The Song of Judge Sabin - Part Two
A side story from the novel 'Sanctuary' of the Gilesian Trilogy
Thick grey smoke swirled around her ankles, rising up from
the sides of the road, coalescing together into a solid wave of smoke that rose
to her knees.
April panicked, and turned back to the twisted car wreckage
out of needing a sense of comfort, something that she knew and remembered, in
these strange circumstances, but the gray waves rose higher, a steaming noise
rising with them. Up to her waist now. She couldn’t see the car. Billowing
smoke in every direction.
“You’re all right. Don’t be afraid.”
April jumped as she turned around to see Crystal again, up
to her neck in smoke.
“Take deep breaths. You really need this.”
April took a breath, and winced. “It smells musty. What is
it?”
Crystal’s face couldn’t be seen through the smoke. Only the
straight brown hair on the top of her head stuck out. “It’s an antimicrobial
treatment, to keep you from getting pneumonia while you’re using your
ventilator.”
April raised her face out of the fog, but soon it closed
around her face and eyes, and she choked and coughed. “I can’t see anything!”
“Go ahead and breathe. It won’t hurt you. I’m over here.
Hold my hand.”
A small hand squeezed around April’s as she struggled to
breath. The fog obscured everything, and she stopped to sit down, fighting back
fear.
“I don’t understand any of this.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
“I can’t see my hand before my eyes, and I've got a little
girl talking crazy at me.”
“I’m not crazy, April. Neither are you. You’re injured, and
I’m trying to make you better.”
“You? What are you doing anyway?”
“Right now I’m healing your brain. What I’m actually doing is
pretty complicated, but you sustained a lot of cerebral damage in the accident,
and I’ve got to fix that first. Here, let me show you…”
Before April could protest, she saw herself behind the wheel
of her car, as she lost control in the rainy night. The 4X4 in the
oncoming lane raced up in her field of vision, turning sideways. She screamed…and the image evaporated into the gray mist.
“You don’t have to watch all of it. I want you to know what
happened, though. It’ll make your return easier…”
“Return? I’m dead, aren’t I? Must be dead. I can’t have
lived through that.”
The warm, small hand continued to hold hers, and April
didn’t dare let it go. April grasped onto her with both hands, kneeling and
taking deep breaths.
“You did live, actually. Barely. Glanced off the side
instead of a direct hit. Very lucky.”
“But…what am I now? Is there anything left of me to go back
to?”
April wanted to crawl back inside the cramped wreckage of
the car, now submerged in smoke. At least she remembered it. Her head felt
empty. Words came to her lips, and she barely comprehended anything she said. She
felt wobbly and uncertain now, thinking about how all this made no sense. She
focused on her small companion, terrified that she might vanish.
“How…how did you end up with a boy’s name?”
She listened to the sweet, thin voice out of the fog. “It’s
not a boy’s name. C-R-Y-S. Short for Crystal.”
“Oh, I see. I thought you meant C-H-R-I-S.”
She waited again for the voice, but heard nothing.
The tiny hand slipped from hers.
“Wait! What…Crys! Where are you?”
She reached out for it, just as she saw sunlight through the
fog again, as it faded into swirling wisps and sunk back into the ground.
She stood alone, once again beside what was left of the car.
“Crys? Hey Crys!”
The same long and empty black asphalt road lay at her feet,
and she turned to walk away the same way she’d started. Her steps halted, now
that she couldn’t be sure of where she was, or what was going on, or anything.
“Hallucinating? That’s it. I hallucinated a young girl. My
therapist will have a field day with this, but how do I get back home?”
She walked, and the sun felt hot on her back. She remembered
the dark leather of the therapist’s chair, how it almost hugged her. Dr. Khan.
He wore Bermuda shorts and Birkinstocks. Wiry, reedy hair. Jewish. She
remembered!
“If I ever get out of this, I am quitting my job. I’ll never
live long enough to make that judgeship worthwhile.”
“Are you a judge?”
April jumped, and put her hand over her heart.
“Crystal…Crys. How long have you been there?”
“I’m helping someone else too. Sorry. I needed time to recover.”
April stopped walking. “Recover? What do you have to recover
from?”
“I heal people by taking on their pain. I can’t do it all at
once, or I’d go comatose too. A little at a time.”
“Oh.” She kept walking, with the young girl staring at her
as they walked. “I don’t know how I feel about that now…hurting you so I can
get better…”
“You want to see your family again, right? Son John,
daughter Audrey?”
“John…Audrey…” April wrinkled her eyes. “I don’t…”
“You don’t remember them. I know. I’m rebuilding that part
of your memory right now. You should be proud of him. John got his master’s
degree in music performance, and teaches piano…”
April jumped in place as Crys’ words took life in her mind. “He
went to UMCP! UMCP! I remember! And they hassled me so hard about his tuition,
but we got him through…oh! How has he been?”
Crystal lifted one hand to her forehead. “I dunno, I never
met…unh…” She sank to her knees on the ground.
***Quick! Click here for Part Three! :-)
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