Tears For The Living

Tears For The Living

By – Robert Goldsborough

      Madeline is always crying these days.  She balls up in the darkest corners of the house and shakes the tears loose from her eyes with those painful wails of hers.  I had been hoping that by now she would have settled a bit more than she is.  She should be whimpering through the days and sleeping through the nights.  At least that is what the doctor thought.  Doctor Rajid knew that this was going to be the most painful time of her life.  No one can just snap back to normalcy after losing a child like that.  The good doctor had prescribed her pills she refused to take and a therapist that she refused to see.  Time was running thin on how much longer Madeline could be left to her own devices.  She had argued that her mourning was natural; that this was the only way to get the pain out.  But, after the funeral, when they lowered that small coffin into that empty ground Madeline had given up her fight and degenerated.  She would not open her door to friends; not even her closest friends that pulled her from the damp ground of the cemetery.  Her phone was off the hook and her cell phone was never charged.  Doctor Rajid had to do something; even he was tired of the calls from those turned away from her door.  Madeline needed special care and not to be left alone in her house.



      The men in their tidy white uniforms showed up just after eight in the morning on Friday.  Madeline was still fetal and screaming in the corner of her daughter’s bedroom.  She did not fight, but she grabbed the small teddy bear from the bed as she was walked out.  They placed her into the backseat of Doctor Rajid’s Mercedes and drove through the morning streets.  The world could care less about the shuddering woman in the big black car; they were already rushing around to finish their own lives for the week.



        Across town the hospital was getting ready for its new arrival.  Fresh pills were placed into sanitary paper cups, thick Velcro straps were secured to a heavy wheelchair and a grinning young man flicked the excess drops from a syringe full of sedation.  The traffic had been good and the Mercedes pulled up to the sliding glass doors at the back of the hospital with ease.  The two men in white helped poor screaming Madeline out of the backseat and into the waiting wheelchair.  She did not fight them here either; she just continued her shrill litany of internal pain.  They strapped her wrists with the Velcro and forced the pills into her mouth.  The grainy powder dissolved and mixed with the tears that streamed down her throat.  Doctor Rajid was ready to pull away when he noticed the small brown bear laying on his backseat.  The doctor called to the men to wait as he retrieved the bear and tucked it in the wheelchair with Madeline.  She met his eyes as he secured the bear.  He had never looked into so much pain before in his medical career.  There were oceans of tears waiting to tip out of the saucers of her eyes, and the oceans were not empty.  The waters were thick with the flotsam of broken dreams, broken toys, and moments that would never be seen.  The doctor’s eyes began to tear; he felt his heart twist in the cage of his chest.  He had to look away, but he placed a well-manicured hand on Madeline’s shoulder.

      “They will take great of care you here.  This is the best place for you.  I will see you soon.”

His eyes became overflowing wells as he turned back to the car.  He hoped that he would never know such pain.

         Madeline wailed as she was pushed through the sliding doors and the young orderly with the needle jammed the sedative into her neck before they could slide closed again.

         “At least we don’t have ta listen to that for a while.”

The older orderly, who was pushing the chair, just shook his head and listened to Madeline’s screams fade.



         The Trinity Meadows Health Facility was a shining example of modern medicine with its luminous white exterior faceted with only the tiniest of windows that could not reflect its perfect inabilities.  Modern in every way, from its stark exterior made of the cheapest materials, its underpaid staff, to its undereducated doctors.  But, the hospital’s numbers always looked good.  After all, that is how you run a business.

         Doctor Peony Green was a prize for the medical facility.  She owed her education to Trinity Meadows and after struggling through her eight years she belonged to them.  The accountants were more than pleased at their good fortune for having a well-educated psychiatrist for such a cut rate; they gave her an office.  When Madeline was wheeled in Doctor Green was busy catching a nap in her office.  The orderlies did not want to disturb the doctor so they filled out the forms and dragged Madeline’s limp hand across the blank space she needed to sign.  They wheeled the drooling woman to her new accommodations on the third floor and tucked her in with the straps attached to the bed.  Alex, the younger of the orderlies, made sure to prep another syringe of sedation, just in case the screamer woke up before Doc Green was ready to see her.  Marcus, the orderly who had pushed Madeline all the way to her new room dabbed at the spittle she left on his creased, white uniform and tossed the spit rag over Madeline’s face.  Madeline did not mind.  Madeline could not mind.  Her mind was so out of step with life in those moments she could not even remember what thinking, or minding was even for.

