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Most nights the old lady believes that there are three or four small children on top of the cupboard opposite her bed, they have somehow clambered up there. She gets scared and worried, they could fall down and hurt themselves, she tells them they should come down at once, it’s too dangerous. They don’t listen to her, and her voice rises with despair and worry, she pleads, she shouts, but they simply don’t obey her.
It’s not clear whether she has her eyes open or closed. Is it a trick of the light and the shadows? Is it a dream? Is it a sort of vision or hallucination? It’s not at all clear what this is.
Are the childlike shapes stone figures, that she saw once in Britanny, which are now calling her across the ages? Or do they simply illustrate her situation, where no-one listens, where there is no-one to obey her any more?
Or is it somehow connected with the dangers her own mother faced?
Her mother was taken away from her during the war, she was to be deported to Dachau, but fell ill with tuberculosis, and was in prison hospital till the liberation of France. Only then were mother and child reunited.
The old lady’s cries wake her own daughter, who hurries into the room, irritated and worried. She tries to calm her, but the same situation recurs night after night.
"mother and daughter" by martinsea
Most nights the old lady believes that there are three or four small children on top of the cupboard opposite her bed, they have somehow clambered up there. She gets scared and worried, they could fall down and hurt themselves, she tells them they should come down at once, it’s too dangerous. They don’t listen to her, and her voice rises with despair and worry, she pleads, she shouts, but they simply don’t obey her.
It’s not clear whether she has her eyes open or closed. Is it a trick of the light and the shadows? Is it a dream? Is it a sort of vision or hallucination? It’s not at all clear what this is.
Are the childlike shapes stone figures, that she saw once in Britanny, which are now calling her across the ages? Or do they simply illustrate her situation, where no-one listens, where there is no-one to obey her any more?
Or is it somehow connected with the dangers her own mother faced?
Her mother was taken away from her during the war, she was to be deported to Dachau, but fell ill with tuberculosis, and was in prison hospital till the liberation of France. Only then were mother and child reunited.
The old lady’s cries wake her own daughter, who hurries into the room, irritated and worried. She tries to calm her, but the same situation recurs night after night.