The Girl with the Green Ribbon

I lay in bed awake a few nights ago.  It is hard to sleep comfortably for more than a couple of hours because all of the muscles in my neck tighten up and begin to ache.  It felt like someone had drawn a burning line around my neck, even though the surgery scar is only a few inches long.  This sparked a sudden memory of a story I had read many moons ago when I was still in elementary school.

When I was younger I loved scary stories. I grew up reading Stephen King because that is what my dad read but the particular story I read was actually from a children's chapter book from the school library.  The gist of the story, as I remember it is that there was a girl with a green ribbon around her neck.  She meets a boy who falls in love with her and throughout their life he repeatedly asks why she always wears the green ribbon, and she tells him not to press the matter.  They get married and grow old together, and one day she when she is old in sick she tells him to to untie the ribbon.  When he does, her head falls off.

I'd completely forgotten about the story and the book until I woke up feeling like someone had tried to cut my own head off, but apparently it was as memorable to others as it was to me because it's the one story everyone can recall reading from it.  The book is called In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Stories by Alvin Schwartz.  It's the kind of thing I think modern parents would shy away from letting their kids read but honestly scary stories scared me less as a kid, perhaps back then I was less inclined to believe that terrible things could really happen.  

So that's a little bit of random for your day!  Last night I slept real sleep for a long time.  We tried to go out for a bit today, just to walk around the mall and try to get me some exercise without getting rained on but we only made it one lap around the upper floor before I was out of energy.  I've moved on from the mostly liquid diet to mostly soft food but I am dying for some real food, especially a salad.  Hopefully with a little more rest I'll have the strength to go shopping and start cooking again.  

I've got a few more days before the follow up appointment.  I seem to recall one of the surgeons saying by then they would have finished biopsying what they took out so maybe then I'll find out about the radiation. I expect, like all things health related, it will take a few more visits to get things sorted out after that and to actually get it done.  Then maybe I can start getting the rest of my life back.  At least I still have a head on my shoulders, so it can't be all that bad.