Eliza’s mother was trapped in the body of a puppet. Her arms and legs were strung up in strings so tight they’d lost feeling to all her limbs. Who was controlling the strings? How could anyone know. Before this happened, Eliza’s mother told her “everything happens for a reason”. Perhaps it was the doing of God.

Everyday Eliza came home, she’d drag magnets behind her, letting them attract rocks and pennies and what not. Since Eliza’s mother could no longer care for herself, Eliza was the primary caretaker. She’d open the door to find the home in disarray and her mother being flung around, getting bruises on her body while she stared at her daughter. Eliza was lucky her mother could no longer feel the pain. Eliza dumped her magnets down at the door and would drag her mother over to the bathroom, tending to the various bruises and cuts on her arms and legs. Eliza would feed her, bathe her, talk to her, and do other tasks her mother could no longer do.

Even when she had dumped off her magnets, some still stayed permanently stuck to her back. And if she ever wanted to leave, the rest would stick right back on her.

She struggled to walk around her own house, the magnets on her feet making her slow. She feared one day she’d be too slow, and she’d lose her mother, the only person she had left.

Everyday Eliza went to run errands, she’d meet men who would toss magnets at her. They’d stick to her face, run up her dresses, down her shirts. And everyday she’d bring them home.

Eliza wondered what the point of it all was. These magnets made her so heavy, and her mother could not protect her anymore. She didn’t even know what was going on.

Eliza snapped back to reality as her mother flailed in the bathtub, her arms and legs going up and down and spraying water everywhere.

There was no future for us now, Eliza thought to herself as she slowly put her mothers arms down and hummed a soft song as she bathed her, a small magnet sticking to her arm.