Silence for days amidst the noise of the machines, bubble, drip, rattle and beep, as they orchestrate my husband’s final days. I take his hand in mine and squeeze, searching for life under the callouses and indifference. It all feels so familiar. There’s nothing left but cold comforts offered in consolation and intravenous platitudes. Thirty years of stone crumbling beneath starched white sheets, while I wait for the dead to die. It isn’t right. So many accidents never happen, he would have understood. I can’t be alone any more. Silence for days and then he calls out her name.

 

Inspired by the story An Accident by mridula