         While Madeline slept the world went on without her.  She was not missed by many; fewer than a dozen had taken the time to ask her name.  Madeline was never one to seek out recognition.  Her parents were long since dead and Hank, her child’s father, had grown bored and disappeared as well.  Coworkers used her desk as a way station hidden from prying managerial eyes to think, plot, and scheme their advancement and social graces.  They never said a word to Madeline; she was the nameless, faceless dweller of the isolated desk.  That was fine with her.  Her life was outside that gray office edifice.  She lived to be home with her baby girl.  Her daughter was not a baby anymore, but to Madeline she always would be.  Her name had been Endive.  Like every young mother, Madeline knew that her baby was something more, something special, and one day she would grow up and the world would know how special she really was, because to Madeline, Endive was the second coming, her own secret messiah.  Endive had saved her from being alone.  To that little girl she had mattered.  And what eyes did Endive have.



         Peony wiped the sleep from her eyes, yawned, and looked at the gold clock on her desk.  It had been a graduation present from her ex-boyfriend.  She smiled and thought about the last time she had had sex; it had been quite a while.  The clock smiled back with a crooked face telling her it was long past noon.  She pushed the intercom button on her big plastic phone and somewhere a red light lit up on someone else’s desk.

         “Yes Doctor Green?” A male voice said.

         “Coffee.  Stat.”

Peony liked saying ‘stat’; it was her own personal joke.  Besides, she knew it gave her staff a chuckle.

         Marcus watched the red light fade and stuck his middle finger up at the phone.

         “Stat? Really? Lazy bitch.  Why don’tcha get your own coffee?”  He said to no one, but hoped that Alex would overhear and prove himself, still, the coolest orderly on the third floor.



         Peony shuffled through the stacks of brightly colored papers trying to make sense of them.  Her desk was a mess.  She was very proud of her mess.  It made her look busy, maybe even too busy.  She wanted someone to notice and tell her that she should take some time off; you know, travel somewhere.  She had always wanted to go to Greece.  Lie out on strange sands under a sun that was in a strange part of the sky.  Peony had wallpapered her dorm room with travel posters showing the dark sand beaches and the dark skinned men.  She would dream every night of being there.  Well, anywhere was better than University studying so you can get that job that won’t let you go to Greece until your too old to enjoy it.  Peony sighed out her dreams and resumed restacking the colored papers.

         “Hey Alex, you got any that stuff we used on old missus Jonah last night left?”

         “Yeah, why?”  Alex looked Marcus up and down.  He saw the cup of coffee in his hand and knew who it was for.  Their eyes met and their grins widened.

         “Gimme a sec.  It’s in my locker.”

         “Hurry up Alex I don’t want this to get cold.”

         “Okay,” Alex giggled all the way down the hall to the locker room.



      Marcus started drumming his fingers on the nurses’ station Formica top.  He had always drummed his fingers when he felt frustrated at having to deal with an incompetent and Alex was definitely an incompetent.  But, he enjoyed getting Alex’s approval.  It gave him that miniscule ego boost that he thrived on.  It just gave more proof to the fact that even though he was older, he was still the ‘big dog’.  He had been the ‘big dog’ through high school; his team’s leading quarterback, prom king, and all-around defender of those whom he did not deserve to hang out with.  His athletic abilities had allowed him to rise through the ranks of the underclass to be celebrated as the school’s hero at more than one ‘rich kid’s’ party.  He had been the ‘big dog’ that had almost taken his school to the state finals twice.  He was accepted as one of the elite for the last two years of high school and that was what mattered.  High school was drifting away with every year that passed and it only took graduation for him to be forgotten.  The ‘rich kids’ went off to their ‘rich schools’ and he lumbered around town trying to stay in touch with that class of kids by getting all the jobs he could at all the coolest clubs and nightspots.  After his old classmates were long since college graduates and doing what they were meant to do he still was trying to stay the ‘big dog’.  Realizing that he was never going to have any more parties thrown for him Marcus broke down and went to a trade’s school.  He learned nursing and decided to specialize in helping the mental disabled.  That couldn’t be too hard, could it?  Besides, he had been so worried about what others thought for so long that he decided that maybe he should find out more about himself; he did.  He discovered he was a jerk, but he was fine with that because at least he knew and besides that, screw anyone who didn’t like him.



         Alex’s grin was wide enough to have been cut by a butcher.  He was barely able to keep the giggles back from his clenched teeth.

         “Marcus, I got the stuff,” he slowed down to drag out the word stuff.

