- Vol. 10
- Chapter 11
Selene and Little Red
Selene looked out of her window and up into the night sky. She wondered what it would have been like to look down upon the Earth, to live among the stars.
‘Selene, could you give me your hand, my love?’ the nurse asked.
She barely heard the nurse over her cloudy thoughts. Her mind was wandering again. For Selene time itself had changed shape, melting like a Dalí clock. One memory seemed to fold into the next, each day she awoke a different version of herself.
As she moved her hand forward she saw a blurry object. A young girl was climbing over her knuckles; a tiny mountaineer, carefully planning each step forward, exploring new terrain. The girl wore a beautiful red puffer-jacket and blue mittens with white polka dots.
‘Your eyes look as big as the moon tonight, Selene!’ the nurse interrupted.
‘Shhh. Please be quiet. I need to find out who this small girl is.’
‘Of course, I apologise, Selene. You concentrate on your hand while I take some blood. You’ll feel a slight scratch.’
Selene did not feel any scratch. She was focused on the girl adventuring on the top of her hand, hopping on liver spots like stepping stones and following aged lines like rivers. Without much thought at all, Selene named her Little Red. A warm feeling spread out from Selene’s heart. She did not know why, but she loved this little explorer deeply.
Little Red looked across to Selene’s silver ring with curiosity. She approached the ring, drawn in by its sparkling sapphire gemstone.
Selene and Little Red
‘You know my mother gave me this ring? Oh that was some time ago now. I do miss my mother,’ Selene told Little Red.
‘Oh you love that ring, don’t you Selene? Your mother gave it to you when you turned twenty-one,’ the nurse replied.
‘Shush. I’m talking to Little Red.’
She shook her head at the nurse, quite cross at the incessant interruption. When she looked back at her hand, Little Red had vanished.
‘Now look what you’ve done! She’s gone.’
‘Selene, you remember Little Red don’t you? I’ll be back in one moment, you just wait here.’
The nurse moved across the room, rummaging inside a set of old wooden drawers across from where Selene sat upright in bed. She came back over to Selene with a framed black and white photograph of a little girl.
‘This was you, Selene. You can’t see the colour, but you told me when you were little you wore a bright red jacket and everyone called you Little Red.’
A quietness took hold. Selene looked back to her hand and there again was Little Red, giggling with excitement. Selene could feel her hopes and dreams as a little girl, of adventure and discovery. As she slowly came to herself in the present, she felt the sharp pain of her unrealised expectations. She looked back out of the window at the bright moon with bloodshot, teary eyes.