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Adventure Drama Romance

 from behind the glass of the office, his boss began to look at him with blame while he was leaving his desk from time to time.

He doesn't know what's wrong with him!

He feels like needs to go to bathroom every five minutes. Not only that, but he didn't know the result of this frequent urination. However, he thought it might be a result of the cold weather.

On his return to the house by the company bus, he was attacked again by urine.

His bladder was about to explode, despite his attempts to control it, but he couldn't.

"Please, put me down here," he said to the driver in a loud voice.

Everyone on the bus looked at him; some leaned towards each other and whispered.

As if he hadn't heard, the driver continued his way, so he went to him, saying.. Are you deaf? I told you to put me down here! "He screamed as hard as he was in pain."

The bus began to stagger while the driver pressed the brake pads with anger and force. The girls screamed out loud after the bus crawled for several meters because of the water covering the road, and he almost fell on the floor of it.

The doors opened, and his coworkers were blowing and smacking their lips. Some of those who know him were surprised when he got off so far from his house in this bitterly cold, but with the pain he was feeling, he wouldn't care about their thoughts about him.

Near the bus, he stopped, trying to be calm and steadfast while enduring unbearable pain, until he watched the driver move.

The driver also tried to watch him through the mirror of the bus with eyes like foxes snooping at him.

As soon as the bus got far enough away, he quickly disappeared behind a big tree and, for the first time, did it outside.

At last, he felt out of pain! ‏

The weather was cloudy with non-stop drizzle, but the moon was accompanying him from behind the gray clouds, disappearing for a while, then appearing to illuminate the way in front of him with a dim light. He prith deeply and saied:

 "Waw,This romantic atmosphere one of is my favourites.

I wished my beloved wife was with me; it would be beautiful if we were racing in this romantic weather under the pink moonlight.

I would carry her on my back when she felt tired, while she hugged me from behind and tried to kiss my cheek or play with my hair. Perhaps we took the wildness and made love behind an old tree until the morning."

He turned around when he saw the lights of cars coming behind him, but they didn't stop when he raise his hand for a ride.

He kept walking for three kilometers without blaming himself because of the intensity of the pain he felt on the bus.

While he was on the road walking, he remembered that frequent use of the bathroom is an indication of an increase in the level of sugar in the blood.

He pulled his mobile phone from his pocket. And asked one of his friends doctors, explaining his condition to him.

The doctors shocked him without equivocation.

"It is very likely that you have diabetes. I will send you a message about what is required to do some tests. When you arrive, go to the analysis lab, then bring the results and come to the clinic as soon as possible."

He was very upset because diabetes is a close friend of all his family members; none of them escaped from it.

He remembered the insulin needles that he used to prickle his mother every day and night.

"It looks like I've finally gotten a membership in the "Heady Sweets Club."

This is what he used to joke with Mom during the insulin injection to ease her pain.‏‏

He ended the call with his friend and called his wife, telling her why he was late, and he told her the story to the end while he was walking on the road. Except for his call to the doctor's friend, he wouldn't make her feel more anxious. So he hung up the phone.

During the distance that he walked, since he got off the bus, he urinated several times until he reached where he lives, and the urine attacked him severely.

He pressed the elevator button while it was still going up, he looked at the floors numbers bord in pain and hugged his thighs together so that urine wouldn't seep into his pants.

No, no, I can't wait. "He told himself."

So he ran up the stairs to his apartment with crazy jumps, and he was surprised to come home and find the door was left open.

There's no time to close it!

"Perhaps my wife was feeling my suffering, so she left it open. Thank God, she saved me.

"That's what came to his mind in a second".

He hurried to the bathroom and pulled the zip down. Ow... Ow... burning pain followed by relief—a feeling only a diabetic would understand!

The zip lifted, and a voice came from the bedroom talking on the phone while she was laughing.

"Laugh with me; my husband got diabetic and panicked."‏

His feet were frozen, his eyes darkened, and he no longer saw anything but scattered pictures of color around him. He didn't know what to do. She's broken him completely. ‏

His shock was hundreds of times greater than his illness; a few pills or a shot of insulin would have been easily dealt with.

How can I live with a poisonous snake that wriggles over my bed and has deceived me for years!

"He was considering it in his own mind."‏

Without making a sound, he went calmly and left the doors open.