         “Oh yeah.”

Alex held a small, green, plastic bag up between his thumb and forefinger.  Marcus swatted at it.

         “Dammit Alex keep that lower, there are cameras in the halls.”

         “Sorry.  Just excited.  Are ya really gonna dose her?”

Marcus bit through the zip locked seal and knocked the white powder into Doctor Green’s coffee.

         “Dude.  That’s all my coke.”

Peony thanked Marcus for the coffee he brought.  He seemed to be in a good mood today.

      “Oh yeah.  Almost forgot.  We got a newbie, a real screamer.  Alex shot her up so she’d sleep.  Her papers are on three when you’re ready.”

        “Thanks Marcus.  Be there when I can find my way through these stacks.  Good coffee.”



        The sun was rising; a slow burn raising one out of dark dreams that should not be remembered.  The light widened and filled the horizons growing whiter, but not hotter.  Madeline could feel the fluorescent lights humming above her.  She knew where she was.  She remembered how she got here.  Then she remembered why.  The scream uncoiled itself from her throat like a whip that cracked and shattered all the glass one carries around in their head.  Hands pushed at buttons and fumbled with keys.  A door was thrown open.  A pinching at the neck.  Madeline saw her scream fade with the white.

      “Damn banshee’s gonna freak out the whole floor.  That’s just what we need.  Alex, tell the doc she’s gotta get up here.”

      “Sure thing.”  Alex tossed Marcus a mock salute and winked as he pretended to twitch his way to the elevator.  In her office Peony was starting to twitch herself.  She had an uncontrollable need to lick her lips.

Several failed conversations later Alex had managed to convince Doctor Green that she needed to look in on the patient.  Marcus was drumming his fingers again.

      “Which room?”

Marcus pointed.

         “Oh, here.  Yeah.  I should’ve known.  After all it’s the only empty one.  Is she asleep?  You tranqued her again, didn’t you?  Of course you did.  No one wants a screamer up here.  That’s what I’m for; not screaming, but stopping the screaming.  But I guess you got that handled, right.”

Marcus pointed and drummed his fingers louder.  Maybe dosing the doc was a bad idea after all.

         “Dude she wouldn’t shut up,” Alex said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Madeline’s room was quiet and the stillness filled Peony’s ears to bursting.  She was tempted to wake the patient, but got lost in contemplating whether she should or not.  After half and hour deliberating with herself and just staring at the strapped down woman Peony left the room to ask Marcus his advice.

      “I’d just let her sleep.”

      “Yes, but I really should talk with her.  How long will she be out?”

      “Alex gave her the required amount.  She should be out all day.”

      “Okay.  What do you want from me?”

      “Do you want any vitals taken?  Or maybe a physical workup, you know blood and stuff.”

      “Oh, yeah.  Do the normal tests, okay?  Sorry I just feel kind of foggy today.  Maybe I need some more coffee.”

Alex spread his wide toothless grin trying to hold back his laughter.



         The day and the night passed quietly at the hospital.  Madeline’s body was tired and the drugs helped her stay asleep.  Somewhere inside she was thankful.  Peony’s temporary brush with illicit drugs wore off leaving her too tired to drive home to her studio apartment; she slept at her desk.  She was used to it.  At least she would not be late tomorrow.  Marcus and Alex parted for the evening shaking hands and not meeting up for beers because they had ‘things’ to do.  They both sat alone in their houses staring at the television’s prime time line up for Friday’s.

         Saturday morning a sharp ring from the phone jolted Peony out of sleep. 

         “Hello?”

         “Yes, Doctor Green, please.”

         “Speaking.”

         “Oh, yes.  Doctor Green I have some news for your newest patient.”

         “Uh-huh?”

         “Doctor Green, are you alright?  You sound as if you have a cold.”

         “No, just not fully awake yet.  Who is this?”

         “Oh. Okay. This is Miss Trufal from Doctor Rajid’s office.”

         “Uh-huh?”

         “Well, the Doctor has left the care of his patient completely in your hands due to an unseen crisis.”

         “What kind of crisis?”

         “Well, I’m not at liberty to discuss that, but just know and be sure to tell the patient, Madeline, that Doctor Rajid will not be able to visit her.”

         “Today?”

         “Ever. Thank you now.”

         “Uh. Goodbye.”

The dial tone buzzed before Peony could finish her goodbye.



