Phantom Limb

by Lucinda Berry

We were fascinated with the TV because there were new voices and faces, so many things we’d never seen and didn’t know existed. There were people who had skin that wasn’t peach like ours. They’d been painted with a different color.

seems like a weird thing to write

I wasn’t being moved to some other floor in the hospital to finish healing but was being tossed into the nut ward.

nut ward

The idea of crazy people having sex wasn’t amusing.

i am always saying this

All I wanted to do was die, and I wondered if anyone had successfully killed themselves in a nut ward.

i wish she would stop saying nut ward

The black man from the couch went next. “Sunday. Sometimes I buy a purple sweater on Sunday, but what about Diana Ross? I have to tell you about Italy. That’s okay. Never really minded. My mama did. Smells funny, though. Always—”

??????????

“I kill me mudder,” she mumbled under her breath.

what accent is this supposed to be...