After escaping a horrible childhood, I got a chance to reestablish my life. I've had my eye on Diane Sherman for a long time, and was not ashamed to get myself involved in her life.
I knew she had no interest in anyone other than her daughter, but I...
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It's a Sunday morning; I'm standing in line at the pharmacy, witnessing a young girl in a wheelchair yell at Mrs. Bates.
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"What would happen if a human took ridocaine?" says the girl, eyes wide with fear. A moment of silence from Mrs. Bates. "WHAT WOULD HAPPEN?!?" the girl yells impatiently, startling the old woman.
"I...suppose your legs could go numb." is the response.
I watch as the girl straightens her back against the wheelchair, turning pale, nothing but fear in her expression.
The pharmacy door slams open. It's the woman with auburn hair, running towards the pharmacy desk. "CHLOE? CHLOE!! What happened to you?", she asks the girl. I suppose this is her daughter, then. "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HER? Chloe? Hey, it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay", she reassures her daughter, who had started to hyperventilate. The woman surveys her surroundings, briefly making eye contact with me.
I start making frantic hand motions at the rest of the folks in line. "Give them some space, people, don't just stand there!"
The woman's attention is brought back to me. I receive a look of acknowledgment. She copies one of my hand motions in a slowed-down manner. "That's right- please, will you please just back off!"
As the crowd backs off and the woman is able to focus on Chloe, I watch in fascination as the intriguing woman narcotizes her daughter. Her expression is calm, but I notice something in her face that I had never noticed before- a look of desperation. I could sense the satisfaction she derived from being needed by her daughter, a sort of fear of loneliness that was projected, maybe?
"It's okay. I've got you, sweet girl." Her voice drips with a kind of security that can only come from a mother. I watch in awe at the love in this mother's eyes.
I'm slightly shocked at how much I long for a relationship like the one this woman has. I can practically smell the amount of tragedy and sacrifice this woman has experienced for her daughter. An overwhelming sense of understanding and craving hit me. I want to see what else this woman has to offer. Before I realize it, one of my business cards has been taken out of my bag and is in my hand. As the woman makes her way out of the pharmacy with her now-incapacitated daughter, I wait for my opportunity and slip the card into her sweater pocket, giving her my attempt at a reassuring look. She looks shocked for a moment, but continues to walk as she eyes me suspiciously.
An idea having popped into my head, I ask to cut the pharmacy line. "Mrs. Bates? Could I get my prescription? I have to get to the lab...oh, and could you remind me the name of the drug the girl in the wheelchair asked you about?
As I drive to the lab, I ponder over the earlier events of the pharmacy. The young girl had asked what would happen if a human took ridocaine. Did her panic attack indicate that it was she who was unknowingly taking the paralysis medication? And wasn't her mother giving it to her?
My curiosity settling in, I become interested as to whether my suspicions are really true- and if so, what are the older woman's motivations for paralyzing her daughter?
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