A Few Quick Ones

The Awakening

Meena panted a little as she quickened her steps. It was long past start of visiting time at the hospital.

Stopping to buy oranges for him made me miss the usual bus.

The guard glanced kindly at her. "How is Mr. Nath now, ma'am?"

"He is fine, thanks." She barely checked her stride.

How could I say that he just lies there like a store dummy?

The nurse click-clacked down the corridor; the smell of pine disinfectant wafted strong.

They must bathe in that stuff. Meena wrinkled her nose.

"He is waiting for you, Mrs. Nath."

That would be a first. He doesn't even know I exist. They said he was 'responding well' to the new treatment, but I can’t see it. The heart ticks, with no trace of him within.

She stopped to dash a tear away from her eye. She fixed a smile upon her face.

She looked at the fresh lilies on the windowsill. The gaunt figure sat slack in the reclining chair, the unblinking gaze hovering at her waist level.

He loved to bring me lilies, teasing me about a long and slender neck. Even when I got a double chin, he brought me lilies.

"I have brought you some oranges, dear. Juicy and sweet, your favourite.”

She kept up a stream of inconsequential information to the unmoved and still figure; snippets of nothing - from a world that had passed him by.
The swallows were reflex and the juice trickled down his chin. Meena wiped it with tender dabs of her hanky.

The soot black eyes swiveled to her in sudden recognition. The tongue slurred from disuse but the words were clear to Meena. He had said the same thing when he first met her.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?”





Word count:298
Written for:

Daily Flash Fiction Challenge  (13+) Enter your story of 300 words or less. #896794 by Arakun the twisted raccoon

24/11/08
Prompt: Write a story with the words "Don't I know you from somewhere?"