That Morning
It was morning. Webster had announced 'the word of the year' for 2016. A single word caught in a swift glance at my phone screen was to sum up what ensued in the early hours of that day; 'Surreal'. Sleep had been dodging my eyes like a vibrant fly, an ominous swatter in the sweaty hands of a frustrated insomniac. All I had captured since the second Mother informed me, in her usual neutral tone, that you were going to have your skull broken into at 8:00AM on Monday, were harrowing visions of a misguided neurosurgeon’s scalpel missing its mark. You are seated, as Mother described you would be, sedated, and an angry man with every intent on killing his time, is digging into the back of your brain to extract the source of his anxiety. Images of happy faces; your happy face, over a blurred Skype session reassuring me, “all went well” collided with darker scenes of relatives coming up with insane scenarios as to why I could not talk to you there and then. I guess th