Burning!!Awakened, her eyes popped open. Her throat was burning. She could taste the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she had eaten the night before. Slowly she sat up in her small bed, the thin blue blanket dropped to her lap. She didn't even notice because the pain in her throat was so intense.
She crawled out of bed, then made her way into the bathroom, and while she was looking for the matches, she almost collapsed on the floor.
Damn peanut butter and jelly sandwiches had been bothering her so much lately. What was she going to eat if she could not eat them anymore, she thought as she lit the candle sitting on the toilet tank lid. She was barely making it with the little pension the newly formed government gave her. She was one of the lucky ones because she was allowed to work part-time in a bakery and so she was allowed to sneak the end pieces of the loafs of bread home to her room.
She opened the medicine cabinet and found the small bottle of Tums that she had bought the week before. There were only three tablets left. She filled a cup with tap water then took one of the tablets and broke it in half. It would have to do. She slowly sucked on the Tums. It was almost like eating a piece of candy. She had not had any candy in so long that she had almost forgotten what it tasted like. When the Tums had melted she drank the glass of water. She almost spit it out because it tasted so bad, but she had no choice, she had to wash down the acid that was burning her throat. Slowly she walked back to her bed and crawled back in, pulling the thin blue cover over her tiny frail body.
As she lay there, she remembered.
She remembered when things were different. She had once lived in a nice house with her husband and son. They were not rich but they were not poor either. Her husband owned a small business that was doing okay. They had saved enough to send their son to a good University and he had become a Doctor. He had moved nearby, and was working at the Hospital in that city. They did not see a lot of him because he was so busy, but when they could, they would visit. He eventually got married and had three children.
Oh how she had loved her grandchildren and even her son's wife. She was the daughter she had never had. Her husband and she had seen more of them then their son, and it was okay. The grandchildren had become a very important part of their life.
Then slowly everything changed. The leader of their country somehow convinced the government that they needed him to stay on as their leader, and because the military backed him up, the others kept quiet and went along with it. He had told everyone that he wanted to change things, and he had changed "Everything". Soon the government was taking over the banks, big businesses, the oil companies. They slowly worked their way into forcing most companies to need the governments help to stay in business. They changed how everything was done, and soon enough it seemed like the government owned everything.
Her husband had to follow so many new rules and regulations for his business, that he was forced to work long hours. Then he had to pay for the medical benefits for all of his employees, so he laid off a third of his workers to do this. Everyone had to work longer hours, but they did not get any extra money. What choice did they have, the government told them they had to have the medical benefits or they would have to pay out of their own pockets. They figured it was better if her husband paid, instead of them paying.
Everyone kept quiet because they had heard that those who complained had disappeared and no one had seen them again.
The only good thing was that her son had been on the side of the rebels, and when they had split the country up, with the rebels taking over more then a third, her son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids had been living in that part of the country.
She had not been allowed to speak to them or see them since that had happened. But rumors had been going around that they lived as she had once lived. They were free! They were not slaves to a government that never seemed to have enough from it's people, and a mad man as their dictator, who pretended that his citizens were free.
About four years after the take over, her husband had died of a heart attack. The government doctors had said he was in poor health and had not taken care of himself as they had directed. She knew better, she knew it was due to the stress and that they were barely surviving. The government taxed them to death. They taxed everything they possibly could. Then when you could not pay the taxes they took over. They then owned everything, and you worked for them. But you were not really one of "those government workers", the ones who really worked for the government, and were paid a ridiculous amount of money for doing almost nothing.
Everyone had watched this happening to their country. The triangles of life had changed. Once upon a time you were born, you lived a nice life and then you died. Now you were born, you died inside every day, and then your pathetic life was over. Well unless of course you were one of "those government workers". They still had the great triangle of life to live.
She had done nothing to fight it, she had listened to her husband telling her that everything was fine. Well it was not, she had nothing but a room, and every day some peanut butter and jelly to put on some bread. Once she had found an egg and she wanted to eat it so much, but she had no stove to cook it on. But she was smart, she found a tin can in the trash and cooked the egg inside the tin can, while holding it over the candle. She thought she had died and gone to heaven. She had even saved the tin can just in case she found another egg. So far she had not.
She lay there in her bed with no pillow for her head, the blue blanket too thin to warm her frail body, thinking of her son and how her life would have been if she had listened when he had asked her to go with him and join up with the rebels. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, as she rolled on her side, she closed her eyes, praying that she would not wake up. She missed her husband and wanted to be with him. She slowly fell asleep.
An hour later her eyes popped open, her throat was burning again. She thought to herself, those damn peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!
For more TT triangles, go
here.
Update:::::We just had a really good earthquake as I was sitting here reading posts. It was at 5:14 am. A rolling movement and then a big jolt that bumped me up. Guess I will see on the news what size it was. It was a 3.3 with the epicenter near here. Anything over a 3.0 is big if you are near the epicenter. God bless.
We love you Dad, may you find the way through Heaven's Gate and we will see you on the other side. Save a place for all of us.
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