Before the light shifted, mother, you played piano under the stage lights.

Before the light shifted, you faded, ghost skin, hallucinations, loud whispers in your head. Before the light shifted, we waited-waited for medications to make you whole.

We waited, for the next chapter, our new beginning to the end.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, 6S, 50 Word Stories, Spillwords Press, and Paragraph Planet. In 2018, her story “The Roommates,” was made into a short film. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more at Angela Carlton Stories & Art.