A Broken Record

• Angelica Pardinas, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2021

The quiet wisps of air flew into the window ajar, allowing the silk curtains to dance as they intertwine together. The soft breeze kisses Eleanor as she sat on her cotton sheets, listening intently to the scratches of the record player. It has been broken for a while and yet, she ignores it, not wanting to fix or replace it, simply leaving it to listen as it plays the broken sounds of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, the vinyl crackling over the voices of the Beatles.
She sat cross-legged, her mind’s engine running, teeth marks grazing the end of the pencil as she attempted to draw up album covers for her sister’s upcoming album.
Her flaming thoughts extinguished when a knock on the door caught her attention.
“Eleanor? Are you in there?” Her mother enquired utilising a gentle tone.
“Yeah. Come in!”
Eleanor set her pencil and pad with erratically written words and sketches on her bedside table as the cream door came ajar, her mum’s head poking through.
“Hey, Rigby, it’s time to go,” and with that, her mum left, but at this moment in time, Eleanor exactly where she was going, she knew since they first found out about Lucy. Eleanor or her mum didn’t think it would happen but it did, at the age of seventeen, Lucy was diagnosed with breast cancer.
At first, they didn’t do anything because breast cancer is very rare for teenagers, as a result, they chose to ignore it, but what a mistake that was, spreading like the Spanish flu, Lucy is now sat on her death bed. Eleanor led herself to beg, wish, hope, but she knows there is nothing the universe can do to change it.
Eleanor misses having her sister around, they would always talk about Lucy’s musical career, but unfortunately, the medical discovery seemingly ruined Lucy’s chances at one, but Eleanor won’t let that happen. Before leaving, she gathers her ideas and heads off with her mum. The journey from her house made her anxious, fear rising to the point it traps itself in her throat.
What if she’s gone?
But, what if it’s getting better?
These were thoughts racing through her mind, tackling another to be at the forefront of her to ensure that’s all she was contemplating.
Entering, everywhere became white noise to her, the echo of white walls, blue clothing shared between patients and workers, the sea of visitors either weeping, joying or stressing. Following her mother, they enter a room containing a girl, upright on her bed, an azure scarf encapsulates her head.
A set of pearly-whites obtained her face as she greets her mother and sister.
"Mum, Eleanor!"
Unable to move, her family engulfed her into a hug full of love and support. The sisters didn’t inch, as they sat the rest of the day, discussing the pad of sketches and writing as the Beatles accompanied them through the vinyl. A vinyl that sat beside them at the request of the sisters.