Stories

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WHEN THE DAY WAS STILL LIGHT

Patrick worked as an expatriate at a bank in the Far East.
The country was known for the occasional severe earthquake, but he wasn’t worried.
In the two years he had been there, it had shaken a little once. Totally harmless. He worked hard and hardly had time for a private life. That’s why he was alone. Sometimes he even longed for a partner. But it wasn’t easy to find one. He had no time to go to bars or discos, and he also had trouble with with the local language. Most people here barely understood english.
He went to a nearby hospital a little higher up to get vaccinated twice against corona. It was the same nurse both times who picked him in the upper arm. As this was always done with a mask in front of her face, you could hardly recognize faces.
But she had beautiful eyes and a lovely voice. She had a name tag written in her native language, but also with Siva. From a good three meters away, he once asked her if she would take off her mask for a moment. She knew a little english.
She did. He did too. They looked at each other and it sparked tremendously. Embarrassed, she quickly put her mask back on and said goodbye to him. He was totally confused.
Afterwards, he sank back into far too much work, usually well into the night. And then went to sleep dead tired.
This went on for weeks and he never saw her again.
One weekend, when the day was still light outside, he did the remaining work in the home office.
It shook a little, a small tremor, he wasn’t worried, and carried on working.
Minutes later, there was a deep rumble and his cell phone started beeping. Before Patrick understood what was going on, the house began to shake violently and he heard dishes falling in his kitchen. There was a crash from outside,
People were screaming.
Patrick only now realized that it must be something big. He crawled under his desk. He took his cell phone with him, but there was no reception.
It shook for minutes, buildings seemed to collapse all around him.
He only hoped that the building where his apartment would hold. In his thoughts he said goodbye to this world. Images from his past came before his eyes, his family back home. Then he also had an image of the beautiful nurse Siva in his mind. He regretted that he had never asked her to have a coffee with him. He waited until it finally stopped. He stood up and looked out through the window.
Lots of half-destroyed houses, several of which were already on fire.
He ran to his cupboard and grabbed the emergency kit. Put on his helmet, the thick gloves made of non-flammable material and ran outside. Fortunately, his building had held up.
He heard screams from the house opposite, the front door was half off its hinges. It flew off completely with a kick. Patrick ran inside.
He looked around and heard shouting from the living room. He found a boy who was trapped under a cupboard that had fallen over and couldn’t free himself.
Patrick picked up the cupboard and the boy crawled out, he seemed unharmed. Patrick led him outside and indicated that he should go up to the hospital. He nodded and ran off. No one else seemed to be in this house.
He set off and went to the next house. The door was open, inside, an elderly woman was lying in bed in a room with a wheelchair in front of it. He helped her up, put her in the chair and left the house as quickly as He could already smell a strong odor of burning.
He pushed the wheelchair up the hill to the hospital. Exhausted, he called for help at the entrance. Siva and another nurse came running and took over. Patrick turned around and ran back down again.
From a house that was already on fire at the back, he heard loud cries for help.
He kicked in the door and looked around. In the living room, a young woman was trapped under a beam. It was already singed. It was extremely hot. He tried to remove the beam, but it was too heavy. The search for a suitable tool was unsuccessful. In the end, he took a chair, which looked solid. With a lever movement, he managed to lift the beam slightly. She then crawled out from under it herself. But her leg seemed to be injured, she could not stand on it. Patrick put her arm around his shoulder so they could leave the house. But they couldn’t go any further outside.
Without further ado, he bent down and loaded her onto his shoulders, and off they went up the slope again. He arrived at the top completely exhausted. There was also a doctor there who immediately attended to the woman.
Patrick turned around, Siva called after him at the back, but he was already gone again on his way down.
He took two more people upstairs, each time turning around and running back down.
Siva called after him, watch out, soon a tsunami is coming. He didn’t hear it anymore.
From a burning house, a girl screamed from the upper floor out of the window. Everything was already on fire at the back. Patrick ran inside, peoples tried to hold him back. A few had pulled out their cell phones and were taking photos. He ran up the burning stairs. On the way he lost his helmet. His clothes started to burn. He reached the room with the girl, he grabbed her and she screamed in fear. With his last strength he went down the stairs with her. The hair on his head was scorched, when he arrived in front of the house with the girl, they were burning were ablaze. Photos were taken. He ran uphill again and delivered the little one. Turned around and ran down. Siva screamed after him with all her might. Stay here, the tsunami. He no longer realized it. He reacted like a machine, go down and save people, he didn’t think about himself. The hair on his head was burnt off, he had burns all over him and his clothes were in tatters.
He was just about to look in the next house when the huge waves came.
It hit him full force and he was immediately under water. Instinctively, he began swimming movements and somehow made it to the surface where he could gasp for air. He was carried inland by the wave.
Fortunately, there was nothing dangerous in the way. He managed to stay halfway to the surface. He then managed to hold on to a branch of a large tree. With all the strength he had left, he clutched it. He was desperate and didn’t know what to do next. Just hold on. He had no pain, the adrenaline took care of that. The water flowed beneath him with force. He held on to the branch with his last of his energy.
