pain

Fri, Nov 15, 2024

He was almost folded in half. Pain must have been shaping him.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I fell from that high platform—where I sleep,” he said.

I sat beside him, offering one hand so he could squeeze. Another went around his back like a wing.

I asked a few questions to distract him for a little. Then I suggested that he could also ask me questions if he wanted.

He was brave, without hesitation: “Who are you?”

“I am your pain,” I said. It was uncomfortable but I had to be honest with him.

He did not like my answer. How could it be that his friend was hurting him. If he could have moved even slightly, he would have protested. But pain was holding him so tightly, any movement was going to hurt him even more.

After this revelation, the silence was shared for a while.

The pain is gone, and with it, he too, into sleep.