PORCH PONDERINGS

The Longest Minute

PROMPT January 28th

We need your help filling the Challenge War Chest! In your entry today, write three of your own prompts and then use one of them to complete the rest of your entry.


The longest minute I've ever known.

Genetically altered vegetables begin to alter human consumers.

Whiz-bang snip-snap doodly-doo.


The longest minute I’ve ever known has to be time between having an MRI done and waiting for the results. I guess we could expand that to make it more than a minute. Make it about a half-hour.

So let me explain why I had this MRI done. I drank too much at a wake before a family member’s funeral. All I remember is a big house, lots of rooms, trying hard to be pleasing to all my in-laws. And wine. Lots of wine. Glass after glass of wonderful wine.

The ride back to my son-in-law's for the night I don’t remember. I don’t remember walking up the steps to bed. I’ve been told I tried to get into bed. But I hit the bed frame, hit the floor, hit the wall. All of this I did a few times.

Sometime overnight, I woke up with a bad headache. I went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, wondered at what I saw. Back to bed I went with no further thoughts.

In the morning, again I saw my face and it looked like I had gone a few rounds in the boxing ring. Black and blue, swollen and red eyes. I was a mess. My grandchildren tried not to stare at breakfast. Hubby told me what happened. I remembered nothing.

We went to the funeral, no one said a word to me. They were being polite.

After a few days, it was suggested I go to the ER before I made the trip home on an airplane. This led to an MRI.

“Well, it seems you have a concussion.” That explained the ongoing headache, dizziness, and blurred vision I thought. But the doctor wasn’t done with me yet.

“And we also saw something else. We are pretty sure you have a brain tumor. We suggest you see your doctor when you get back home.”

My husband and I looked at each other. In a strange place, our entire world had now just spun off its axis. We were now going off into space on an unplanned journey into alien territory.

It has been many years since my surgery. I was grateful to have a benign tumor and a skillful surgeon. I’ve had no ill effects, maybe perhaps a bit of a personality change. But I think if someone goes mucking about in your brain, you can’t help but have a few neurons twisted and turned around.

I’m just glad to still be alive.