         Avoiding the coffee Peony decided to check in on her patient.  The third floor was quiet.  Just the normal robe and slipper crowd bouncing their way from wall to wall down the hallway.  Alex had his head down on the desk already and Marcus was typing away at something.  She unlocked the door and walked into Madeline’s room.  The air felt damp, but chilled at the same time, as if a glacier had just moved through the room.  Madeline was still strapped to the bed.

         “Are you up?” Peony whispered.

There was a murmur from the sheets.  A small river was babbling downstream.  The Doctor stepped closer.  Madeline’s face was awash with tears.  The sheets that were pulled up to her chin were soaked.  There was a soaked cloth lying on the floor next to the bed.

         “Madeline?”

Peony was answered by more sobs.

         “Madeline, would you like something to calm you down?”

More water and murmurs.  Peony walked out to the nurses’ station.

         “You guys haven’t loosened her straps yet.”

The two orderlies ignored the Doctor.  She slammed her fist against the countertop.

         “Geez Doc.  You almost gave me a heart attack,” said Marcus.

         “You haven’t loosened her straps yet.”

         “I know.  She’s not awake.”

         “Actually she is and she’s just in there sobbing.  Go loosen her straps.”

Marcus nudged Alex awake and told him to loosen Madeline’s restraints.  He started to argue, but he saw the Doc glaring down at him.

         “And don’t sedate her anymore.  Maybe I can talk to her later.”

Marcus walked into Madeline’s room with his head low.

         The Doctor was right.  The patient was awake.  Alex peeled the Velcro restraints away in that awful ripping sound.  He hated that sound; it made him think of tearing skin for some reason.  Madeline curled into a ball under the sheets.

         “Feel better?  Ya must; you’ve been doped for twenty-four hours now.  What say we fix you up so the Doc can chat with you, huh?”

Alex pulled back the covers and reached for Madeline’s slick face.  The tears were still falling.

         “Come on girl, let’s fix you up.”

He grabbed the dirty cloth from the floor and started to wipe the wet from her face.  He was rough and forced her eyes open with the cloth.

         “Wow.  Those are some pretty eyes you got.  Let’s see them again.”

He wiped harder to make her open her shut lids.  Her eyes were the deep blue of a Caribbean ocean.  Water poured from them in thin rivulets.  Alex thought they were the saddest eyes he had ever seen.  The blue changed, became almost a steel gray, but they still shone with a depth of a bottomless sea.  Alex felt a chill set off the little hairs at the base of his skull.  He looked deeper into the watery eyes as he wiped away more tears.  He saw the ice freezing over a million miles of northern seas.  Frozen solid in the ice was the detritus of a tortured soul.  A small brown bear floated in its icy prison.  Alex could not look at her eyes any longer.  He turned to leave the room.  A tear ran down his cheek.



         It had been late Friday night, almost Saturday morning when Doctor Rajid’s little girl had found him.  She had fallen asleep mad that her daddy had not read to her; he always read to her.  But, daddy had been sad all day.  He had left work early and picked her up from her mother’s.  He had hugged her tight and she lost her breath.  Daddy had started to cry when she fought him to let her go.  She did not mean to hurt daddy’s feelings; she just could not breath.  She did not understand why he was hanging from a rope in his study.  She was going to apologize for hurting his feelings, but now it was too late.  He still had tears rolling down his cheeks.



         Alex wiped the tears.

         “What’s a matter?”

Marcus had noticed Alex wiping his eyes all morning.

         “Did you party too hard last night?”

         “No, there’s just something so sad about that patient’s eyes man.  It’s like staring directly into the biggest hurt you could ever see.  Maybe I’m full of shit, but I think she got to me.  What’s wrong with her anyways?”

         “Well, let’s go to the file, eh?”

Marcus walked his fingers through the colored folders until he found hers.

         “Ah.  Her kid died.”

         “Her kid died?  What else?”

         “That’s it man.  Kid dies; she goes into fits of uncontrollable crying.  Can’t say I blame her.  Doesn’t look like she has any family.  This is sad,” Marcus stressed his last sentence.  Alex wiped at another tear and took the folder.



         Peony had been in her office cracking books on different drugs that could pull Madeline out of her tears.  If she could talk to her, she was sure that she could help Madeline out.  People had lost children before, it was not uncommon, but this incessant weeping was.  Peony just needed to stop the tears.



         By lunchtime the tears had not subsided.  Madeline was not eating.  Alex set her up for an IV drip.  She had to have nourishment.  Alex’s tears became heavier while he was in the room.  His hands trembled, but he got the needle in her arm and taped secure.  His white sleeve was wet from the constant rubbing at his eyes.

