جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

 When I open my eyes, there’s too much light. One lightsaber of it after another cuts into my vision as they fly over me. People’s heads appear and disappear, unfamiliar faces peer at me worriedly, hands and shoulders clad in identical blue scrubs occasionally block the light. Their mouths keep opening and closing, and I wonder vaguely why I can’t hear them. It feels like I’m watching a movie, and someone has pressed the mute button.Then I notice a familiar face, wet with tears, her hair hanging loose. I’ve never noticed how much grey she had in her hair. I want to call out to her and tell her to calm down, to not worry about me, but the stretcher I’m apparently lying on takes a turn, hits double doors and enters another room, and then I can’t see her anymore.Then, there’s more light, straight in my face, so I squeeze my eyes shut, and listen to the muffled voices coming through the fog. Then some

 My eyes keep gravitating to the two women on the corner, to their long legs and short skirts. One of them wears thigh high leather boots like the ones that Julia Roberts sported in “Pretty Woman”. The similarity ends there, though, for there’s nothing pretty about this woman’s face. Her tense expression only briefly switches to fake inviting smiles as she follows the passing cars with her eyes. Thick layer of makeup fails to properly conceal what could be either severe acne or meth marks on her cheeks.Her friend is taller and broader in the shoulders and could be a transvestite as far as I can tell. She—he?—catches my eye and smiles. I look away, drumming my fingers on the wheel, waiting for the light to change.The exhaust fumes of the cars in front of me rise into the cool night air. Neon signs blink along the road, distracting from the dirty brick walls on which they are mounted. Not a good part of New Yor

His reaction is immediate. The moment the door locks click, his hand darts down to his right boot and then comes up with a thin blade that he points at my face.“Unlock the doors,” he says. “Unlock the fucking doors!”I catch his wrist and push the sharp steel away from my face; then twist his hand so that the blade flies into the back seat. His tries to unclench my fingers with his free hand, then throws it forward, trying to stick his finger in my eye.“Stop it,” I snarl, avoiding the blow and catching his second wrist as well.“Unlock the doors, you psycho!” He tries desperately to shake me off, then twists in his seat and hits me in the stomach with his foot. I gasp and let go. He turns to the window and slams his elbow into it. The glass doesn’t break; he hisses with pain and turns to me again.“Open the door! I told you I don’t want no trouble!”

The downstairs room is empty save for the mattress on the floor. It’s relatively clean, too. I’ve swept the place thoroughly when I first started sleeping here on the days my shifts were scheduled too close together to make driving home worth my while.Raven walks around, peeks into the little adjacent bathroom, then turns to me, wrinkling his nose.“Not five stars,” he says. “Four at most.”“There.” I hand him the paper cup I have brought from the coffee machine in the corridor.He leans on the wall and brings the cup to his nose, inhaling the smell. “Arsenic, by any chance?”“Why would I want to poison you?”“I don’t know. I can’t think of any reasons why would you want to be friendly, either.”“There are easier ways to kill you if I wanted to.”“Easier, but less fun.” He ta

It’s dark and quiet when I open my eyes. I blink and rub my face. The room has been dark since Raven has smashed the only light bulb a couple of days ago, and then tried to cut his wrists with the shards. It was also then that I realized that he couldn’t be left alone.So, with my shifts canceled under the pretense of sickness, I’ve been staying with him all the time. The stuffy air of the small room has been giving me constant headaches. The place probably stinks, too, although I’m so used to it by now that I don’t really smell anything.At first, it was like living in a cage with a wild animal. I couldn’t sleep unless I had him tied up, which required a struggle; and even then, I couldn’t get him to shut up, so what little rest I could get was constantly accompanied by his moans, threats and begging.It’s quiet now, though, and my body tells me that I’ve been asleep for a while, perhaps a few