I’d seen the photograph countless times before, but somehow looking at it now was different. The photo on her bedside table caught my eye, so I grasped the metal frame between my fingers and scanned the image ignoring my own grim expression in the reflection. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms she knew every chord, in every symphony better than she could recall what day of the week it was. I’d learned about her love for music and she’d taught me how to understand the emotion behind every note. No amount of store-bought artwork, plastic plant life or group activities would make this place something that it wasn’t, but Hazel Ruth had.

I gently tucked her hands under the sheet and gazed at the motionless mass that was once the brightest light in this dreary building. If they’d taken the time to get to know her, they would know there was no family to call no one to come for her and no one left to miss her except for me. I didn’t mind at all, she’d been the first real friend I’d had in decades. The nurses followed Doctor Conner out of the room, leaving me with the duty of preparing the body. I came here to witness the very thing I would never experience. I could see how that would break a man, but not me. Maybe it was knowing none of his patients would survive he’d never be able to save them no matter how hard he tried. He was a good man, but somewhere along the line he’d lost the spark that had once made him an incredible doctor. “I’d better notify the family,” Doctor Conner said, as he scribbled on his clipboard. Three years was lifetimes longer than everyone else who came here to die.

She had been one of my favorite residents at Shady Willows she had been my friend, but she’d also been here the longest. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.Įleven twenty-four a.m.,” I said, pulling the white sheet over Hazel’s lifeless face.

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Falling From Eternity by Megan Duncan