THE CURTAIN

By Deryn Pittar

Content Warnings: Sight loss.

It was a long time ago, so long ago that, in a room full of relatives, the adults’ legs were a forest I pushed my way through. A time when the workings of the world were a mystery I hoped to unravel one day, and responsibility was an unknown concept. The world was bright day after bright day.

Then the rainy days began, with tears as well as drenching drops and a mist floating at the side of my vision. The glare made my eyes ache, and the night became blacker than the spilled ink on my desk.

Adult life became edged with objects, missed and broken. Vehicles appeared from nowhere and narrowly passed me by. A diagnosis didn’t cheer me, nor help. Family love eased the dismay and smoothed the wrinkles in the fabric of failing sight.

Today is warm. The heat of the sun caresses my skin. Plucked from the clothesline, the washing smells of sunshine. The birds talk of autumn soon, and the breeze whispers its chill around my knees. The plate is hot, my fingers sing.

I reach for a handle, a hook, a string – anything – to tear the curtain aside to hang and fold as it did before, letting in some detail, revealing a focal point.

Help me to shatter this darkness, to smash this night, to break this shadow into a myriad of lights, into a thousand whirling dreams of sun.

Deryn Pittar:

Deryn Pittar writes Sci.fi., Fantasy, Young Adult, Cosy Mystery, contemporary fiction, short stories, flash fiction. and is an occasional poet. She is published in all these genre and ‘Lutapolii – White Dragon of the South’, won a Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Young Adult Published in 2018. She is honing her skill in short fiction with some success. Her dystopian novel, ‘The Carbonite’s Daughter’, was released by IFWG Publishing, Australia

in 2022. The sequel ‘Quake City’ will be released in 2024.

amazon.com/author/derynpittar

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