It's Still Life

At an Intersection Named After an English King and a Saint
Six Sentence Story: Part 18 – Bedlam

Last week: “He’s gone, Brigid,” says the Gatekeeper, “Your Connor is gone.”

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This is *Bedlam Hospital, where once a week I come to visit Pierre …

“…it’s three years and five months, says the psychiatrist, as if she has an intimate understanding of time … “it seems longer,” I say, thinking everyone here probably thinks that.

I look down at her desk, a stained mug of milky coffee that’s clearly gone cold and a sandwich with perfectly aligned teeth marks.

She grabs a fistful of keys, and we walk down the hallway to number B9, my footsteps echoing in my heart.

A click-clunk-clunk, and she unlocks the door to Pierre’s room, “Brigid is here to see you,” but the words fall like stabs of air, and Pierre coughs, “That’s an imposter; Brigid would never visit me; I killed her Connor.”

“… no, Pierre, it’s me,” I whisper like a cloud in his ear, still hoping that my outstretched hand will find what used to be inside him, but there’s a curse ruling from underground.

And he springs off the bed and shouts in a voice lean and tense as wire, “… **Conneries conneries conneries.”

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*Bedlam Hospital first established in England in 1247. Here’s a link to Bedlam’s history.
**The word “conneries” is French, and means (click the link)

Previous Instalments – Part 1: The Pull Back   Part 2: The Measure of Her    Part 2: The Gatekeeper’s Response  Part 3: The Colour of Walls   Part 4: Tectonic Shifts  Part 5: Out of the Frying Pan  Part 6: How to Break Eggs Part 7: A Moon River  Part 8: Starlight Shines on the Roof  Part 9: Before When  Part: 9.1 Flower Power Part 10: To Trace a Curl   Part 11: I Walk With Ghosts Part 12: Behind Every Lining Is a Cloud Part 13: A Constellation of Coloured Paper Part 14: Behind the Eye of a Needle  Part 15: To Bleed the Sky  Part 16: Smoke in the Mirrors Part 17: Black & White Part 18: Bedlam

To access all of the instalments on one page, please use this link

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story, include the word “wire”. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Images are copyright and not to used without permission, which I willingly give when asked, and when not for commercial use. Imagery and poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2024.