With quick, silent strides, Yuii stepped outside through the Aesculapius's main doors into the brisk night air of the courtyard. She paused to swung a black felt jacket over the shoulders of her soft knit grey sweater and fumbled her green scarf from its pocket and onto her neck. It was getting colder, that's what her secretary Megumi had insisted when she'd brought the coat with the first of many sets of clean clothing to the hospital. Yuii hadn't seen the sense in it, she had no plan or reason to leave the hospital, but had taken it to make her bespeckled friend happy. Now, as the frosty evening threatened to reach her bones, she was thankful for the thoughtfulness. Summer was already an afterthought in the land of ice and storms.
They say that when your sight is inverted, it takes a mere three days to adjust to your whole world being on its head. That the challenged brain will force you to see the new, overturned world as normal in order to cope. It could be true, Yuii mused as she buried her cheeks into green wool warmth and squinted up at the half moon. Somehow, without noticing, she had adjusted to the difficult and beautiful parts of life. Marriage, motherhood and even her role as Sennin to the village were regular parts of her story which she could never have imagined before. Being happy and fulfilled was her normal.
But now, life had been reversed by a single horrible event and Yuii was walking blindly into walls while trying to get through the worst days of her life. Every right turn took her left, every step up made her tumble, every happy moment made her sad. Even now, as she positioned herself beneath a street lamp and watched for eagerly for the first signs of her Husband's arrival which had been radioed ahead to her, Yuii was struggling. The typical joy and relief she wanted to, and should, feel with his homecoming felt wrong, selfish, guilt-ridden. Anticipation was anxiety.
And so she wasn't very animated when she raised one arm at Caerroth's great star swallowing shadow as he and his passengers flew closer. She lacked her normal vibrancy and energy as she shoved her hands in her pockets and trudged a dozen steps to the safest place the lizard could land. No illusions were used to hide the dark shadows beneath her eyes or the purple bruising that decontamination had caused. Even her normal shades of blue seemed diminished.
"Welcome Home," she would greet simply with a melancholic smile.
They say that when your sight is inverted, it takes a mere three days to adjust to your whole world being on its head. That the challenged brain will force you to see the new, overturned world as normal in order to cope. It could be true, Yuii mused as she buried her cheeks into green wool warmth and squinted up at the half moon. Somehow, without noticing, she had adjusted to the difficult and beautiful parts of life. Marriage, motherhood and even her role as Sennin to the village were regular parts of her story which she could never have imagined before. Being happy and fulfilled was her normal.
But now, life had been reversed by a single horrible event and Yuii was walking blindly into walls while trying to get through the worst days of her life. Every right turn took her left, every step up made her tumble, every happy moment made her sad. Even now, as she positioned herself beneath a street lamp and watched for eagerly for the first signs of her Husband's arrival which had been radioed ahead to her, Yuii was struggling. The typical joy and relief she wanted to, and should, feel with his homecoming felt wrong, selfish, guilt-ridden. Anticipation was anxiety.
And so she wasn't very animated when she raised one arm at Caerroth's great star swallowing shadow as he and his passengers flew closer. She lacked her normal vibrancy and energy as she shoved her hands in her pockets and trudged a dozen steps to the safest place the lizard could land. No illusions were used to hide the dark shadows beneath her eyes or the purple bruising that decontamination had caused. Even her normal shades of blue seemed diminished.
"Welcome Home," she would greet simply with a melancholic smile.