It began to darken and he remained where he was for hours. Then he heard the water flowing back. He could hardly see anything, but he was so exhausted that he began to descend from the tree. That was not easy at all in the darkness, he felt his way from branch to branch.
After several branches down, one broke where he had been holding on to, he crashed to the ground. The water had run out, the ground softened, he did not hurt himself. But he lost it immediately.
He lay unconscious on the wet ground for hours.
In the morning, rays of sunlight woke him up and he didn’t understand where he was at first.
He also realized that he was completely naked, no shoes either. the waves had taken everything with them.
He got up with difficulty and discovered a large cloth nearby. This he tied around his loins to cover him. He set off made his way back. Barefoot with a loincloth, his upper body naked.
He staggered along, but managed to get back to his street.
The fires had been extinguished by then. Numerous firefighters and other helpers were on duty.
He walked slowly towards them. When they became aware of him, paramedics came running straight away. He waved them off and pointed up to the hospital. They let him go. Some people took photos.
There was a guard of honor for him. Dozens of the aid workers lined up in line.
The leader of them bowed deeply as Patrick walked past.
Everyone did the same.
He made it to the top. A team was already waiting for him there.
Nurses placed him on a stretcher and covered him up. Off to a treatment room. Siva came in. She was beaming. You stupid hero, she immediately scolded him, then she lovingly stroked his head with a latex glove. She was fully covered in plastic, the risk of infection was far too great. Then she undressed him, washed him, disinfected his wounds, applied ointment on them and bandaged them.
A doctor came in, checked everything, he was then wired up and put into an induced coma. A drip was applied.
The pictures of his hair burning to a crisp and his ascetic arrival wearing only a loincloth went around the world. The people he saved were listed rescued by him, and long reports were published in newspapers in many countries.
He was the hero of the hour.
But the hero was in a deep sleep for a planned three days.
Only he hadn’t woken up after three days. He was dreaming. He sometimes twitched in his sleep. He had visions of an even much bigger earthquake, the worst in the history of this country.
And he knew there was nothing he could do about it this time.
It wouldn’t affect them directly, it would be more to the north, but devastating. He kept seeing the images in his dreams. Once he half woke up, on the wall in the room he saw figures crying, others crying, others were injured and countless others had not survived.
When he finally woke up, he realized that these were hallucinations.
They could be traced back to his recent experiences. He must have been unconscious for a long time, but had no memory of it. Everything was black. He then dismissed it as a temporary overload of his brain. He had never had any clairvoyant abilities.
Siva then brought him food and removed the annoying catheter. She pulled the mask down and he would have liked to kiss her straight away.
Of course he couldn’t, they weren’t together.
You stupid hero, she said, you’ve become world famous. He didn’t understand. She explained everything to him. But now it was time to eat, that went quite well. He cleaned everything up.
Good, she said, I’ll let you go back to sleep now. What he had not dared to do, she did. She gave him a long, loving kiss.
He fell asleep happily.
After a few days, Patrick had recovered well. He tidied up his apartment, bought new dishes and started to work a little again.
But only small jobs. The bank was very considerate for him, they knew of his fame.
There was a knock on his door, he opened it, and outside stood the head of his province’s government, together with a bodyguard. Patrick invited them in.
He didn’t understand. The governor told him that he had been nominated for the highest medal for bravery in the country. In three days the head of the entire country would present him with the medal in person in the capital in the north.
Patrick thanked him, but I was only helping. He, you have helped risking their own lives to help, that’s more than brave. So in three days then in the capital. He said goodbye.
Patrick was a bit taken aback, he hadn’t expected anything like this.
He called Siva and told her about it. She was beside herself with joy.
You so deserve it. Book your flight now. So he did.
Three days later at the airport, Patrick was waiting to check in and looked at the display board. There was a large empty space at the bottom of the wall.
There they were again, the pictures. He saw unbelievable misery, a destroyed city. He ran his hands over his eyes, but the images wouldn’t go away.
He was totally confused. Siva took him to the airport, and was still there. I can’t go, he said to her. She looked at him uncomprehendingly. I can’t, something’s happening. Can you take me home. Siva was not at all thrilled. You’re making a fool of the head of our country. Patrick couldn’t. Siva gave in, drove him back to his apartment, barely spoke a word, was obviously miffed and didn’t understand what had gotten into him.
Patrick also had horror pictures on the wall in his apartment. He saw utter misery, deeply depressed, he took a blanket and lay down on his sofa.
He couldn’t sleep. Hours later, between a bit of half-sleep, he was woken by a knock on the door.
He got up and opened it. It was Siva.
She immediately threw her arms around his neck and wept bitterly.
What’s going on, he asked,
An earthquake in the north, our capital has been largely destroyed, countless people have not survived. She looked at him, How could you know that, she asked. He had no answer. Should he say he saw it on the wall. He then, it was a bad feeling, of course I couldn’t have known.
You, I’m so glad you’re still here and haven’t left. I’m sorry I didn’t take you seriously.
You know I like you, she said, I like you too, Patrick replied.
Please stay here today if you can.
She nodded. I want to stay with you forever!
Now Patrick nodded. He said the famous three words.

They spent the night together.