Vegetable

I was living at my dad’s house. My mother was alive but she was in a coma in my parents’ bedroom. An older couple who were someone’s aunt and uncle was visiting the house. My dad, the couple and I were all sitting around a table in the basement talking.The couple asked about my mother, and my dad quickly said “She’s in the hospital.” I thought he was lying and I could tell the older woman thought so too. I decided my dad must have a good reason for lying and expanded on the lie to make it more believable. The woman seemed to believe me.

Later I went upstairs to my parents’ room to check on my mother. When I opened the door, she was gone. My dad came in and said that he really had moved her to a hospital. I started crying. My dad explained that she was a vegetable and started doing crude impressions of what she sounded like when someone asked her a simple question such as “Would you like a plant in your room?” His impression of her was to stare straight ahead and repeatedly make the noise “Maomaomaomao”. I couldn’t look at him anymore and I turned away.

I was looking at her clothes which were hanging up around the room. The clothes really captured her sense of style. I knew that I was never going to see her again and that she would die alone in the hospital. I didn’t think she deserved to die that way but I was helpless to do anything. I buried my face in one of her shirts and sobbed. The shirt was turquoise and covered with large, red flowers. I missed her so much.