Short Story: Sunlight

She looked at her hands. Soft, pale white skin wrapped around her bones. Her feet were dirtied by the mixture of sand and dirt on the ground, but she was as comfortable as she could be. Wandering through the tall grass, her eyes were searching for something bright. Something that could shine. She planted her bum on a bed of flowers and lay down. Fingers twirling in the air, wind blowing her auburn hair, sunlight touching every inch of her body it could find. Her green eyes blinked at the fluffy cotton balls up in the atmosphere while her heart was beating fast. She had never felt this way before. At least, not in a long time. Her eyelids fluttered shut and the sweet fragrance of lavender wafted into her nostrils, filling her heart with joy and her stomach with butterflies.

Then her eyelids opened. She was disorientated by the bright light that shone. It may have been put there to bring warmth to her surroundings, but all she felt was cold and chilly. This wasn’t the sunlight that made her skin tingle or a warm smile to appear on her face. It was devoid; nothingness.

“Madam, the doctor is here. It’s time for your check-up,” A lady at the door wearing immaculate attire commented. It may have been intended to give her comfort; instead it filled her with quiet anxiety. “Hello madam, nice to see you again,” the doctor said with a grin.

“I see that you have been well fed. After the last few years, I haven’t quite seen such a big improvement in your… mental well-being. Just continue to stay here and rest up, it’ll be alright,” he read off the points on his chart and proceeded to walk out the little ‘prison cell’ with the lady following behind him.

The fact that her room was cleaned spotless and the walls were creamy white irked her the most. She would rather play in mud and enjoy the beautiful colours of nature, smell the grass and dance in the breeze. Her favourite thing would be the sweet melodies the birds chirped and how they swooped in the big, blue sky — Free. She longed to go back to the time when she could feast her eyes and ears on such things. But she can’t now; nor ever.

She lay back on the bed. The mirrors on the ceiling reminded her of reality: the eye bags under her dull green eyes, the thin and sickly layer of skin covering her fragile bones and the light shining down on her lifeless body. Her eyelids fluttered shut and she once again yearned to experience it and have it shining down on her, a warmth she hasn’t felt in a long time.

Jaime Ng 2 Loyalty

https://www.pexels.com/photo/nature-sunset-person-woman-403/