Tired, she sat on the empty plinth, and rested her aching feet, now swollen too big for her strappy little sandals, on the partial-hand ottoman.
She took her large straw sun hat off, fanning her flaming hair sweat-stuck to the back of her neck and forehead.
Out of the direct sun, crush of people, agonizing mix of sensations, Flora felt she could almost breathe. The miasma of a market day overwhelmed her.
This trip was intended to rejuvenate her, make her feel alive again. Part of the crazy whirl of sights, sounds, smells that made the world real.
Everyone at the institution encouraged it. Except for Brian Lane, another patient. “You’ll be back faster than they pushed you out. I made it through 4 countries in 3 days and I was back.”
Flora was on country number 5 or was it 6? She’d lost track of the days.
For Sunday Photo Fiction 6.11.16
@ my frilly Freudian slip
Lorraine's frilly freudian slip 
November 9, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Interesting therapy. Travelling, it would be fun. But if you really needed help, you should probably be somewhere not so noisy and overwhelming. Interesting take I liked it.
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November 10, 2016 at 4:59 am
I agree, the institution has a strange way of reintroducing folks into the world!
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November 7, 2016 at 4:35 pm
Seems like a strange sort of therapy to me.
But I enjoyed the story, liked how you told it.
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November 7, 2016 at 8:19 pm
Strange to be sure — rush to be well? Glad you enjoyed it.
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November 7, 2016 at 7:56 am
Good story. A shame she had to go through them so fast. Maybe if she slowed down, she would become more of what she should be. I like it.
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November 7, 2016 at 8:15 pm
I suspect as much. I think the head of the institution is a speed freak.
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November 7, 2016 at 2:07 am
Good story, leaves a lot to think about. I wonder what institution she is in and what such a trip might help with? Well written.
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November 7, 2016 at 8:13 pm
I imagined for the withdrawn and the trip, how ever misbegotten the idea, to get her back into the world again.
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November 7, 2016 at 2:07 am
It seems cruel to show someone the world, then pull them back inside locked doors.
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November 7, 2016 at 5:14 am
I the idea, not conveyed well in my story, is that perhaps such a trip would cure the person. Snap them back into life.
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November 6, 2016 at 9:55 pm
Very simply yet effective written. A lot of story is in there. Wonderful.
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