Peritonitis

by Raisa Mursalin

The pain had come on sharply, seizing me for days. I had already accepted my new life, bent over at the waist, meeting people in the stomach, when they prodded inside me. Two surgeries later and a third on the way I was destined to see the other side. Don’t ask God for blessings only in times of trouble, my grandmother preached in the ICU. I spoke to God in the blinking red smoke detector, confused I asked, did she want me to live or die? My mother sobbed, and I fled from the light.

6S

Raisa Mursalin is has a BA in Human Development and is currently editing her first of many novels.