Eternal life - Magdalena Wita (best summer reads .TXT) 📗

It was late into night. The darkness was intensified by the rain, which was pouring heavily onto the ground. Thunder shackled the surroundings and the dogs in the further neighbourhood started to howl. The sky was embellished by lightning bolts, the stream of accumulated water was going down the path. The area was lightened only by weak street lamp - except the constant flash of lightnings - but was bickering, turning on and off. The wind carried all the dirt and trash around, making the empty plastic bags swirl in small whirlwinds.

Two silhouettes of men emerged from the darkness, both hardly breathing, clearly in the middle of a fight. They were in the centre of sloped street, restricted by both sides of it by tall, stone fence. One of the men hid in the shadow, while taking a shallow breaths. Second’s man face was lightened by the sudden lightning bolt, showing that it was all covered in blood mixed with dirt.

He was tired of running away, so he just went onto his knees and smiled, showing his bloody teeth. ‘Take it… I don’t want to remember…’, he quietly whispered, stretching his arms to the sides, yet the words got to the man in the shadow, making him more angry, than he already was. He wiped his lips, spitted rest the saliva to the ground and moved towards kneeling man.

His shoulders were sunk down and he moved as he was staggering, but he got to his opponent. He started to laugh, as his shoulders moved and he kicked the second man, which wasn’t resisting. Soon he hit the ground with his face, unconscious. The kicker aimed his last strike and hardly hit the stomach of the laying man.

When he made sure, that the other will not wake up anytime sooner, he turned around on his heel and proceeded to slowly go up the hill, disappearing in the rain and the dark.

The beaten up face of the victim stayed on the road. The blood was flowing down from his nostrils, he was scowling. The wet hair glued to his face and he had trouble with breathing. After uncertain amount of time his face lightened up red and blue, when the help appeared.

The man felt dizzy and heard ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes slowly and noticed that outside is already bright and clear, but then he realised that he didn’t even know what to expect. He was looking out the big window at the birds flying up high on blue sky, laying still in some bed, he didn’t recognize.

He started to move his head around, causing it pain, then he moved his hand to his face and noticed some things attached to it: injected PVC connected to the IV. He turned his head onto his right, where he saw a hospital curtain, separating him from the rest of the words. He tried to remember why he got himself in such a situation, but it causes nothing more than harder headache.

He decided to speak, but his throat was completely dry. He gave a try to clear his throat, but he failed. Then he attempted to lift up and lean on his forearms, but they were weak so he hit bed again, finally making some noise. He heard a voice, coming from the side.

‘Oh, honey, I think someone moved there.’ It was an elderly voice.

‘We should not care.’ The female, younger, answered. The man struggling to get anyone attention squinted his eyes for this response. He moved his head to look at that side, from which he heard the conversation. Under the curtain some feet can be seen, but that’s all.

‘They moved him here 2 days ago and he didn’t move. Maybe he woke up. Go for someone.’ The male voice insisted. The patient smiled, thanking for this man. But on the other hand: did this person just said 2 days ago? For how long was he laying there?

The woman sighed, but didn’t say anything, instead she stood up and apparently walked out, as the steps were becoming faint and the door being shut could be heard.

The man looked in front of him, waiting for the help to come. There was a wall and on it he noticed the calendar. He couldn’t see clearly, but he saw number pointing that it was September, probably beginning, because the pointer was in the first row. Should it frighten him? He… didn’t know, he did feel as it was something weird.

Suddenly a female voice could be heard again, as the room door opened. He caught only part of the sentence said earlier, but rest was understandable.

‘…ry, but dad heard something coming from the patient beside, and he wanted to check if everything is alright…’ She said.

A new, kind of nasal, male voice answered harshly. ‘Then you could’ve called for the nurse.’

‘Yes, yes…’ She answered awkwardly.

The curtain suddenly opened up. The doctor in his white gown stood at the end of the bed looking at his patient. The lady, in her forties gasped as she saw him. She sat on her father’s bed, lurking at the mysterious neighbour. She didn’t she him earlier, because usually his bed was all hidden behind the curtains. The doctor shoved her to the side and put back the screening.

But the lady noticed: the young man lying on the bed had features of someone, who could easily drag one’s attention. His hair, now long enough to shoulder length and messy, were naturally dark and slightly curly, so few strands was hitting his face. His jaw, more oval in shape, was covered with stubble, as well as a few bruises and small cuts that contrasted with his fair complexion. Beside those features his skin was clear and healthy. He looked no older, than 20 years old. His eyes were sharp, upturned and black as a coal. He didn’t have any dark circles nor his eyes were swollen. They fit in the face pretty well, even though they weren’t big. His nose was more of a round, but not disturbing enough to destroy the proportions of his beauty. His lips were rather thin, but the cupid's bow had a firm line, highlighting his upper lip over the lower one.

