November 7th 2004
Mary hadn’t coughed for hours, she had just been sleeping. It was a deep, calm sleep, but it had the opposite effect on John. He had a very bad feeling about this. This wasn’t right, Mary’s calmness was an ominous omen.
At 10 PM, his gut feeling proved to be right. Mary woke up screaming, out of the blue. ‘Help me. Please, help me!’
John gasped for air as he dialed the three numbers he had hoped never to dial in his life. When the ambulance arrived to take Mary to the hospital, the daze John had been living in for the past couple of weeks turned into a delayed representation of reality. He felt the eyes of his nosy neighbors burn in his back, as the nurses lifted Mary into the ambulance.
People were talking to John, but he didn’t hear a word they said. There he was, utterly alone among a group of people, powerless, as he watched everything that was going on. The dark world that surrounded him, was rhythmically lit by flashes of blue ambulance light, which made the whole experience even more surrealistic. He surrendered to everything that was happening, knowing that he would probably return to the house alone. His eyes caught Mary’s, and he sensed that she knew it too. For the first time in weeks, they smiled at each other, as if everything was going to be alright, even though they both knew that it couldn’t be further from the truth.
In the hospital, the doctors told John that this was the moment to say goodbye to his wife. But what words do you choose, if you know that you’ll never see the person you love so much ever again? At a loss for words, they simply held each other’s hands and looked each other deep in the eye, shutting out the rest of the world. In a couple of hours, they said more in silence than they could ever have with words.
It hurt John that a life that has been so grand, had to end this small. In a four by four hospital room. But still, it did, fifteen past six in the morning. Mary used her last bit of strength to ask the only question that still mattered to her: ‘But what about you, John?’
He suppressed his tears. ‘I’ll be fine sweetie, don’t you worry about me, ‘ he lied.
John didn’t cry. Not when her breathing grew slower. Not when the interval between the beeps on the heart monitor grew longer and longer. Not even when her hands turned cold.
YOU ARE READING
Dinner with God
RomanceJohn would give up everything to see Mary, the love of his life one more time. Years after her tragic death, his wish becomes reality when she is back in his life. But how...and why? When John meets a mysterious man, he makes a painful discovery: Ma...
