three word wednesday - The Fire
Apartment
Began
Numb
THE FIRE
Lying, he was.
Lying!
She knew the doctor wouldn't tell the truth right from the first moment he entered the long corridor.
He straightened his white coat, put glasses higher on his nose, and just before he saw her, he quickly moved his hand through his hair.
She didn't want to watch him moving towards her.
It was too much of a moviescene.
So she started to walk...
"He's doing rather well, considering the circumstances.
I expect he'll be intubated at least a day, so his airways can heal a bit.
We'll keep him sedated, so he won't feel any pain."
"Sedation doesn't keep away the pain, it prevents a reaction to it", she said, and she felt the emotions move away a bit.
Logics and critical remarks always gave her a feeling of being in control.
He agreed and told her that morphine was involved too.
They both walked back to the intensive care, and she saw flashes of the fire in the apartment.
When she arrived there was already smoke everywhere, but she didn't expect it to come from his apartment.
She thought there was a fire again at the place of the old lady, so she turned the key and opened the door.
A flame almost caught her, but she moved back, and then saw his body like he'd been waiting at the door.
Hiding behind her briefcase she managed to get his hand and pul him out.
He was still covered in little flames when the firefighter tried to push her away.
But already she was throwing her coat on him.
She was taken outside, coughting and gasping for breath. Completely overtaken by a strange chaos of feelings.
Now she felt numb.
"Here he is", the doctor said, and she realised he'd been speaking to her all the way down the corridor, in the elevator and even when they passed some nurses to this little room.
She looked at the body, the instruments and at her own burned hand slowly touching his.
"You can talk to him", the doctor said, "he'll hear you, and it'll do him a world of good."
She realised that now the lying truly began.
This was just a body, a breathing machine and some bare words, trying to comfort her, so she would go home and sleep.
Then tomorrow they would call and tell her he died during the night.
She tried to feel him, but it was like no souls could meet.
"He's already dead.
There's no need to fool ourselves." She slowly said.
Again she entered the corridor.
It was endless now.
Former entries:
Posts
1 comments:
Very sad. Very well written.
Post a Comment