The doctor noticed that patient had his eyes open, so he stopped looking so grumpy. ‘So you actually woke up.’ He said it more to himself. Then he raised his voice. ‘Hello, my name is Park Seung Min, and this is °°° Hospital. If you can hear me, nod.’

The patient wanted even to speak, but nothing came out from his mouth, so he just nodded as he was ordered to.

‘Ok, nice to see that you’re so eager to say something, but you’ve been intubated when you came here and you’ve been laying for a while. Don’t worry, I’m going to call a nurse, she’s going to give you some water to start your voice engine, heh.’ Doctor wanted to sound funny, but rather his joke wasn’t making anyone laugh.

The man wasn’t sure if he heard good. He has been intubated? Why? What is wrong with him?

Doctor said his joke, smirked by himself and approached the head of the bed to press the button to call the nurse. ‘Okay, she’s coming. Before that, tell me, do you know why you’re here? Again nod or shake.’

The man tried to remember anything, but after a moment he shook his head to the sides. This move caused a new wave of ringing pain inside the head, so he scowled. Really, his head was hazy and heavy, he tried to think about some explanation, but nothing came to his mind.

‘Do you have someone that we can call to come?’ The handsome man contradicted. ‘Hmm, that’s no good. But don’t worry and don’t move too much. You had a concussion.’

Soon, the nurse walks into the room. She’s small, but she has some kind of fierce glance. She has her hair tied in a bun and wore nice, claret nurse suit. Her lips were naturally smiling, even though she looked tired. She was blushing and breathing heavily. The call made her run from the other room.

The doctor looked at her from her head to toes. ‘Oh, it’s your duty today, Aeri? Never mind. Run standard tests for him, pressure, maybe morphology. But firstly give him some water and ask some questions, because he says he don’t know, why he’s here, no family members, ok? Call me, when you’re done.’ He patted her shoulder and left the room. ‘What’s for today’s lunch…’ Could be still heard, when he was leaving.

He passed to the nurse the patient’s card. She looked at it and for a second she tightened her lips in anger. Then she took a deep breath and professional smile came back to her kind face.

She turned to the patient. ‘Hi, my name is Kim Ae Ri. Give me a second, I’m going to get some tools.’ And she disappeared for a minute and came back with a trolley. On top of it was water jug, from which she poured the liquid to the cup with a straw. She served it to the man.

‘Here. First, take a sip.’

He took the sip and felt as it was slightly burning his throat. Second and following were better, felling much better.

‘Isn’t it nicer now? First sip hurts, but you didn’t speak for a while so it probably was completely dry. Okay?’

The man grunted. ‘Yeah…’ He said hoarsely, but was glad that he was in ability to talk again. His voice was deep.

‘Much better.’ She pulled out a pen from her pocket and started prepared herself to write down some information. She also noted which tests they have to carry on him.

‘Before we will move you to perform the examination, we have to have a little talk, okay?’ She clearly overused one word. It made the man chuckle, which in his current situation looked more like a stroke. ‘Something is wrong?

He focused. ‘Don’t be… so… okay… about everything…’

‘As for someone whose voice was shut down for few days you certainly are talkative, aren’t you?’ She smirked, noticing that he wasn’t rude. ‘But ok-, I mean, alright, I will try my best to avoid saying that word. Tell me what do you fell right now? Try to only answer yes, no or crisply.’ And she looks at him, waiting for the response.

‘… Yes’ The man answered, nodded and was nodding, when she listed things like nausea, dizziness or pain. He was weak and he finally could notice what actually was wrong with him.

‘So, the doctor said you don’t remember why you’re here. In the patient’s card we have written Hong Gil Dong, because we couldn’t find your true identity.’ The man looked away, feeling slightly worse. His name was lost in his mind.

The nurse continued. ‘You’ve been found unconscious in the middle of the street, at midnight. Probably beaten up. You had troubles with breathing and you’ve been insentient for over a week, firstly on intense unit care, then for 2 days here. You said you don’t have family, so…’

Gil dong raised his head. Something came up to his mind. ‘I didn’t say I don’t have family… I just don’t know...’

Aeri started to suspect something. ‘You don’t know if you have family? Wait, do you even remember your name?’

The man tried really hard and went silent for minutes, but nothing was ringing in his head. His breathing speeded as well his heart rate, which was seen on the monitor.

‘No…’ He whispered.

Nurse looked at the screen. ‘Calm down. Breath in and out like that.’ She showed him. When he was following the pattern on his own, she asked a new question. ‘Can you tell me what year it is?’

He pointed at the calendar behind her. ‘It says 2020.’

She followed the finger and realised that she asked a stupid thing. She needed help. ‘Right… I will be right back. I’m going to call for the doctor again.’

She walked