Just Because
by Tony Noland
She died because she refused chemo.
She refused chemo because she saw what it did to her mother.
She saw what it did to her mother because she took care of her mother in her final days.
She took care of her mother because there was no one else to do it.
There was no one else to do it because her father died when she was twelve.
Her father died because he got a raging blood infection.
He got a raging blood infection because a small wound went untreated.
The small wound went untreated because he didn't notice it.
He didn't notice it because he had severe numbness in the backs of his thighs.
His thighs were numb because he had diabetes.
He had diabetes because he was so enormously obese.
He was obese because he ate the wrong foods, and far too much of it.
He ate so much because he was clinically depressed.
He was depressed because he'd been beaten as a child.
He'd been beaten as a child because his mother didn't want him.
She didn't want him because she'd been raped at age 15 by a large man, a very troubled man, who gained entry to her house, claiming to be a school crossing guard who needed to borrow the telephone.
That was, of course, before any of us had cellphones.
===== Feel free to comment on this or any other post.
So realistic I got the chills. A friend and her husband were murdered (with a K-bar) by someone they knew slightly who rang the doorbell to use the telephone. They had cell phones but couldn't get to them.
ReplyDeleteThe "can I use your phone" gambit is one that has, thankfully, fallen out of favor.
DeleteDark and gritty, the Tony Noland we know & love!
ReplyDeleteI aim to please!
DeleteClean, spare. And an horrific progression.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Tony. Not a word extra and it delivers. One to take the breath away.
Restraint doesn't always come easily, but for this one, I typed with one hand tied behind my back.
DeleteIt doesn't seem that it hindered your storytelling ability at all, Tony.
DeleteNone of that would ever have happened if we had mobiles back then.
ReplyDeleteTrue. All of that chain of events traced backwards to that horrible Wednesday afternoon...
DeleteDamn, Tony. The power is in how simple and true this is.
ReplyDeleteAnd everywhere you look, there are causes and causes and causes for everything.
DeleteRock solid work, Tony. The minimalism and the linearity line up perfectly to compliment each other.
ReplyDeleteOne tragedy has its roots in another, going back as far as you'd care to trace it. I'm glad you liked it, John.
DeleteI liked the reverse of cause and effect. Powerful.
ReplyDeleteAll of these reach backward in time, tied to previous events with dark threads. It's slow and simple, but harsh.
DeleteSimple and clean and really great. Like how one evil act killed people for decades.
ReplyDeleteThe effects spreading like ripples in an oil slick, ranging forward for generations...
DeleteI love whenever minimalism is used well, and you've knocked this one out of the park.
ReplyDeleteIncredibly well done.
Thank you, Aaron. The spare, backward, cold fluorescent bulb way of relating this helps the mounting horror of it. It's a creepy life history.
DeleteShort, sharp and dark. Nice work, Tony.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack!
DeleteIt's like watching the water spin down the sink into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteAdam B @revhappiness
There's a sense of the events rushing on, inevitable, isn't there?
DeleteDamn Tony. This was sharp!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carrie! I whittled away almost every adornment for this one, left just the bare branches.
DeleteSad how all these events in individuals lives colour how they react in their own. The choice we make can often be influenced by what we are exposed to. Interesting flash Tony.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Helen.
DeleteOK, I admit it, I laughed out loud at the ending. I KNOW! I'M SICK!
ReplyDeleteI was reading along thinking of that old song "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza ..." and I was admiring how you layered each tragedy on top of the one previous. And it was all so serious... and then the line about the cell phone. It made me laugh! Brilliant ending! I mean it!
I am SO not going to show my kids this story or they'll be using it in their campaigns for cell phones.
A hole in the bucket, dear Liza... except I did it *backwards*! I think you're the only one who took the last line in that way, Cathy, but that's why I write stuff like this, so you can find lots of things in it. ;-)
DeleteSimple yet brilliant... The circle of "life".
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lee-Ann! This was much more spare than a lot of my work.
DeleteJoe Friday meets the Butterfly Effect. Well done.
ReplyDeleteJust the facts, ma'am.
DeleteIt's amazing to see the ripples caused by a single event. Powerful stuff.
ReplyDeleteEvery action has a cause. Following them backwards in time is like watching a train wreck that just gets worse and worse.
DeleteSparse, hard, brutal truth in under 20 lines. The relentlessness of cause, effect and consequence is suffocatingly good..
ReplyDeleteGreat work Tony.
Thank you, Tom! Read in reverse chronological order, there is a deadening sense of the inescapable, isn't there?
DeleteI can't help but recall "there's a reason for everything". This is very different for you Tony, and I like it - a lot!
ReplyDeleteThis was a bit of an experiment in styles, Deanna. I'm glad you liked it.
DeletePowerful, gritty and great - well done Mr Noland, another work of art
ReplyDeleteThis is a bone-breaker, mostly because it's much more slice-of-life than it is unlikely fiction. I appreciate your comment!
ReplyDelete