For Momo, who always stands by me
2. Redemption
She stepped out of her car with the assurance of one who is secure of her life and of her future. Her first look told her it was darker than usual. Looking around she realized one of the streetlights had gone out. Underneath it, she could discern the shape of a man. He seemed to be a part of the darkness itself. Only the cigarette, glowing like a red-hot poker, marked his presence. She was chilled to the bone and couldn’t figure out why. To her it felt like she was standing in the eye of an electrical storm. Sweat burst through every pore in her body as her chest tightened and the hair on her arms and on the back of her neck stood on end. Wanting to turn away, she found that she could not move her gaze, let alone her feet. The cigarette dropped to his side, and then it went twirling through the air, blinking out, as it fell into an open drainpipe. The shadow seemed to move away. She could see a little clearer now as he neared the halo of light the adjacent streetlight was producing. Just as he was about to step into it however, the bulb spluttered and went out. He moved through the darkness and the spot where he was standing just a moment before was suddenly illuminated by the streetlight which had been out just a second ago. She turned and fled into the hospital where she worked.
She could not understand what had just happened and, like most people, what she did not understand scared her. She walked fast past the corridors into her office and locked the door behind her. She sat at her desk for a couple of minutes holding her head in her trembling hands. Her thoughts slowly untangled themselves as she sought some logical explanation for what she had just felt. I’m over-doing it she thought to herself; I need a break or a vacation or something. She opened her drawer and took out a small phial. Opening it into her palm, she threw a valium down her throat and replaced the phial. Something she only did in dire situations. The trembling stopped after a while and she felt strong enough to go out and check on her patients.
She started her round and was soon lost in concentration as she answered page after page drawing to her attention everything from gunshot wounds to a broken leg. The final straw came just as she was about to come off duty as half a dozen young men were brought in on stretchers. She heard ‘Gang Warfare’ from an orderly and groaned to herself. By the end of the night she had lost count of the number of wounds she had sutured shut, but it was finally over. She sighed with relief and started off towards her office. It happened then as she felt a draught of ice-cold wind pass her as all the over-head lights flickered out. She leaned against a wall as the life went out of her legs. She slid down and sat on the floor waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. She sat like this for a couple of minutes but she could discern nothing at all in the opaque darkness. She got up and started to make her way forward and before she had taken two steps, the lights came back to life.
‘Just an electricity shortage’, she said to herself and started moving towards her office again. She turned the corner and came to a stand still. The lights in her office were still out and she always left them on. She could not control herself as she started walking towards the door. She reached for the knob and turned it violently and entered. She could sense the presence even before she saw him.
1 comment:
That was great.
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