Alice Monologue
“I might be old, Florence, but I’m not stupid. You want to stick me in a home and be done with me. Well it won’t work.” Alice snapped “And don’t dart around the doorway like that, you know it makes my head ache” Florence stepped away from the door frame, a placating smile on her untiringly gentle face. Florence was made of smiles these days — she was an ’aged care worker’, after all, and it was her job to make useless old bats like Alice feel like they had hope. ’Big-hearted’, some people might have called her. Alice called her a twit.
Florence smiled that fragile, sympathetic smile again “Aunty! I know you’re not stupid! I simply want you to be sensible. Surely you don’t want to hang on to this old place anymore? I mean really, Aunty!” Florence …show more content…
This time she would catch it. It wasn’t the banshee that scared Alice — you didn’t get as old as she was without knowing such things existed. Her father had told her the tales of banshees - murdered women who clung to life, haunting the place they had died - wretched, desperate spirits they were, but more sad than scary. Yes, their shrieks predicted a death in the family, but Alice was old. She had known she was dying for a long, long time. What scared her was that it was familiar — awfully, sickeningly familiar. Alice was getting close now, closer than she had ever come before. With a sharp intake of breath, Alice stopped in front of a pair of double doors. The shriek was streaming through the door jambs, through the keyhole, seeping out in huge, sorrowful waves. This, for better or worse, was the source. Another woman as old and infirm as Alice might have paused at this point. Alice, however, was not just any old lady. She was an immensely stubborn, incurably proud, infuriatingly arrogant dragon of a woman. Pausing, even for a moment, was akin to giving in, and giving in was never an option. With this stubbornly lodged in her head, Alice heaved open the doors, her matchstick arms straining, her heart fluttering imploringly in her chest like a butterfly caught in a
Florence smiled that fragile, sympathetic smile again “Aunty! I know you’re not stupid! I simply want you to be sensible. Surely you don’t want to hang on to this old place anymore? I mean really, Aunty!” Florence …show more content…
This time she would catch it. It wasn’t the banshee that scared Alice — you didn’t get as old as she was without knowing such things existed. Her father had told her the tales of banshees - murdered women who clung to life, haunting the place they had died - wretched, desperate spirits they were, but more sad than scary. Yes, their shrieks predicted a death in the family, but Alice was old. She had known she was dying for a long, long time. What scared her was that it was familiar — awfully, sickeningly familiar. Alice was getting close now, closer than she had ever come before. With a sharp intake of breath, Alice stopped in front of a pair of double doors. The shriek was streaming through the door jambs, through the keyhole, seeping out in huge, sorrowful waves. This, for better or worse, was the source. Another woman as old and infirm as Alice might have paused at this point. Alice, however, was not just any old lady. She was an immensely stubborn, incurably proud, infuriatingly arrogant dragon of a woman. Pausing, even for a moment, was akin to giving in, and giving in was never an option. With this stubbornly lodged in her head, Alice heaved open the doors, her matchstick arms straining, her heart fluttering imploringly in her chest like a butterfly caught in a