(Photo: Na’ama Yehuda)
The skies darkened. A distant rumble rolled.
She stared out the window and tried to suppress the nub that tugged and pulled and nibbled at her innards. The others seemed oblivious. But she knew.
It was almost time.
She’d foreseen it.
They had dismissed her premonitions. Her knowledge of things hidden. How what she willed, was.
The clouds gathered. Answering her call.
Her mind wobbled under their layered, quickened swirl. From the effort of control.
A flash of movement.
A voice.
“Come away from the window, Ms. Bentley,” Nurse Tabitha manifested at her elbow. “It is time for your medicine.”
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers.
(And how fun that you chose to use my photo! 🙂 )
Na'ama Yehuda 
I was not expecting that ending 😭
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I know, right? It is what my mind willed … and … 😉
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😂😂
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What is reality and what is imagined, both very well woven into the story
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Thank you, Sadje! It is a photo where the real and imagined seem blurred … and the rest blurred along.
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You’re welcome! Fantastic photo.
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Thank you! It’s the Ghostbusters sky … 😉
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The wonderful thing about being a writer is that nobody tells you to come away from the window. And everything is just as you will it
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Amen. Indeed! (and don’t tell Nurse Tabitha …or she’ll bring on Attendants John and Jerry to help her do the dragging … and drugging …) OY! 😉
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I’m with Sadje… no one can make me come away from my window…
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Nurse Tabitha may be able to … 😉 With the help of Attendant John. … OY!?
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Spoilsport… 💕
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😀
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Reblogged this on anitadawesauthor.com.
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Whose reality is the real reality? I loved the description of the nagging worry. And such a beautful photograph Na’ama. Thank you.
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Thank you, Sandra! And indeed … who knows what the reality is, other than what we perceive it to be?
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Nothing more powerful than one who can control the elements with her mind…. that is, of course, until she is given something to turn it off… Bummer. but then again, maybe best before she gets an ulcer!
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Yes … and then we don’t REALLY know if she can REALLY control them with her mind, or THINKS she can do it. And either way, it doesn’t sound like people around her ‘get’ her, which is … oy …
And … history did try to turn off intuition, especially women’s intuition, and the power to ‘control’ and affect the world around them, making even the sacred work of helping other women bring babies into the world, a ‘witchcraft’ if done by women …
xoxo
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All this is true. So very true!
Poor women over the centuries… When will the men ever learn that we are an asset of equal but different value?
xoxo
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I think many of them already know it (and many had all along), but too many of them fear it. For they worry that to admit that all deserve equal rights, makes them worry that they’ll lose their special status and with it some bogus macho-power. Sad, really.
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It really is what you say. So sad. I dream of the day when we won’t even have a soupçon of doubt.
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Amen, amen to that.
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🙂
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A very creative story, Na’ama! I was delightfully surprised by the twist at the end. Wonderfully done. Thank you for the inspiring photo.
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Thanks, Brenda! I’m so glad that you liked the twist at the end … 😉 And the photo reminds me of a dramatic weather day, which always makes the muses sing. 🙂
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Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re not being followed. Poets need windows for days like today. I’d be on me duff in a sec if I went out. Hail storms, tornadoes, and bright sunlight will move me from windows in spite of all magick. 🙂 Well done, Na’ama.
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Thank you! I adore windows in stormy weather. Like being outdoors in it, too, sometimes, when safety isn’t an issue. But, yeah, the drama of it speaks to the muses, for sure.
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If it’s different, medicate it! I hope they have bars on the windows, just in case…
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Oy, yeah … poor woman, right?
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A great story. Atospheric and thought provoking. If she is ill, medication may take her fear and possibly terror away. If she really has ‘the sight’ — poor woman indeed. I ask with Sandra: what is real and what isn’t?
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Indeed, do we know what is or what is not, other than what we perceive it to be …? 😉 And, I hear ya on the double-edge sword of some medications …
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I wonder if Nurse Tabatha will come to rue the day she doubted Ms Bentley, and she really knows something others don’t.
Thanks for the picture, it certainly took us in lots of different directions!
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Yes! One does wonder … I would like to know, myself … As for the photo … yep, it was a very spooky full-of-all-kinds-of-things sky that day! 🙂
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Na’ama Y’karah,
I’m not sure, but I might have whiplash from the sudden turn at the end. 😉 And this is a good thing. This story could go in so many different directions. Well done, my gifted writer friend. Thank you for the intriguing photo as well.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle! I hope you don’t have story-whiplash … 😉 And … I’m not too sorry that you did a bit of a turn … because … yeah …
And, yes, so many different directions … Thank you for the lovely words, my lovely friend! 🙂 Na’ama
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such a twist in the end. i didn’t expect it at all. 🙂
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Ah, I guess that’s good, then! 😉
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Excellent exploration of what is real and what is imagined. And, subtly, your story raises all sorts of questions about the ethics of giving drugs for mental illness.
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Thank you, Penny! As you often do, you were able to not only ‘get’ the layers of the story, but articulated them so well! 🙂 Thanks!
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I like the feeling of uncertainty in this. She seems in full control, and then she’s not. Intriguing characterisation. Pity about Nurse Tabitha with her medication. What a spoilsport.
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Thank you, Margaret. Yes, I think that Nurse Tabitha is not winning any adorability points … But, who knows … maybe the wobble was a cue that worse things are en route if her medications miss their due … Or … 😉
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Great, atmospheric story.
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Thank you, J!
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