My Cardboard Balcony

My Headache by Belinda Roddie My headache would not cease, not matter how many pills I swallowed or how many wet cloths I draped across my brow. By now, the pain had been endless for about three hours. I swore that I'd go mad if the agony did not stop too soon. I lay down, but the throbbing was so bad I could not sleep. I stood up and I swooned and could hardly keep balance. Finally, my boyfriend dropped by with the opiates that had at last been prescribed to poor me. Thank God that he had not arrived too late! I took the meds, and the pain dropped away like warm rain, and I slept through the next day.

Walking into my sister's tiny bedroom right at the end of the long hallway on the second floor was like entering a portal into a new world. I couldn't even understand how she could concentrate in there. Several multicolored lights cast enormous glowing spots on the walls, and the music that whispered from the stereo felt like aliens trying to decode mathematics in their native tongue, whatever that was.