wrist. Probably checking her score, so far today.
Dr. Walker is a shock to my senses. Unfiltered sunlight after days of darkness, she dazzles from spiral springs of gold and platinum hair, down to her non-government issued red pumps. She throws out her hand and I, stunned by the glittering gold talons protruding from her fingertips, grab hold of her fingers at an awkward angle – coming off as more of a deflection than acceptance of her greeting. I have not witnessed such brazen individualism in months, perhaps years. Uncomfortable and fascinating at the same time. I force a smile, not because I am polite, but because her enthusiastic display of teeth and sparkling eyes drags it out of me. Happy, joy-joy, enema.
Copyright 2021 Joan Wiley
Hello Friends,
I hope you are having an enjoyable Sunday evening. Tonight, I am working on Episode 5. I experienced a bit of a lag working on Episode 4, not from procrastination but nit-picking. So, I will be working doubly hard this week to make up time. Enjoy your week!
Joan❤
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