On his first step out of the door, he was met by a man going up. As soon as the man passed, he looked behind ; the man was standing in front of the open door, looking inside in astonishment. The man gave him a look of anger! Then the man entered and closed the doors behind him. He heard a noise, but he did not recognize it.‏

"perhaps the man was her lover she was talking to him on the phone, so she left the door open for him!. it wasn't for pity of me or interest in me!.

My heart going to stop.

I can't comprehend what's happened!"

He went down the stairs like a blind, not seeing his steps. He wanted to escape from the tower, from the world as quickly as he could.

 He couldn't believe what already heard, The tone of her gloating and the pleasure in her voice that came out tore him apart and broke his heart.

"How did the overwhelming love between us transform into that limitless, abhorrent hatred? 

And when did all this transformation take place, which I had never noticed before?"

His memory brought back the words she used to whisper in his ears. 

"My eyes only see you, and my heart only beats with your love. You are my soul mate and heaven's gift to me."

 What kind of heart this bitch has, who has mastered the roles of compassion, love, falsehood, and deceit for years!

Under the canopy of one of the buses, he sat; faces came and went, and he was clinging to the cold wooden seat with no feeling because his body was boiling like a pot over a stove fire.

While he was distracted, one of the buses stopped and blew the horn. The driver looked into his eyes with the look of a magician or hypnotist, so he got up like a robot and rode the bus.

The bus was empty except for a few people counting on the fingers of one hand: eccentrics in worn-out clothes, their wide eyes staring at him; he was shivering, their looks burning him; the bus left the city limits after driving it for two hours through an agricultural road devoid of any human features; the tall corn on both sides looked like scary ghosts; dry sticks of corn hit the sides of the bus with a force that terrifies.

Drops of water fall from the roof of the bus onto the outside window glass, as if it's drawing a crying woman with a sad face.

An image of the passengers was reflected in the darkness on the surface of the glass, so their eyes seemed to expand to swallow him.

The driver's face in the mirror has become like the face of the company bus driver; the passengers have turned into colleagues at work, and the woman painted on the outside window looks like his wife, but he does not understand the reason for her crying!.

"Am I in a disturbing dream or in a diabetic coma?" "He asked himself".

A building loomed far away, from which a dim light radiated. He left his seat and stood next to the driver. He wanted to get off the bus at any place to escape from the aliens with wide terrifying eyes, sad craying women.

The driver opened the door, and he got off. Strange people came behind him; he ran quickly and hid in an alley behind the building. But two girls were dressed in black, their faces were painted in disturbing colors, and terrifying pictures had been engraved on their bodies, with black lines, snakes, and monsters appearing everywhere on their bodies.

They were pulling his hands, like two little girls fighting over a cloth doll about to be split into two parts, until they put him inside a dirty tavern in a narrow alley.

He drank and drank until he lost consciousness.

He wanted to forget the sound of his wife's laughter ringing in his ears as if he had been crammed inside a Big Ben, the monsters peeking out from between the chests of the two girls, wanting to swallow his head. Not only that, but he wanted to forget who he was and vanish from an existence that had become hell in a single day.

In the hospital, while he was on ventilators inside the recovery room for a whole year, they didn't know who he was.

But he finally woke up and learned that they found him semi-naked in an alley, smashed on the back of my head.

Do you remember who you are?

What happened to you?

Do you remember why you were injured?

"Police questioned him after he came out of the coma".‏

No, I don't remember anything, and I don't know who I am.

After four weeks of removing the equipment and moving to another room, his health improved, and he asked them to leave, which they allowed, but he should visit a doctor from time to time.

He walked without direction until his feet led him to a bridge connecting the two banks of the river, so he stood in the middle of it and began to contemplate the running water sweeping away some sticks of wood and branches of trees with it, he felt like a stick of firewood being driven on the surface of the water involuntarily.

The rain began to fall again in abundance, so he ran quickly looking for a place to take refuge in it, he Found nothing but only the roof of the bridge, so he sat under it, leaning against one of the huge columns.

He ran his eyes around the place; there was a black pile covered with a coat, and in front of it were some burning wood and two small female hands sticking out from under the coat to warm themselves. Next to it were some plastic bags and a bottle of water.

He took out his cigarettes and lit one. The black pile raised a head, as if the sound of the match had alerted it to his presence.

