“A Charmed Life”

            It was a beautiful fall day as the sun broke over the horizon. The rays of sunshine bounced off the white frost that covered the ground. The white crystals of ice signaled the coming of winter. A lone squirrel could be seen in the distance as it scampered about gathering its food supply for the coming season. He rustled about in the leaves, digging and pawing for any oak acorns that littered the ground.

            The light wind blew just enough to cause what leaves that were still on the trees to fall to the ground. They seemed to float in midair as they swayed back and forth until finally reaching the bottom. The odor of decaying leaves and earthen dirt lingered in the air. This was the way Mother Nature replenished the earth for future spring growths.

            All seemed at peace with everything right in the world, but for Ben, this was not the case. Ben sat on a sawed off stump contemplating life and the issues at hand. This had always been his special place when turbulence had arisen in his life. It offered a slowing of the world, just enough to sort things out.  It was like jumping off the fast lane, taking a slight detour to get back on track of what was truly important in his life.

            Ben’s mind kept jumping between thoughts of his daughter, wife, son, financial issues and school. He repeated to himself “slow down… slow down” as his mind raced wildly. To make matters worst, he also had a mental affliction of being bipolar, which caused things to intensify at times. Ben was no ordinary person by any means; his life had been full of turbulence. His early years were that of his father being in the military, causing the family to become gypsies, moving to a different home every two years. The hardships of leaving school friends and the need to make new ones had closed a part of Ben’s life off from attachments to anything.

            At the age of 11, he had watched his mother being slowly taken away by the ravishing of cancer. Her skin all wrinkled with a bluish white tint, her speech barely audible to ones ears. She had asked the doctors if it would be possible to be allowed to come home to her parents’ house for the last days of her life in order to die in a familiar place.  Her wish was granted.

            As Ben made his way into the bedroom where his mother lay silently, all that could be heard was the slight gasping sound of her trying to suck oxygen into her body through her mouth and nose. A slight beeping noise could be heard from the monitor sitting beside the bed as a red light flickered. All that was left was a shell of what this woman used to be. Every bone in her body could be easily seen through her night gown. Her hip bones pointed straight up showing a cavity between them. Where had her cheeks gone? A bony mass with darkened brownish black skin surrounded her sunken eye sockets. She looked like a young child, for the king sized bed dwarfed the body that lay within it.