June 2025: Elle – Lynne Green
Elle
I can’t remember my daughter’s name.
I can’t remember the accident, either. They found me at the bottom of the stairs at work. I’d cracked my head and broken bones. They – the ER doctors – keep asking me questions to see the extent of the bruising of my brain.
“What year is it?”
“Who is prime minister?”
“What’s your name?”
I can answer most. But when they ask me the name of my daughter … nothing. There is a void in my memory. I can see her face, hear her speak, but I can’t remember her name. There is just emptiness when I attempt to remember it.
My nurse soothes me when I get agitated about this. She says, “It isn’t her name that’s important. It is your connection to her. She is on her way here, with your husband.”
But what kind of mother forgets her daughter’s name?
Lynne Green
Right Left Write’s June prompt was Lipogram. The short story above omits the use of the letter ‘L’.
Find out more about Right Left Write at www.queenslandwriters.org.au/rightleftwrite.
Right Left Write’s June prompt was Lipogram.