What Do You Do...

Posted on 01 Jan 2016 @ 3:24am by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy

651 words; about a 3 minute read

In a darken room, the only light was cast by the stars outside of the stationary window; the glimpse of an outside bulkhead showing the only evidence of the station to which the ship was docked.

If you choose to study the room more carefully, boxes and bags were stacked in one corner; eagerly waiting their owner to open they wide and give each possesition their rightful place within the new room...another new room, vaguely different to the others that had been seen in just a few short weeks.

Look even closer and you'll see, a woman seated on the ground, her face hidden partly from view by the loosened hair which feel forward as the person leaned over an object in her hand; to peer a little more closer at the screen which illuminated her face.

Her hand gripped s second object in an almost claw like grasp as she struggled to create words on the screen; struggled to record the memories locked inside of her head.

To an observer looking in; she looked just like another woman, lost in her thoughts in a room which echoed only the sound of the individual's breath.

What was going through her mind? Why on tonight of all nights was she sat on the floor...alone with nobody around her?

If you choose to move that bit closer, to tilt your head until the words on the screen became legible to the outside world; what would you read?

Would it be simple notes relating to her job? A to do list for the following day so as nothing would escape her memory over night? Or perhaps it was the beginning of a novel, after all you don't ever fully know a person's true potential, loves and likes unless you know them a little bit more.

Or perhaps it's a love letter? Whistful words written where verbal words escape because perhaps there's a distance, or even simple time bridging a gap that wasn't able to be crossed.

Move a little closer as your eyes readjust to the dimmed light. Where the woman doesn't move a muscle as her hand continues to move across the screen; trapping words that can never be forgotten.

What now do you see? Do you see the tears stains against the PADD casing, the pain echoed in her eyes? Do you see the ramblings of a mad woman, looking for an escape outside of screaming so loud that the pain and hurt and fear built up inside is let loose? The cap of the bottle tossed to one side as finally she finds an outlet that just allows her to vocalise how she feels but still retain some control.

Or perhaps you glimpse a simple smile which echoes the words which she writes? Hopes, dreams, feelings, emotions...her every wish and dream coming through. Perhaps instead of shouting it from the rafters, just how happy she is; she chooses instead to encapsulate it in the written word so as it will be never forgotten.

As you feel the tug which will take you away from the screen, your hand moves to grasp the PADD; to see the words. An urgency of needing to know what it says surging through your mind. An urgency replaced with dispair as your hand grasps just air and you feel your body begin to fall backwards. A never ending fall which leaves you circling your arms for a balance you just can't find.

NO! You need to know how she's feeling, what she's thinking but it isn't happening. Your dream takes you away and leaves just the memory of a girl. A girl seated on the floor of her room. Boxes of her personal life all the she has for company. If only you had seen her face...seen her words...if only you could understand why it is that she was all alone.

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