I was sitting in the car when the phone rang. The caller I.D. made me pick up. “Mrs. Rule,” he said softly. I laid the phone on the dash as the tears began to run down my face. “I’m sorry. There is nothing to see on your MRI. The pain is idiopathic.” I opened the car door, took a wrong step, fell on the gravel, lay perfectly still. While the news sunk in, my hope sunk into the frozen ground. Vaguely I heard the footsteps of the neighbour running across the street and the doctor saying, “Mrs. Rule? Mrs. Rule?”
Michele Rule is a poet from Kelowna, BC, where she served as city councillor and activist for women’s rights. She now lives with chronic pain. Find Michele on Twitter and Instagram @michelerule.