Harris Burdick Mysteries- Maggie Melkus

It all began when someone left the window open. The air was intoxicating filling her with the desire to fill her lungs with it again and again. The sun cascaded upon the floor splaying over every object it encountered. She had memorized the walls, the cracks in the floor, even the blemishes engrained in the dark cherry wood of her dresser, it was always the same never changing. The monotonous marks and patterns resembled the life she now led, starkly contrasting the voracious vivid life she had led before. It seemed as if she had nothing left to live for, just then it presented itself to her. The absence of what always used to be. There was one missing; she had counted there were exactly 476 of them. Now only 475 were present. “It had to be a mistake,” she thought. “After 5 years of sitting here counting there were always 476, things do not just disappear,” she thought. “Or do they?”
She no longer possessed qualities that made her human. Her presence was the only thing that kept her alive. “It flew away, that was the only explanation, and it was finally free, like I always wanted to be.” She closed her eyes as the sun warmed patches on her face, drifting off into sleep, “It is always the same.” She awoke to the damp cloth cooling her forehead like every Tuesday. Her eyes fluttered back and forth trying to communicate with the only person who ever came to see her. Soon enough her visitor left too, and she was left alone to resume the same routine she completed every day. She started in the upper right hand corner and continued counting until she reached the desolate hole that bird number 476 had left behind. However, now there were two missing. She grew angry knowing that these birds were doing the one thing she couldn’t, live life. As the days passed a new pattern formed in her life. She began a new daily ritual, one that involved guessing. “Which bird would flee to live its life?”
As the birds fled so did her strength and condition. She knew the more time that passed the less time she had. The day came when there was only one bird left. She knew the end was near. She tried and tried to say the words would not come out. “Goodbye,” she thought. A young man trudged up the steps he had only traveled once before in his life. It was the day he left her there. He entered the room with the only visitor she ever had. She looked at him and knew the time had come. He mentioned the change in wallpaper only to stall the inevitable. Right then the last bird took flight out the window. “Turn it off,” he said. The visitor flipped the switch and the ventilator no longer hummed. She closed her eyes knowing the next place she would go would be heavenly. The man gazed out the window a single tear falling from his face. He stared in amazement as 476 white doves covered the ground.