Storytorch

Because it's important for my convalescing daughter Mary to stay hydrated, our refrigerator and pantry here at home are well stocked with pomegranate juice, pulp-free orange juice, Glaceau Vitamin Water and Smart Water, and Gatorade. The daily goal is 64 to 80 ounces.

My own favorite morning juice is coffee. I rise early and brew the non-fruity beverage that always encourages my mental synapses, awakening me gradually as I sip and sieze the day. Only I am up, so I have the kitchen to myself—I read, write, think, listen to National Public Radio, check the New York Times headlines online, and delete junk email that has arrived overnight.

Currently, one of my duties is to flush the three post-surgical abdominal drains Mary still has. My twice-daily equipment includes non-needled 10cc saline-filled syringes, alcohol prep pads, vinyl exam gloves, and a tiny measuring cup. After flushing, I open the cap of the grenade-sized bulb at the end of each tube, empty the collected fluid into the calibrated cup, then squeeze and recap the bulb to create suction. I announce each measurement of bodily juice to Mary, who jots down the amounts (decreasing, I'm happy to say) in our notebook. (We call the numbers out like Olympic skating scores: "7.5," "8.5," "9.")

One morning this week Mary reported a fitful night with unpleasant dreams and sweating. We agreed she'd stay in bed a while and try to grab another hour or two of rest. Later, I popped back upstairs and peeked in her room. I found not my hospital-patient daughter but my poet-writer-performer daughter sitting cross-legged on the floor, shawl around her shoulders, laptop before her on a little footstool, typing away.

"I'm working on the pitch for the new writing assignment," she smiled. We had fun the day before, brainstorming categories for a list of TV trivia. "Mom, I'm writing a new poem*, too, the first in a long time. I had the idea in the hospital." A clipboard with pages of beautifully-scrawled paper attached was on the floor beside her.

Creative juice, the best kind.

Today’s Fortune Cookie Fortune:
You will have a great idea.

*Read poetry by Mary Fons at http://www.maryfons.com/