Looking into holes. Part ten

 The sick man lay looking up at the tiled ceiling. He couldn’t move , maybe indolence, maybe exhaustion or maybe he was afraid to disrupt or break the wires that encircled him. He had noticed that if he did try to move they entwined and resisted, pulling him deeper into his resting place.

Night was not the time to sleep, at least not for him. If he could get 2 or 3 naps in the day then that would be good enough. He tried to drift and focus on the veined pattern above him. Eventually the patterns changed to shadows and then a tableau as they began to take on their own life. The sick man needed to get closer as he saw movement and colour, a lick of bright orange flame. The ceiling seemed to be very close to him now and he was in. In the forest again, this time watching from just above a canopy of dark greens.

The boy was on the soft forest floor, running, weaving, dancing across the forest floor. Every stride stronger than the last, his arms and legs seemed to spring like giant pistons from a body that had bore too much already of the best ever things. 

“Stay away from me old man, I don’t, we don’t need you”

“I just like to watch” the sick man was jealous of the free effortless movement of the body in the young nut brown and the dark brown wavy hair, a tear rolled down his right cheek. He was losing focus. He must try harder. New shadows appeared by the boy, some sort of guard dog. Around his shoulders there was a fast moving cloud of tiny bats, may be starlings.

“Go way old man, I know what you want”

“I’m not old, I’m 60, I’m just sick. 60 is the new 40”

“40 is old”

“Screw you”

The boy ran fast and sure as the turf beneath him accepted and then drew him in, he was in the water. Suddenly he was in the water and moving deliberately slower until he realised the water or lake was swallowing him. “What have you done old man? What have  you done?

I looked at the bed replete with blood beside me and pressed the alarm. A cannula was compromised slipping out of my vein and pumping blood into my hand and back out into my bed. At the side of the bath as sheets were cleaned I felt nothing. I was cleaned down with cold towels and brought a new gown.

“Sucks to be me right now’

Comments

  1. Sophie S20 November 2021 at 04:54

    Another good one Steve.You write so eloquently even when you're feeling so poorly xxx

    ReplyDelete

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