My lips are quivering, my fingernails are digging painfully into my thighs. I try to hold it in because I don't want to make a sound in the hospital room.
Maya is sleeping on the hospital bed.
She is one of six survivors. The rest of them, Daniel, Stephen,
Sebastian, Josephine…Veronika, I'll never get to see ever again.
The staff building was almost shattered to bits. The Mano was burnt to ashes.
Whoever is responsible for the explosion has been thorough.
And then I make it out alive? Why me?The stupid grilling machine saved me. No, Henry saved me. Henry the alcoholic.
Then there had been someone else…
I brush the thought away. No matter what, I am a survivor of an explosion that took the lives of 23 people in the blink of an eye. Fifteen staff members of the Mano Cuisine are recorded as deceased; the rest were customers who were unfortunate to have been in the restaurant that day. Then, only six survivors.
My eyes lower to the bed. Maya's fingers are twitching.
She had been on the brink of death when they found her buried under a heavy boulder in a storeroom. Luckily the same boulder had saved her from the flames. Except that now she’s in a coma. The doctors fear she will be in a permanent vegetative state due to the head injury sustained on impact with the heavy blocks.
But Mike…Mike had been…Mike had to be in the worst position of all, right beside the gas hose, one of the staff that had survived informed me.
The door opens, and a nurse walks in. She glances around the room and finds me sitting in the same spot I have been in for two weeks now. After I got discharged as a patient, I didn't hesitate to find my way to Maya. According to the nurse, a man who happened to be at the scene had paid my bills on the spot. As for Maya, who needed an urgent surgery after they got her breathing again, I have to pay part of her bills.
"How are you?" she asks. She is a blonde. A tall one. If I were in a better mood, I would take my time to imagine professions that would suit her better than becoming a nurse.
I nod, still unable to find my voice. She has made it a habit not to just check on Maya, but to check on me too. It isn't just her; everyone has their eyes on me. It's almost like they see me as a miracle. The thing about being a survivor of such an event is that you begin to get extra attention from everyone.
I wipe the tears from my cheeks; I will make good use of this attention to seek a new job, one that will guarantee that I have money to pay off the rest of Maya's bills.
"You sure?" the tall blonde nurse asks. She eyes the food on the tray she placed on the table for me. "You haven't had anything to eat. Doctor Lukeman mentioned that—"
"I'm not hungry." My voice sounds strange in my ears. It's strangled and barely audible. A lump formsin my throat, and I quickly look away from her stare.
This is going to be much harder than I thought—letting go of a man I never truly loved.
Letting go of a life that I found comforting.
"Alright. Well, a possession was brought in today by the police. It belongs to Maya. Her laptop. I just thought I should let you know of it." The blonde's face is stricken with sadness.
She is the sympathetic kind. Again, I think she could be something other than a nurse.
As for the laptop. I really don't give a shit about it.
The same way I don't give a shit that I have not taken a bath in days, brushed my hair or teeth, or had a good meal in my system.
But in the end, I have something to be thankful for. I still have Maya. I know she'll come back to me.
I will get a new job soon.
The laptop can help me send applications too. I may not have the academic certificates, but all the knowledge that I gained while at the foster home was enough to get me a decent place like the Mano Cuisine.
It's time to begin again.
Life has finally thrown me a curve ball, and I am ready to hit the motherfucker.
Then… 3 years later.