The Fifth Floor

Seven-year-old Anna was smiling when she was given the news. It’s not that she misunderstood what she heard, but her smile froze as her brain stopped thinking and her breathing slowed. To her older sister Frances, Anna’s smile looked like one of ignorance and foolishness, but both were misconceptions. Anna’s smile was one of horror. She was the reason Liz would not be returning home.

In this single moment, Anna’s childhood shifted from happy-go-lucky to an emotional rollercoaster of destruction and guilt. A decade later and suppressed by her childhood secret, 17-year-old Anna barely hangs on to daily life, but many things can go unnoticed in a large family. That is, until Anna stops eating altogether.

Far beyond what her family fully understands, Anna’s situation is about to get worse when late one night, sitting quiet and alone on the same couch where it all began ten years earlier, her mother asks, “What are you doing?” and Anna responds, “Waiting for Liz.” Bewildered, Anna’s mother turns to Dr. Ellison, a relaxed and competent psychiatrist who immediately hospitalizes Anna on the fifth floor of Advocated Hospital. Ten years is a long time to harbor a secret. Will Anna reveal the truth?