"Simplification" | Part 2 of 3
Abigail fell asleep wondering how long she’d have to wait for freedom to feel free.
Table of Contents:
Simplification Part 2
The doorman’s gaze kept bouncing between her face and the paper she was holding next to it:
TEMPORARY IDENTIFICATION: SIMPLIFICATION
Pre-Name: Abigail Beckman
Post-Name: N/A
Abigail had no intention of of changing her name, too. In fact, it was something she and David had had many disagreements about. No offense, but any chance you’d be open to a screen name? he’d said on their first call. Your name just sounds a little… clunky. What about something sexier? Marilyn West? Abigail had refused with emotion that startled her at the time. In hindsight, she supposed “Abigail Beckman” was all that remained of the quiet girl with her spiral-bound notebooks.
Abigail pointed to the bottom of the temporary ID, at the black and white “Before” and “After” images, and pulled out her old driver’s license. The doorman took her papers and looked like he was going to fall backward, but he returned her identification and stumbled out of her way.
“Thank you, Simon,” Abigail’s new voice wavered. She brushed past him into the foyer. Had the doctor gotten it wrong? She’d had a look in her compact vanity before leaving the hospital—but that was just her face. The body! Could I look more like a three? A two?! Blood pumped through her neck with such force she feared being strangled by her own arteries.
But when Abigail stepped into the gilded frame of the lobby mirror, she relaxed. She did look a little out of place in the ritzy apartment complex, devoid of product and fresh from the hospital, but not obtrusively so. She absorbed this new reflection, searching. No, not ugly, not that… Plain. The word embraced her. Plain. She looked like an Abigail Beckman again.
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