Birds of A Cage

"Stranger Things"

Open your eyes, Ana Maria. I know you can hear me...

That voice was low, with an agreeable trace of love and care. I knew that voice, it always soothed me.

Open your eyes baby, we're late.

My eyes fluttered open, staring at the face levitating above me. My beautiful mother smiled; her dimples curved like gentle commas. Her natural hair cascaded to the top of her cheek. She had a radiant face with brilliant shine and a high arched nose.

"Mommy?"

"Good Morning my baby, we're late for your appointment with the doctor. Get up!" She shoved the heavy, silk covers off my body and pulled me out of the bed. "Your father is having breakfast downstairs in the dining room, waiting, get in the shower!"

I groaned and sat.

Her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "How is your heart?"

Running a warm hand across my chest, I gently massaged. "I feel okay."

She walked away – her elegant kitenge dress swinging from left to right – to the window and pulled back the drapes. The sunlight bounced into my inner sanctum of discarded clothes and empty coffee cups, illuminating the pink tiles.

Something didn't feel right. Was this a sick joke?

My mother turned to me and smiled, that beautiful smile I had missed so much. I couldn't shake the sickening feeling etched in my gut. Something was wrong. I fell back onto my bed like someone pulled my body in the opposite direction. Away from the person I loved the most.

"Mom!" I screamed, clutching onto my chest. She ran towards me without hesitation and pulled me into a hug. "What's happening to me?"

She grabbed me by my face and forced me to look into her eyes. "It's gonna be okay. I love you so much, my little girl. I need you to open your eyes."

I fought to get out of her arms. "What's wrong with you, my eyes are open."

"Open your eyes Maria...open your eyes for your mother."

"Mom!"

"Open your eyes..."

"Mommy, stop! "

"...Maria"

"My baby..."

"...Open your eyes."

I opened my eyes to a plethora of lights; blinding and uncomfortable. I couldn't think of why my heart pounded as if a hypodermic of adrenaline has been emptied into my veins. I strained in the light.

"Mom?"

There was no answer.

I tried to move, to sit on my bed, but couldn't. Pain throbbed in my guts, deep and warm, but unpleasant. My head pounded, my legs felt like they had been tied to a post and my ribs like I had rammed into a wall repeatedly.

"Mommy?"

It took me another second before I registered, I was in unknown territory and panic gripped me. I wasn't home, in our house, with my mother. I'd lost that years ago. A heaviness filled my chest as everything started falling into place. She wasn't here, my mom hadn't been to my room to wake me up like she had done every morning. It had all been a bad, cruel dream. I was still all alone.

The fact that I wasn't in my flat either hit me a few seconds later. The last thing I could recall was that I headed home. Where was I?

Gordon.