Joy and Sorrow Heaven In Itself 2012

Today is Sunday, and Sundays are spectacular,'' Soledad Marquesa said to herself with a smile.Sundays and Wednesdays were bright spots in otherwise dreary existance.Sundays and Wednesdays were the bright spots  in her otherwise dreary existence,Nurse Tammy came in on those days.

Nurse Tammy was a young girl,but mature.Tammy didn't treat Soledad like she was a stupid baby, and that mattered a lot to the old woman.Unlike Nurse Big Mouth.Nurse Big Mouth wrongly reasoned just because Soledad had a second devastating stroke, she must be deaf well.Even more humiliating,Nurse Big  Mouth  insisted on conversing with Soledad in baby speak.

She loathed the loss of speech, he sudden inability to take a pee without assistance.The worst thing about a stroke was the rage she felt against the disease.Her husband Doyle was a good guy.Doyle was also twenty years younger, and he didn't understand.She loved Doyle,although considering how cranky she'd become  post stroke he probably didn't think so.He had offered to take time off work, and she had written him a note,telling him not to bother.

Soledad wanted to Doyle in her own voice that she was for being  such a bitch.She didn't want to die and leave him behind.She felt trapped,just as she had as a young woman,before society had been turned on its ear in the sixties.

'' But enough bad thoughts for one day.'' Soledad scolded herself.I need to have a good Sunday.I need to tell my brain better stories.

Tammy felt sunshine was essentials to her patient's well being, so Soledad was sitting shade side in  her own garden,watching the palm tree's breezes reverberate off the pool water.The talking heads had droned  on for centuries about what the big sleep was like, and if the afterlife did indeed exist.She had sat in on too many of these heated discussions and always picked apart the lemon slice in her Coke cup.These grim - faced individuals made life  after death sound like a boring country club,where the population floated around and smiled.

Soledad had a secret fantasy of what Postmortem Paradise looked like in her mind's eye.It was her backyard, only with more roses and palm trees, and a pristine beach in lieu of a swimming pool.No one wore clothes or shoes and seemed comfortable with it.Sixties and Seventies rock n' roll  blared all the time. There was beer,but the alcohol didn't make you chubby around the middle.

Soledad had wagered if that wasn't feasible,She wanted one tiny miracle,that her son be waiting for her.All those years ago,He was supposed to have gone to Little League practice,then to a sleepover.He was seen by several boys ay Practice, but never made it to the sleepover.The police found his tattered baseball uniform and mangled bike in a dumpster a block from the baseball diamond.He was twelve years old.

When he had been abducted in 1975, a huge chunk of her had gone with him.Having him back would be heaven in itself.They had had so much to catch up on.Eternity might not be enough time, but it would be worth a try.