Shorts

3

Every day I get her out of bed and take her down to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Not a word escapes her thin lips so we sit there in silence besides the crunching of milkless cereal. Then she drags herself off to the bathroom to take a shower while I turn on music to drown out the painful silence of the house. I was sitting down on the couch when she stepped into the living room and slumped down into a chair, shutting her eyelids closed to hide her hazel eyes. My eyes drift past her out the window at the falling snow. 

In the corner of the room is a tall, fake, undecorated Christmas tree, looming sadly over my head. "We could decorate it today," I say towards Iris, who doesn't respond but instead continues to stare blankly at the news flashing across the television screen in vibrant colors.

I get up and put a blanket around her shoulders and grab my coat from off of the wooden coat rack bolted to the blue walls. "I'll be right back. Gotta get your medication," No response.

Snow begins to get caught on the top of my head in my short brown hair as I walk towards the car. The inside of the small mini cooper is colder than the winter wonderland outside of it. A chill went down my spine as I pulled out of the driveway and started to drive down the freshly plowed streets to the pharmacy. I pulled into the parking lot and rushed inside to get away from the cold. "Hey Finn. Here to pick up Iris' meds?" Mr.Keller asked, leaning on his hands.

"Yeah. How've you been?"

"Good. Carol is starting to finally feel better. How is Iris, you know, after everything?"

"I still don't know what happened to her that night. I guess nobody does. But she has been eating and showering, so better," I shrugged and began to walk through the aisles, picking up a new magazine in hopes that Iris might read it.

I picked up the meds from off the counter and bought the magazine before returning home, only to find Iris in the same spot on the chair. Small bits of snow were now melting on the wooden floors that had swirled in from the outside. The couch cushioned me as I fell onto it, my hands behind my head. My eyes were staring up at the white popcorn ceiling when I heard Iris' chair creak as she picked up the new magazine.

She eyed it before slowly opening up the first page and her eyes seemed to dart everywhere. I got up and headed for the closet, taking out a box labeled "Christmas". Slowly I began to take out ornaments and decorate the tree so it wasn't so lonely. "Come help me," I said as I took Iris' hand and got her up on her feet. "We are going to make this house a little less lonley."

So for the rest of the afternoon we decorated the Christmas tree, a fire lit in the fireplace and flurries of snow swirling around outside. Christmas music was breaking the normal, horrible silence of the house. The sweet smell of hot chocolate filled the large room while we sipped on mugs of it. By the end all we had left to do was put the star up on the top of the tall tree.

I pulled up a chair next to the now beautifully decorated tree and handed the star to Iris. "You do it," She tried to shove it back towards me but I shook my head until she gave in and stepped up onto the chair.

The golden star shined bright with the white lights hitting it from all angles beneath it. So there we sat, in the warm living room, with a now decorated tree, smiling. It was the first time I had seen Iris smile in months. I had almost forgotten about how beautiful her smile really was- a smile that could light up any room.

Hey there! This is also part of a story I've begun writing and I wanted to get some feedback. Hope you liked it!