Broken
She knows him but her thoughts are jumbled. She sits in her head and she remembers everything but when she tries to talk to him her voice gets stuck and she can't force them out.
He gives her gum and she knows she loves gum ... she tries to thank him each time but still there's no words so she has to thank him some other way. She gives him the wrappers. She knows this isn't a good gift but it's all she has and he takes them, each one, with such care that says he doesn't mind.
There are days though that her thoughts get so mixed up that she doesn't know who she is or the man that's on the bed next to her or the older woman who comes to visit and brings the boy. She doesn't know her name, his, or anything at all. Her mind goes blissfully blank and she thinks she'd love to stay there for all time but then the boy looks at her with those heartbroken eyes so she wades up through the blank and struggles with her broken mind.
And she knows. The man next to her is her husband, Frank. The older woman who comes to visit is his mother, Augusta. The boy she brings is her baby, her son all grown up and his name is Neville. She's always loved that name.
She remembers her name as well. She's Alice and her mind is broken from an Unforgivable but for her little boy she'll drag the pieces of her shattered mind into some semblance of order just so she can see him smile.
Fin