         “That’s some story you got there.  It’s been tugging at my heart strings all day like some after-school special.”

Madeline responded with more sobs and her steady stream of tears.

         “You got some kinda waterworks, you know?  I thought people ran out of tears eventually, huh?  I guess you’re the exception that proves the rule.”

Alex brought in a clean blanket to replace the soaked one wrapped around her.

         “Here you go girl.  Maybe that’ll help you out.”

Madeline rolled over and fixed her eyes on Alex.  Alex fell into the blue eyes.  He felt the icy waters pour down his throat; felt himself freeze.  His last girlfriend was there; frozen in that last painful pose his mind could remember her in.  She had that accusing finger pointed his way.  He let his tears run and mingle into the great expanding water he floated in.  His parents’ words hung in the frigid air telling him what a waste he was.  His throat was too frozen to argue.  More tears fell.  Marcus walked in to check on Alex.

         “Hey, Alex are you going to spend all day in here?”

Alex landed behind his own eyes again.

         “What?  Oh sorry, got tied up.”

Marcus watched Alex, all slumped over as if he carried the world on his shoulders, leave the room.  Alex walked past the nurses’ station straight to the stairs.  He unlocked the door with a key from his belt and closed the door behind him without a sound.  His steps were quiet.  His mind was racing.  Just because he had been pulled from those frozen waters did not mean that the waters had left him.  All of his failures, every hurt or harm he had inflicted on anyone pushed more tears out of his eyes as he ascended.  They had all been right.  He was a failure.  No one would help him out of this hole he had dug; no one would look past his inadequacies and see him for what he could be.  When he had reached the roof he knew that he was just a perfect waste of oxygen.  Better if he was not around.  He had not changed his mind even as he tumbled over the edge of the roof.



         Alex could have survived the six-story fall, but it did not seem that he had wanted too.  His skull was only cracked a little and his few broken bones would have healed, but the tears that poured down his face showed that he had just given up.  Life had been too impossible to bear.  It was more than twenty minutes before Marcus or Peony even knew that Alex was dead.

         “When did he..”

         “I don’t know.  He must’ve walked up there just after leaving that patient.”

         “Which patient?”

         “Madeline.”

Doctor Green stared at the nothingness that surrounded Marcus.  The EMT’s had cleaned up Alex and left in a hurry.  It was like he had never existed.  The hospital exhaled and went back to work.

         Doctor Green decided that it was time to try and get more out of her new patient.  The room had the same chill that it had earlier that morning and Peony’s hair stood at attention.

         “Madeline,” only whimpers, “I need you to talk to me Madeline.”

The patient sobbed and sucked at waterlogged breaths under the sheet.

         “Did you talk to the young orderly that was in here?  Did he say something to you?”

There were just those annoying tears.  Peony was growing angry.  She tugged the sheet exposing the red, tear-stained face; eyes pinched closed.

         “I need you to talk to me Madeline.  Do you understand?”

Madeline’s face rolled into view.  She opened her eyes.  The Doctor saw the blues dancing around like waves licking the shore.  Then she fell.  Peony felt the splash and tasted the salty sea.  It tasted like tears.  The blue waters dragged at her limbs and choked her throat.  There was something more here than just water.  Someone else was here.  Icy fingers grabbed at Peony’s legs threatening to pull her under.  The Doctor screamed and thrashed.  The small hands held fast.  The hands were cold and their coldness was spreading up her body.  She began to shiver.  She began to freeze.  The hands climbed her body and broke the surface of the blue.  There were hundreds.  An ocean of icy blue hands surrounded Peony, tugged at her.  She screamed and the hands grabbed at her mouth.  They were trying to climb down her throat.



         Marcus slapped her as hard as he could.  Peony crumbled to the floor.

         “Sorry Doc.”

He went to her and raised her head mumbling apologizes and platitudes.  Peony revived staring into Marcus’s face.  She screamed and tears started to rain down her face.  Marcus shook her trying to break whatever spell she was under.

         “I’m drowning.”

         “No Doc, you’re not.”

         “Where?  What?  Oh my god.”

Tears pushed Peony’s face into her hands.

         “I thought I was drowning.  Or, somebody was drowning me.”

         “It’s okay now Doc.  You’re fine.  Let’s get you up and into a strong cup of coffee, eh?”

         “Sure Marcus, that sounds good.”

Marcus put Doctor Green into his  chair behind the nurses’ station and started brewing some fresh coffee.

