by Maria Hardin
I always start with “OPERA.” That gives me three vowels, but that feels too close to “operate” and I don’t want to think about that right now, so I go with “AUDIO” which covers four vowels, but now I think about what I’ll listen to tomorrow in pre-op to keep me calm before they cut out that lump, and “AUDIO” gives me a “U” in the correct place and an “O” in the wrong place. The lump in my left breast is in the wrong place. Anywhere in my body is the wrong place. I go back to the puzzle, “something, U, something, something, something” and one of those somethings is an “O.” So I try “OUGHT” and I still have the “O” in the wrong place and now a “T” in the wrong place, and the “G” and “H” are both out. Like that lump thing which OUGHT not to be there, and I can’t even think about the word, the one that begins with a “T” and is usually cancer, but I won’t know for sure until they get it out. Dammit. I try “TUMOR” and I get the answer in three tries.
Maria Hardin enjoys creating these interesting little soap bubbles of stories and releasing them into the world. She has been published in Bath Flash Fiction, The Main Street Rag, and New Feathers Anthology. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her boyfriend and dog.
Emerge Literary Journal 