A Canadian Literary Journal
Agnes and True: a Canadian online literary journal dedicated to providing a place for the work of Canadian writers, both established and emerging.
A Canadian Literary Journal
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Bed Blocker
The words fly down the hospital corridor like precision missiles homing in on Maggie, their fleeing target, piercing her on impact.
“Keep her away. She’s abusing me!”
Maggie presses palms against ears as she escapes her accuser, the screeching woman in the corner room.
Indifference is everywhere—in lab coats, with stethoscopes, or arms laden with flowers, moving with unflinching eyes, looking ahead or downcast, but never back in the direction of the desperate cries—the wails just white noise in their daily routines. Only one person, another patient, looks with any concern towards the screams.
This isn’t the mother Maggie knows. She’s never been stark, raving mad before. And growing crazier by the minute. It must be this place.
Every one of Maggie’s arthritic bones had resisted when the call roused her from sleep three nights back. “Your mother” and “emerge” were the only words she […]