         “Are you sure you’re okay Doc?”

         “Yeah, much better.”

Marcus watched as she wiped at her tears.

         “Your eyes, alright?”

         “Yeah.  Just scared.  I guess I saw, well I thought I saw something.”

         “In Madeline’s eyes?”

         “Yeah, but how?”

         “Alex was going on and on about the patient’s eyes all morning.  He had started tearing up just after checking on her.  He kept talking about how blue and painful her eyes were.”

         “Yeah.  The bluest I’ve ever seen.”

Marcus grabbed the bright folder from the desk and thumbed the pages.

         “Here.  Read that.”

He pointed to the patient’s medical chart and Peony read.

         “Brown eyes?  This is a typo.  Madeline has blue eyes.”

         “No she doesn’t.  Her chart specifically details that she has brown eyes.  I checked everything.”

         “But I saw blue.”

         “And so did Alex.”

         “That doesn’t make any sense.”

         “Now her daughter had blue eyes.”

         “Yeah, but…how did she die?”

         “Turn the page.”

Marcus pointed at the right paragraph.

         “She drowned at the park?”

         “While her mother, in there,” Marcus jabbed a thumb towards the room, “ watched.”

         “How horrible.”

         “Yeah, apparently Madeline can’t swim.”



         Madeline had never learned to swim.  When she was very young her father tried to teach her.  He was known to hold her over his head and drop her repeatedly into the water; the lesson never stuck.  She was not afraid of water though.  She was in the pond while Endive was struggling for air, but she was not trying to save her.



         Peony found the tears harder to stop after finding more about Madeline’s past.  She tried several pills, but nothing seemed to even slow the tears steady roll.  After several hours Peony decided to leave and just go home.  All she needed was some rest, she thought.  She said her goodbyes to Marcus.  He winked and told her that everything would be fine tomorrow.  She found it very hard to drive with the moisture blurring her vision.  Peony never saw the truck that hit her.  Her head had been swimming with those damned blue hands.  She could feel their icy touch all over her flesh: on her thighs, up her skirt, squeezing at her neck and pulling her hair.  Her last thought was that the hands belonged to Madeline’s daughter.  She did not know why she thought that, but when she did the hands relaxed their grip.



         As Doctor Green was leaving, and looking rather haggard, Marcus decided that he needed to look in on Madeline.  Besides, he had just told the Doc that everything would be fine; he should just make sure.  Madeline was in a tight fetal position under her soaking wet sheets.  She had not screamed all day and Marcus hoped that she would not start while he was in with her.

         “Madeline.  I’ve read your file.  My name is Marcus.  I’m your orderly.  I’m here to help you get through this.  I’m your friend.”

He was nonplussed when she did not react.  Too many patients in the past had ignored or shunned this contact; others that he wished would have.

         “It’s okay Madeline, I understand.  This is all too much.  The human soul can only take so much I really do understand.”

A tremor ran under the sheet like a cotton earthquake.

         “Madeline?  Do you need something?  We can just talk if you want to.”

Marcus sat on the bed next to her.  He could feel tiny tremors in the mattress and they were not all from the sobbing.

         “Madeline?”

She rolled on to her back.  Her eyes were pinched shut and swollen with tears.  Marcus had a clean cloth in his hands and started to wipe at her tears.  He understood what Alex meant when he had talked about her pain.  The sadness seemed to permeate the room like sweat.  It was infectious.  His heart felt heavy for the tear riddled woman.

         “You don’t have to talk yet, I understand. But, how about a look?  Let’s see those eyes.”

Marcus had to see for himself, it was an overpowering urge.  He had to see her eyes.

         “Just open ‘em a crack, eh?  Let’s see those beautiful brown eyes.”

They were not brown eyes that opened; they were not even a true blue.  There was a shading of blue, but it disappeared into the grays and blacks that swirled into a vortex consuming the entire cornea.  Marcus tried to pull back from her, but he was fixed in that dark twisting gaze.

         “Madeline?”

Her lips moved.  She was trying to form words, but was not sure of her mouth.  Her face looked uncomfortable, as if someone else was trying it on for the first time.

         “No, not Madeline,” the face said.

         “Who?”

Marcus had started to tremble; he was shaking along with the mattress tremors.

         “My mother is broken.  She broke when she decided to hold me under the water.  She didn’t know that wasn’t going to stop me.”

The voice was slow and small, like a child’s voice.

         “She always knew I was special.  I am.”

Marcus felt the tears forming in his eyes and began to scream.