Lost Girls

My girls are all lost, said the mother, in her head, underneath the life support equipment. I’ve done a terrible thing bringing girls into the world and then losing them like this. I can’t die and go to heaven because my girls are lost and they’ll never find each other without me. I have to stay right here with a sore on the side of my mouth because they are all three stepping around like cats in socks and blinders. They’re shaking their feet and running into walls.
What was going on in the room around her, in the actual world where most people could breathe without a ventilator, was that a tape was on endless repeat of her oldest grandchild reading his primers. Very endearing. It made all the nurses cry.