This month, we are creating images and stories inspired by the T.S. Eliot poem, The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock. This short story was inspired by the lines –
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”
Wishing on a Star
Finally, he is asleep.
He stares down at his newborn son. So new, so fresh. He thinks for a moment, only 76 hours old. How long until he’s shouting it’s only 76 hours til Christmas. He is so tired, but he doesn’t want to sleep. He wants to stare down at his son, so beautiful, so calm, so peaceful. His son.
He turns to look at his wife. A mother for 76 hours. He thinks back on their time together. How they nearly didn’t make it all those years ago. He caught her kissing his best friend, but they fought through it. It was all worth it. Now they have him. They have made him together. Their baby, a sign of their love.
His mind trickles back though, as it does sometimes to that night. Watching her kissing Henry. He remembers what he said.
“I wish I’d never met you.”
As the memory flickers through his mind, a shooting star shoots through the sky.
He stares down at his arms, empty and cold. The bed behind him empty. Not a father, not a husband, no son. He is alone.
She can’t sleep.
She isn’t good at sleeping anyway. It’s one of the skills she’s never mastered. But tonight, all she can think about is her new grandson. She can’t wait to see him. Her daughter-in-law had a tough time, but they let her out yesterday. Tomorrow, she will be over there like a shot to see him. Her new, unnamed grandson.
She stares out of the window into the dark night. It’s cold, the stars are so bright. She hears her husband snuffling and lightly snoring behind her.
She thinks back over all the years they’ve been together. How they wouldn’t have been together at all if her first husband hadn’t struggled to keep his, shall we say hands, off other women. If he hadn’t been like that, she would never have met Aran. They would never have had their children, and now her grandchild would not have been born. She remembered that night, finding out what husband number one had been up to. She remembers shouting at him, “I wish you were dead.”
As the memory flickers through her mind, a shooting star shoots through the sky.
She turns in the silence. She is alone. Aran is gone.
She can’t sleep.
She’s old now, but she has lived to see her first great-grandchild, something she had not expected. She would love him. She would not be like her great-grandmother, the evil witch. She was so unkind, so nasty. She would not be like her. She would love her great-grandson. She would cherish him. She had seen a photo on her daughter’s phone. So beautiful.
She thought back to the last time she saw her great-grandmother, the day before she died. She had shouted at her, “I wish you had never been born.”
As the memory flickers through her mind, a shooting star shoots through the sky.
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The Mission Statement:
To encourage people to express their feelings of unease through photography and creative writing.
Description:
Many people feel a sense of unease today. A sense of anxiety and worry.
The aim of The Unease Project is to use photography and creative writing to educate people and share experiences of mental health conditions.
Unease - A spiritual or mental disquiet. A feeling of anxiety and discomfort. An unknown worry.
Many of us feel uneasy in the world today, leading to anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions.
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