Catharsis | iv.

a.
Raquel is an actress heading to work. She walks into her dressing room and donned her makeup, her outfit for the first scene. She's always loved the theatre. Raquel goes on to stage and plays a happy young woman in a village far over yonder. She smiles and sings and leaps around the stage with joy; her clothes of precious cloths and her face gleaming with an abundance of what the audience can see as nothing but pure happiness. After her performance there is an applause, and after the show's end there is an applause, and after her work day's end there is a multitude of pats on the back and "good work out there today, kid."

b.
Raquel is home after a long day on the stage. She whips off her façade that stops people from recognizing her in the streets and tosses it to the couch. She strolls around her house in the nude, sick of clothing making her what she is not. Raquel washes off the many faces of the day in the bathroom and resists another urge to break the mirror. She cries and lays on the kitchen floor, weary, used, and worn. The tile is cold against her body and Raquel lightly closes her eyes and hums a familiar melody. She thinks of the names of colors. She counts them as she heads along. The tears roll down her cheek but Raquel embraces the floor and her thoughts and keeps the thought that she will have the same day tomorrow quietly and calmly at bay. For now.