“Old Woman”
Jan 17, 2020The cold wind weasels its way underneath the old woman’s shawl and bites the side of her face. Her cheeks are rosy. She walks as fast as she can, which is not very fast in her old age. A cane in her right hand steadies her.
Afternoon walks, the doctor ordered her. Too many days were spent alone in her dark apartment. Her husband had been gone for ten years already, but his ghost wouldn’t leave. Long gone were her drinking days, so she couldn’t numb the memories.
A horse pulled a carriage of tourists alongside her. She looked at the horse, who didn’t notice her because its eyes were hidden behind blinders. But she could hear the sorrow in the slow clomping, the metal shoes against the gravel. The driver told stories to the tourists. The old woman could hear enough to know it was all lies. The driver needed to entertain to make a better living.
The old woman stepped on a loose rock and her ankle twisted enough to send a signal to her brain, which then shot a signal back to the nerves in her foot. She winced. The cane kept her from falling over. She stopped and wondered where her life had gone. They always warned her about this moment, but as a child, she had no reason to listen.
The horse and carriage passed her by and she squinted her eyes at the sun setting behind the skyscrapers. The cold wind was biting her face again. “Ok, old woman,” she said to herself, “let’s get ourselves home before we freeze out here.”