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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Three Things” Down in the Dirt, v186 (the August 2021 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Lockdown’s Over the Down in the Dirt May-August 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page May-August 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

The Edge of Existing

Ava Galbraith

    She fell over the edge and into nothingness. Cecilia Brown’s wispy body longed for permanence. Her mind could not contend with the harshness of the unknown. Maybe she was in-between worlds or stuck in a nightmare or simply dead.
    Was this eternity?
    She touched solid ground and when she glanced down her shimmering reflection blinked up at her.
    Cecilia tilted her face up and distinguished a ledge miles above her. It was cracked and browning; broken chunks looked as if they would fall. She knew that preservation and continuation were on that ledge; she stretched, hands touched the glass ceiling.
    She paced forward and bumped into a wall; she was in an invisible box and the blackness, the darkness, was the outside.
    She wanted more than the great emptiness of somewhere.
    She wanted vast fields of wildflowers and quiet towering mountains.
    Family homes of happiness.
    She wanted a different life.
    She looked down toward her mirror image and saw the seedlings of her greatest plights appear. She saw her reflection dance under the stars.
    Cecilia laid down and pressed her cheeks into the glass floor wishing to be a part of this other world.
    Her box would not shatter.
    Her reflection grinned and waved back and pranced into the wild mountains and the concrete jungles.
    No perfection over the ledge, no need to play a role.
    Though stuck, Cecilia was free to explore a better life.
    Mark Brown stood over his unmoving wife.
    “She may wake up.” Doctor Williams gently patted Mark’s hunched shoulders.
    Mark turned toward the physician, “Will she remember...will she ever be my Cecilia, my perfect Cecilia?”
    “She suffered a stroke. The mind can fix itself, but she, as you knew her to be, has to want to come back from over the edge.”

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