She's looking at him, his eyes blocked by her sad eyes. He felt a pang in his heart. Slowly, slowly, she removed the jacket she was hiding under it and put it on her knees. The face of an angel attracting the onlookers appeared; her gaze made him surrender And feel comfortable.

She indicated a bottle of water for him to drink, so he went to her to quench his thirst for her calm face.

He sat in front of her, and she smiled at him without saying a word.

He took the bottle from her hand, took sips, and sat right in front of her.

What is your name? "She asked"

didn't remember. "He replied".

The tears dropped from her eyes like beads of pearls on her alabaster cheek in silence.

Several minutes passed, and they were in this situation: one step separated them, and eyes clung to each other without words. ‏

The rain stopped, except for a gentle drizzle. She stood up and extended her hand to him. So he also got up, grabbed her warm hand, and walked beside her like a bewitched woman—he didn't ask where.

On the sidewalk of the extended river, they walked as lovers, not caring about the strange looks behind the windows of cars.

It is strange to see homeless people in the form of lovers!.

Are you hungry? "She asked"

no; "he answered"

She looked at him with a tender look and said, "But I think you will not mind eating ice cream with vanilla and lemon under a gentle drizzle.

Immediately he smelled and tasted the smell and taste she suggested and loved it, as if it was once his favourites type of ice cream, before he lost his memory, and this poetic picnic under the drizzle—he had gone through it a lot, in another life!‏

Since he saw her, he could not take his eyes off hers, as the light drizzle was washing her face and revealing its beauty whenever it passed over her forehead and cheeks.

A beautiful damp breeze enveloped them, and they no longer felt the cold of winter.

While they walked side by side, licking the ice cream happily like children, A red muffler scarf was wrapped around her neck.

the edges of which floated from the bottom of the black coat she was wearing, with two letters printed on it: K and M.

He pointed to the end of the muffler scarf and asked her, "a letters of your name"?

She answered while looking at the sky with her face:

"It's the initials of me and my husband's.

He got a little upset and asked her, while the words creaking in his throat:

"Do you have a husband?

"Maybe in another life". She replied.‏

He preferred to remain silent and did not dwell on the question.

"Perhaps her husband died in an accident or of some disease. 

There is no need to bring up her memories, as this may have increased her grief, and this is not good at a time when she was kind and generous to me."

As they walked, "she asked"

Where do you live?

Do you have a wife or a family?

I don't remember anything; I had an accident and lost my memory, as they told me in the hospital, and I only see some incomprehensible fantasies; sometimes they bother me, and I don't want to remember them.

What about you? "He asked"

- I live another city.

Have you house there?

- Yes i have.

Excuse me, but what brings you to this remote place to sleep like homeless people?

- I'm looking for something precious that I lost a while ago

And what is this thing?

- If you agree to come back with me to where I live, I may tell you.

Well, I only have time and no place to go, and I feel comfortable in your company.

She smiled, as if life had returned to her and the weakness was gone.

Her hazel eyes shone, and the locks of her brown hair flirted with her cheeks as she looked at him tenderly.

Then she held his hand again, and they went to take one of the buses, which took them to her city.

They arrived after more than two hours, and it was evening; the colored lights had decorated the facade of the shops; the pavement shone and reflected the colors and the image of both of them.

while she pressed hard on his hand, she stopped in front of a high tower, I live here. "She said"‏

His eyes ran between her clothes and the lofty tower, and he silently wondered: How can a homeless person live here!?

She took him by the hand, and they entered, they stood in front of the elevator, which it was still going up passed the twentieth floor, so she looked at him and said; I live on the third floor, I think it is close.

would you like to try climbing the stairs?

no harm; it's better than waiting."He answered"‏

She started jumping the steps of the stairs in front of him like a deer, and he started jumping after her as if they were in a race having fun together on green lawns. He feel It was familiar, as if he had tried it before.

On the second floor, they heard a noise coming out of one of the apartments whose door was open. As a woman walked out the door followed by a man yelling at her...

"Bitch, how long do you leave the apartment door open for men to come in"?

They were shocked by the situation and slowed down for a moment. While she pulled his hand to continue the ascent softly. The man was looking at him with a sharp look and a trembling hand pointing at him, and sparks flew from his eyes in anger, but he didn't know the reason for that!

July 31, 2023 12:11

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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