ETHEL

 Character number 2

Her name is Ethel. She sits like a frightened bird. Everything about her is sharp. Especially her tongue. She stabs visitors with words which leave wounds.

Her life has run down and wound in around her, like the ball of wool which is always at her feet and sometimes wraps itself around her ankles as she shuffles to answer the door.

Life is closing in around her and wrapping her in a cocoon. She is trying to resist by getting sharper. She tries to pierce the cocoon with her sharpness. She jabs at the wool with her knitting needles. She is like a swan swimming in circles on a freezing pond trying to keep her world open.  Everything is against her. Time especially is against her.

Aspellin, Espilin, Asilone and Algitec are just four of the medications she uses to ease her aches and pains. She is of a generation who believes that doctors are akin to gods and they can cure everything.

She doesn't know the names of the medications but calls all of them 'that stuff'. That stuff she takes before meals, that stuff she takes after her meals or that stuff she rubs on her leg and that stuff to move her bowels.

So how can this woman who can barely move from her chair except to go to the toilet control so many people.

Her body has forsaken her. She can barely see or hear. She can barely lift a spoon or cup to her mouth. What does she live for? 

Her mind still works and likewise her mouth. Oh yes and so do her bowels and kidneys, sometimes.

She informs visitors of progress in this department. If she is not going she has just been or as she puts it she's just been but she didn't go. It was only wind.

Ethel knows a lot about the neighbours. In fact she knows the neighbours' opinions about everything. It seems that what the neighbours think is the controlling voice in her head. She knows the neighbours' views on everything. She might often forget their names but my God she never forgets what they think.

When her husband died and there were decisions to be made  regarding commemorating him it was suggested that a seat with an engraved plaque on it would be suitable.

Her split second reply to this suggestion was, " I bet them next door didn't have a seat".