Exceptional The sentence is real. I just made up the rest. You Will Stop by Heather Knight 250 Word Flash Fiction contest entry

The air in the small hospital room felt heavy. With the blinding overhead lights on till ten, it was difficult to know what time it was. A woman was lying on her bed, her eyes closed. She was old and bitter and had reason to be. She had worked hard, enjoyed little, suffered more than necessary and now she was dying alone. No relatives or friends ever visited. Nobody at the hospital ever used her name. Gloria. It wasn't that difficult to remember, was it? The patient next to her was a middle-aged lady who never spoke and spent her days knitting scarves in various bright colours. The clicking of her needles grated on Gloria's nerves like the creaking of an old door. A young nurse, her face perfect, her eyes bright, her heart full of dreams, walked in and checked the other patient's vitals. Gloria called to her in a whisper. Her voice had weakened like the rest of her almost translucent body. 'Could you please arrange my sheets?' The nurse looked her way, but didn't see her. 'I'll be back in a minute, I have several things to do first. This time of day is crazy.' A long hour passed and Gloria could see the nurse walking fast, almost running, down the corridor. To and fro. To and fro. 'Corre, corre que ya pararas. Run, run. You'll stop one day.' The young nurse never remembered to come back. And the next morning, Gloria's bed sheets were changed. Recognized Author Notes I think it was my one of my father's aunts who said this to her housekeeper. She was elderly when I was a little girl, lived alone and had no children. Just her nephews. She also had a lot of money that she never spent. As she was overweight, she could hardly move around and once she fell and and spent several days on the floor. What I loved the most about her home was a hand-shaped back scratcher that she always let me play with. I used to think it was the best toy in the world, something I'd never seen before... or since. Some of these details might be inaccurate. A long, long time has passed. NOTE. My Pages document says there are 250 words, the FS one counts 249. I've now checked twice.

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