| The Room
As I looked around the room the shadows looked alive but were they? How did I get in to this room? There are windows and outside the sun is shinning but inside this room the light is dim. There are three doors in one of the walls. Where they go I do not know. Over in the corner there is movement. It is a wheelchair with someone in it. The person is squirming in their seat. Their arms and legs are jumping about, as if they are dancing while seated. The face is contoured and the person is making sounds. I do not understand what the person is saying. There is another person here. It is a young girl sitting in a rocker. She is holding something wrapped in a blanket. I can not see what it is but there is writing on the blanket. It is repeated over and over all over the blanket. It says, “What if, what if.” Movement outside one of the windows catches my eye. I go over and look out. I see children running and playing in the sunshine with their parents. For some reason it strikes me as odd that both parents are playing with the children. They all seam so happy but here in this room all I feel is sorrow. Why is that? Out of the shadows of the room appears a young girl. She walks up to me. Looks real hard at me and then asks, ‘Can you tell me why my mommy can not play with me?” “Who is your mother? I ask. “She is the one in the wheelchair.” she replies. I turn and look again at the wheelchair. Yes, it is a woman but when I turn back to the little girl she is no longer there. I do not know where she has gone or for that matter where she came from in the first place. What is this place and where do those doors go. I go over to the doors. There are signs on each one. The first door is ajar a little and I can see on the other side. The view is of a playground on a very cloudy day, with children playing but the parents are sitting on a bench. The husband appears to be holding the wife up. A little girl runs over and asks her daddy, “Can Mommy play today Daddy?” “No, little one you know your mother is not like the other mothers.” “Will I be like mommy with my children?”' the little girl asks her daddy. “You know I can’t answer that little one. We will just have to wait and see.” The sign on the door reads, “Daily life if you chose.” I do not know what it means. I go to the second door. I read the sign, “Daily life if you chose.” The same thing the other door said. I open it up and take a look. A man is sitting on a park bench watching the people in the park play and have fun. He has a newspaper in his hand but all it says over and over again and again is “What if, what if.” He looks lonely and very sad. As I watch him he pulls out a picture and stares at it. I can see the woman in the picture. It is the woman in the wheelchair. How does all this tie together? I close the door and look around the room again. What is this room? Why am I here in it? I decide to look at the third door. I expected the same sign but this one is different. It just says, “It is over.” What is over? I open the door and the bright light from the other side floods the room. All the shadows are gone. I see the little girl run over to her mom and help her up from her chair. The woman walks to the door looks back and smiles, then goes through. When I look through the doorway I see the woman and little girl running, laughing, playing, they are having a great time. They appear to be floating on air. No, it is clouds they are running on. I close the door feeling like I have seen something that I should not have. Now I look over at the wheelchair.
It is not empty. There is another person there. Then out of the corner
comes a little boy and the room plays out it story again.
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