The Ink Well Prompt #78: Flashes of light

For Carmen Elena, her arrival in the city has been an experience that has left her with many lessons to learn. Her twenty years of life in the countryside with her parents and four siblings, all boys, had shaped her into a responsible person for work, but a bit of a loner. A lover of animals and plants, she spent most of the day in the forest after finishing her work in the lemon grove and the family orchard. Although she was thin and small, her strength was not only external but also internal and despite her youth, her family trusted in her wise and balanced decisions, like the one they had to take when an illness began to affect Mariela... her mother.

Carmen Elena accompanied her on the trip to the city, so that her mother would have the opportunity to be examined and have the necessary tests done to find out what was happening to her. Her mother felt that her hands and feet were falling asleep, when she sat down a great pain in her back did not allow her to get up and she saw a lot of bright spots, flashes of light.

They stayed at the home of their mother's sister, Aunt Elisa. The doctor who attended them seemed to be a very dedicated professional, a specialist in neurological problems. Dr. Gutiérrez, as he was called, recommended that the patient be kept in seclusion while the tests were being done. The final diagnosis was terrible, a tumor in the brain was affecting Mariela's motor skills and eyesight. However, the doctor gave them hope, there was the possibility of an operation to remove it and determine if it was malignant.

Moments of great anguish for the whole family, when Carmen Elena called her father to tell him the news. She did everything possible to give them hope, but fear is always present in these cases, however, she did not lose faith. She started working in the kitchen of a restaurant to help with her mother's expenses, when she left she went straight to the hospital and stayed with her until the time when all the visitors had to leave and sometimes with the complicity of the nurses she stayed a little longer.

Carmen Elena wanted to know what was wrong with her mother and began to read about the brain. A world of knowledge opened up to her. An organ so complex that it is capable of directing the entire functioning of our body. But Carmen Elena also thought that besides the brain there must be something else because then... who gives the orders to the brain? Why in some occasions like her mother's illness, her orders are changed and the cells do something different, is it that the cells are self-governing? All these questions, which still had no clear answer from science, confused Carmen Elena, who continued in her incessant search.

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One day was missing for Mrs. Mariela's operation and everything was already planned, the family had traveled from the town to be present. That day they were sharing in the room, talking about things on the farm, such as the lemon plants were loaded, the black goat had given birth to two kids, the rain had filled the tank and the apamates had bloomed, their flowers painting the driveway pink and lilac. Everyone seemed very calm, but they could not hide the anguish they felt.

In the evening when they said goodbye, Carmen Elena asked to stay a little longer with her mother, this day she saw her so calm, without any anguish, not like in the past days when she was a bundle of nerves. She asked her how she felt.

"I feel very calm and confident daughter, I know it is a complicated operation, the doctor has explained it to me step by step, as if I were a medical student, but I thank him because now I understand why I see the bright lights".

"And why do you think you see them? What I have been reading says that they are produced inside the eye and not outside and that in your case they are due to the tumor, but I don't know... that explanation doesn't convince me".

"Well, daughter, I don't know if the explanation given by the doctors and the people who study these things is the truth, but yesterday something happened to me that has no scientific explanation and I am going to tell you about it, but I don't want you to be scared, I am not and I know that you will continue being as you are now, a tender but strong young woman, sensitive and loving, you are a special being and I am sure that everything that happens has a reason for being. Nothing happens by chance, not even death".

When her mother said this Carmen Elena felt very sad, she felt that her mother was saying goodbye to her, she approached her and hugged her. She ran her hand through her long reddish hair and continued talking.

"Last night when they had turned off the lights in the rooms, I began to see the bright lights but this time there were many, they were not only in front of my eyes, but they covered my whole body and I realized that it was my energy and at that moment I felt so calm, as if my body no longer weighed me down".

Carmen Elena, raised her head, looked her mother in the eyes and understood what she was trying to tell her.

"Daughter we humans are energy and at some point we must leave our bodies and I know that tomorrow I will not be present in this form in which you see me now, but do not feel sad, I want you to continue with your life doing what gives you happiness and if possible I will be there with you, even if you do not feel me, or see me".

Two years have passed since the death of Carmen Elena's mother, and she is studying medicine. Dr. Gutierrez, who had not understood why Mariela had died before the operation, helped her to enter the university. He sees in her a person with a great curiosity and desire to learn and beyond that, a person with a great spirituality that will allow her to understand what traditional medicine still cannot explain.

Thank you very much for reading the story I wrote for The Ink Well Prompt #78.

The image of the presentation was made in Canva with free use photographs.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)