They call him Smith now. Oddly fitting. He can’t move or speak, but propped up, he can spot the pond. The lotuses tight like eye-balls torn out of their sockets. The aspen trees white as bones dissolving in lye. From his care home bed, a slow drip of happy memories.

Hege A. Jakobsen Lepri is a Norwegian-Canadian translator and writer (and obsessive haikuist), currently living in Norway. Recent work is featured in St. Katherine Review, Neither Fish nor Foul, The Disappointed Housewife, Fictive Dream, Best Small Fictions, Atticus Review, The New Quarterly, Room Magazine and others. You find her at www.hegeajlepri.ca