Never Again
Short Story | Creative Nonfiction | New Year's Resolution
She laid on the floor by the refrigerator, motionless except for her chest inflating, deflating, slowly. She had found a comfortable place to rest. We stared at her, speechless, awaiting the next steps after my heart breaking phone call.
We had no words to say to our best friend nor to each other. All we could do was sit and watch her not move, barely breathing. My numb brain and heart tried to process the scene. She went downhill quickly. I sat in the chair grateful our doctor was making a house call during COVID, April 2020.
The face we all had loved for eleven years came through the door, masked. We could see her eyes but nothing else. Same with her assistant. It all felt cold to me, for us all to attend to this final moment with our humanity, our grief, hidden behind blue cloths.
She injected the fluid. Her stethoscope confirmed our best friend was gone. Our vet gazed at us, her eyes seeking a connection, but our four masks blocked all emotions. She took our dog's body and drove away.
I resolved to never again allow a face mask to block our humanity from each other.
© Copyright 2024—Present, Jenise Cook, All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
First Published: 3 January 2024, Jenise Cook’s Creative Journey on Substack.
Image credit: Anna Shvets on Pexels.com
About this Story
This piece is creative nonfiction. The prompt, “Resolutions”, came from the leader of the creative nonfiction group in my online writing/critiquing community. She gave us a 200-word maximum.
How to fit so much emotion in such a small story space? It isn’t easy. One day, I may expand this piece into a larger one to capture the very powerful emotions of that day; emotions that we all felt blocked to express, to share with each other, due to four blue cloths. Our vet had cared for our dear, sweet Mattie for eleven years. We were “family”.
And that loss of connection continues to break my heart even today.
Such a lovely piece!!
I think the length of this very touching story was just perfect, Jenice The emotions of the hours were palpable. We felt them. I think it would be challenging to tell the same story in only 50words. Could be even more powerful bringing it right down to the essence. Hadn't heard from you for a while!