Of Ice and Hopitals

Chapter 22

_______________________

I know this time is

all I have and it's

leaving

So fast

Makes it hard for

me to find things to

believe in

And things that last

I didn't want to fall

apart but I have

I really don't wanna

lose you but I think I

am

So can we lighten

up and dry the

rain?

Can we ever really

start again?

________________________

November 7, 2008

Lisa had been off and acting out of character for a week, and despite her husband's advice to let their daughter come to them on her own terms instead of prying into her personal business, Eleanor had had enough. Could not take her baby's quiet suffering any second longer.

Barring the times where the family would gather around the table for breakfast and dinner, their oldest girl had been locking herself up in her room for hours uninterrupted.

Neither ALis nor Eleanor really knew what Lisa was doing, all alone and sad between the four walls of her bedroom.

She had let her time and space to snap out of her depressive state and confide in them but seeing as it still had not changed a thing, Eleanor decided that she would put an end to this miserable cycle today.

Zipping up her Patagonia windbreaker and snatching her teenager's from its little silver hook in the entryway, the environmental lawyer vigorously strode to Lisa's room, stopping to firmly rap her knuckles three times on the wooden door.

She stood there until she heard a weak "What?" before crossing the doorframe.

The scene that greeted the mother of two was a shot to the heart.

Lisa was laying on her back over her bedspread with her fingers interlaced on her stomach, her neck propped up against her pillow.

Her headphones were securely plugged in her ears and muffling almost all sounds, and were it not for the strings of fairy lights hung around her bed frame casting a soft, warm yellow light into the room, Eleanor would not have seen the thin layer of moist acting as a veiling film over her beautiful green eyes.

The brunette was vacuously staring into the void of the blank ceiling and the only perceptible movement on her lean body was the gentle and steady rise and fall of her chest as she slowly breathed through her nose.

An oversized pastel yellow and emerald sweater swallowed her small frame, hiding her sleeping shorts. Long woolen reading socks were wrapped around her feet and shielded them from the chilly autumn air.

She looked like a child who had dressed up in their parents' wardrobe.

The sight completely shattered the older woman's heart and Eleanor felt her agitated resolve soften considerably. Yet it strengthened at the same time. Fueled her parental instinct need to ease her child's worries and pain.

Gingerly, the mother sat at the foot of the bed and covered one of her daughter's ankles with her hand as she looked at Lisa resolutely yet empathetically.