Role Play - Shorts

"Tell me what to be," she says, "I'll be anything. Anything."

So many characters run through my head. This is not the first time she's telling me this and it gets harder and harder as we do this more and more. Sometimes, it feels like I have run out of roles for her to play.

Teacher? Done.
Damsel in distress? Done.
French maid? Done.
Night shift nurse? Done.
Doctor? Haha! That was fun. Yeah, done.
The girl next door? Yeap. And now I can't see my female neighbour in the same light no more.
Have we done a witch? Yes, yes, I think we had. She pretended she was Prue Halliwell.
Oh, and that reminds me, we can cross off the goth chick as well.

Thinking, still thinking. I need to find her a role to play. She has this insatiable appetite for fantasy.

Wait, I got it! This one I have yet to see.
It is not a role, exactly.
But anyway...

Clearing my throat, I say, "Ehem, can you play you? I mean, I wanna see you. As yourself. OK?"

"No," comes her quick reply.

"Why not?", didn't she tell me she would be anything I want her to be?!

With her eyes moist, she turns away from me. In a trembling voice she says, "Someone was here before you. He took her away. Now I can no longer be her. I don't remember 'me'..."

Fazleena Latiff.
4 February 2015