The Measure

by Nikki Erlick

Did a patient receive less care because her string was short, or was a patient’s string short because she received less care?

‘Tell them that I always wanted to be an explorer. That I always tried to take the first step, to be the first one to dive into the freezing water, the first to taste the strange-looking food, the first to get onstage and sing. And now I’ll be the first to know what happens next, the first to find out what’s waiting for us all. I promise to do enough recon that I can tell you all about it when you get here.’”

perhaps, the length didn’t matter. That the beginning and the end may have been chosen for us, the string already spun, but the middle had always been left undetermined, to be woven and shaped by us.