Son

Long legs, crooked thighs

Little head, and no eyes.

            “Push through it Cynthia! Come on now puuuushhhh!”

            I wiped my hair out of my tear and sweat covered face and tried to do what my husband was telling me to do. My eyes squeezed shut, I was truthfully attempting to not see what was happening to my body at that exact moment of time. “Ah I can’t do this, I really can’t,” I replied, trying to wish myself anywhere but where I was at that exact moment.

            “You don’t really have a choice…” said a shrill voice from the corner of the room, which was instantly shushed by another.

            All of a sudden, I heard a shrieking and the pain was gone. The room went quiet, and I opened my eyes and examined the room. White walls. No art. Blue curtains.

My husbands face pale. Expressionless. Blue eyes heavy from exhaust.

My mother and sister in the corner. Shocked looks, unsteady glances back and forth.

            “Where is my baby?”

            It was now midnight, and I was in a wheelchair. My husband was pushing me down a long, eerie hall. Nurses were talking in the corner, but I didn’t hear them. A light flashed above but I didn’t notice… I needed to see him.

            Suddenly my husband turned my chair around the corner and we halted. He kissed my head and told me to wait there as if I had a choice. After what seemed like forever, he reappeared with a doctor in tail, telling us to come with him. We followed.

mother and son

            The last thing I remember is being handed a body wrapped in blue, and told they had done everything they could possibly do, but there was no way to save him. I looked down at my son’s abnormally small head and underdeveloped thighs and toes. He never even got the chance to open his eyes, yet somehow was all mine could focus on.

AUTHORS NOTE: This nursery rhyme was read to me as a child, and I never understood it. Coming across it now that I am older, I decided to develop it into a story to try to make myself understand.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: from "The Nursery Rhyme Book" by Andrew Lang, 1897