Weak at the Knees

A 100-word story about feeling weak at the knees.

You’ve always had weak knees. Said her father. It’s genetic, you get it from your mother. Weak of spirit, weak of knee.

Her mother lived abroad, and they didn’t talk about her.

They’ll give you trouble, those knees, said the doctor, eventually.

Another said the same some years later. And one cold Tuesday, when she tried to get up, out of bed, and popped her knees over the edge, one failed beneath her. Scranch, it went. Scranch, and she fell.

On the floor, she thought about her mother, who had died last winter, and eventually, which had just come now.