The Beauty in Eternity

Chapter 87.

I tap my foot against the floor, not so patiently waiting for answers. The door opens and two women walk through, the patronising one from before—and the one who stood silently as she spoke. "She hasn't been drinking." she tells me, unable to look me in the eye.

I throw my hands up in a mix of anger and relief. "—But thats not to say it isn't hers. It was found in her room."

"Then where did she get it?" I raise my brow.

"We don't know."

"She's had no other visitors, right? Besides me?" I ask, to which they shake their head no. "And she can't leave this place; so where did she get it? Where did she get the money for it? Who bought it for her? How did it get past everybody in here?" I press, watching her stutter for an answer.

Before I can open my mouth again an older woman comes rushing over. She orders the other two to leave and takes a deep breath in. "Doctor Woods, I will get to the bottom of this." she tells me.

"You believe her?" I raise my brow. "Oh, and you don't have to call me Doctor, I was just using it to make a point." my nose scrunches.

She smiles and nods her head. "Alright. And yes, I do. Another patient was found with the same half empty bottle. I wasn't born yesterday, and neither were they. I know they wouldn't be so careless. They're actually two of our longest running sober patients."

I press my fingers against my temple. "Then what happened? I trusted she would get better here."

"I really can't apologise enough," she furrows her brow, her voice sincere. "I will get to the bottom of it and you'll be the first person I call."

I sigh. "I want her moved rooms for tonight. And I don't want anybody besides you to have access to it. She's upset, and I don't want that to happen again."

"Of course, Doc- Miss Woods." she corrects herself.

I let out a small laugh. "Thank you."

"Can I ask, why don't you refer to yourself as Doctor?" she raises her brow.

"It makes me feel braggy, and old. I'm still in my residency. I'll wait a few years before I refer to myself as Doctor outside of the hospital." I chuckle, receiving a laugh and a nod in return.

"For what it's worth, you should be 'braggy'. It's something to be proud of." she smiles warmly.

I show my mom to her new room and give her a hug goodbye. "Thank you for believing me," she smiles. "I haven't given you any reason to."

I kiss her on the cheek and sigh to myself. "Yes, actually—you have."

I make my way home and climb into bed feeling angry and confused. In all of the time she's spent there, we haven't had any issues. Other than her own struggle to remain sober, but even at that, she's done so well. I learned from the kind woman, who I learned is named Kim—that my mom was actually the one to turn in the bottle which the others had, not surprisingly, failed to tell me. Meaning that she had the bottle. She quite literally had temptation in her hands, yet she looked the other way. She did the right thing, in the face of her biggest temptation yet.
And that, is what strength is.

~

I stumble forward and then realise that I'm finally here, at the highest point in the city—looking over the cars and fire hydrants that appear so tiny from up here, so lost.

The overwhelming pain punches me in the gut, like it always does. But as the cold and bitter wind blows against my body, pushing me in the opposite direction from the open road I realise that I shouldn't be here. Everything inside of me is telling me to let go, but for once, there's a spark. Hope, light, whatever you want to call it.