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She spun to face him, nearly dislodging his hands from where they rested on her back and arm. “Ray, the baby! Hazel’s gone! Ray, where did Hazel go? And- and-” Annie’s words were swallowed in her panicked gasping for a moment, and a slow look of terri ed realization dawned on Ray’s face. “Ray it’s February! It’s February but all the owers are out. I don’t know what’s happening. What’s going on?” Annie had nearly worked herself into hysterics, clutching at her husband as he shushed her with poorly disguised anxiety.
“Annie, sweetheart, you need to calm down. Breathe with me – can you do that?”
She began to retake control of her breathing, timing her heaves as best she could with the deep, steady pace set by Ray. “Raymond, what’s going on?” she said weakly. “Where’s my baby?”
“I’ll tell you, I will, but I need you to calm down. Doctor Coul- son’s on his way.”
“What are you talking about? Doctor Coulson’s visiting fam- ily.”
A pained look settled over Ray’s features, and his eyes grew mournful. “Annie,” he murmured gently, “Doctor Coulson came back months ago – do you remember?”
Annie shook her head slowly, deliberately. “No. No, you’re talking crazy. Now where’s Hazel?”
Ray looked as if the words had been bullets to his gut. His shoulders tensed in agitation, and his voice began to rise to a fevered pitch. “Annie, it’s been over a year! It’s not February, it’s almost May, and-”
“Do you think I wouldn’t remember my rst spring with my baby girl?” she accused back in a high voice. “Do you honestly think that, Raymond? It’s winter!”
“No it isn’t, Annie!”
“I don’t know what you think you’re saying, but you’re acting like a crazy person!”
“Annie you need to let go!”
“Get out!” she screamed with nality. Her eyes glinted with rage, confusion, and terri- ed trepidation as she took in a shuddering breath. “Just- just get out.”
As Ray turned and left with a nal pleading glance, Annie sat down with knees curled to her chest and gasped in breath after un- steady breath. Her eyes icked to and fro across the room, and whenever they fell on the disused cradle she fought back a sob.
Eventually, she shifted. Hesitantly, her every motion meditated and skittishly executed, Annie crept towards the window. With a shaking hand, she drew one of the gauzy veils back.
When Ray reentered a minute later, Doc- tor Coulson at his side, Annie was stand-
ing listlessly by the open window, cheeks gleaming with sunlit tears and hair tousled by the breeze. Her eyes skimmed over bright patches of owers – rosemary, da odils, honeysuckle, roses – and nally rested on the small grove of year-old cypress saplings shading a little slab of marble.
“Spring,” she sobbed. “It’s spring.”
Annie knew then that all seasons must come to an end; this one ended with the slide of curtains being drawn back to let in the sun.
Mixed media by Carl Trieber, ‘17
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The Blackbird Review