Just one more night, a short story by wayne007. Date added: 2006-05-01. Times viewed: 2962.

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Liam finally woke on the third day, his head felt a little clearer, the haze
seemed to have passed, he thought he saw a way through the mist in his mind.
He stayed for a long time sprawled out on the couch looking up at the
ceiling, knowing that the body of his dead mother lay in the room above him.
Three days since she had passed and still he had told no one. How could he?
They would want to take her from him; they would want to remove her from the
house. He wasn't ready for that yet. He wasn't ready to be left all alone.

Liam made himself some breakfast then climbed the stairs and entered his
mother's bedroom. He walked past the bed where she lay and pushed the window
open further. He looked over at his mother; she lay there quiet and still,
peaceful as if in a deep sleep. He didn't see the body as it actually was,
he didn't notice the smell. He disliked the colour and texture of the skin
now as she lay dead on the bed. Instead he saw her face as he last
remembered it, old yet full of life.

Liam lay down on the bed next to his mother and talked to her, they always
talked, only now it was Liam that was doing all the talking. But that was
fine by him, he didn't want this to change, he didn't want her to go away
and leave him. He had no one else, only her.

Liam left his mothers room after an hour, carefully smoothing away the
creases on the side of the bed where had been lying before he went. He began
tending to his chores around the house, the most important of which was to
sweep the leaves from the back porch, his mother was always on at him to
make sure the back porch was tidy. He found the old broom where he had left
it previously and began his work.

Liam saw their neighbour Mrs Richins watching him from her kitchen window. A
moment later she was at the fence that separated their gardens.
"How's your Mother today Liam" She asked
Tell her, Liam thought. Tell her what has happened. Mrs Richens could then
make the necessary phone calls. Tell her. You have done nothing wrong, but
you can't keep the body here any longer. Tell her. Tell her now.
"She's doing fine" Liam lied
He wasn't ready to be left alone, not yet, he wanted just one more day.

Liam finished sweeping the porch and looked out at their beautiful garden.
He saw the old rope swing at the back of the garden that he had played on as
a child with his mother pushing him, and all the while he would be yelling
with delight 'push me higher, higher' He couldn't let them take his mother
from him. He couldn't live in this house without her, it was their home. The
thought of living here by himself terrified him. The thought of having to
sell the old house and move away was worse still. But how much longer could
he keep this up? Just one more day he promised himself. Just one more day
with his mother.


Liam sat in the kitchen trying to see past all this, trying for the first
time to see a life for himself. But he just couldn't do it, he saw nothing
there. It had always been the two of them, how could he continue on his own.
He saw his life from this moment on as a hard cold winter. Filled with harsh
times, a baron landscape void of the chance of life and hope. An impassable
mass of nothingness, he truly was alone. He wounded why his mother had to be
taken from him, he wondered why things had to change. But nothing had to
change just yet, not today at any rate. Today it was still just the two of
them.

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