Chapter Text
An accident
I sat on the couch trying to concentrate while the bass boomed above me. Several copies of medieval charters were on my lap and each was to be discussed in detail in my term paper. I sighed. Ten pages and such a hassle. Why had I chosen the one course whose instructor didn't require just one source? And why had I delayed writing it until near the end?
Roars drifted down to me. Someone yelled, "Drink, drink, drink!"
I pinched my lips together and lowered the certificate in my hand. There was no point. Tomorrow was another day.
I pushed the copies together and sat up. My back hurt, as did my eyes. I really ought to get to bed if I was going to spend hours poring over the sources again tomorrow. Instead of doing what was reasonable, I grabbed my pack of cigarettes and opened the door to the balcony. The noise overtook me like a tidal wave. Laughter and whistling mingled with the clinking of glasses. If I hadn't waited until the last moment to write that damn paper, I'd be up there now, too. I lit my cigarette and took a deep drag. Except for the light streaming out of the open door above me, the backyard was in shadow. The two large pine trees swayed in the breeze, unimpressed by the activity of my fellow students.
I took another drag and was already back to my documents in my mind when something made me look up. The noise masked anything that could have been heard, but I was sure I had seen movement in the dark. I quickly stubbed out my cigarette and locked the living room door behind me. That was one of the disadvantages of living on the first floor: I lived in constant fear of being robbed. Specifically, the empty house directly across the street was to blame, because since the last tenants had left it, it served as a home for addicts, and they sometimes hung out in the backyard. I checked the door one last time and then made my way to bed. There was enthusiastic brotherhood drinking going on above me, at least that's what it sounded like. I reached into my dresser and pressed the plugs into my ears. Silence. Finally.
The next morning came early and unexpectedly. A sharp scream, thump, clang - I stood upright in bed, cursing the day I had moved here. Being stuck over my sources while the others celebrated the end of the semester had been bad enough, but for them to be awake at this hour despite their hangovers?
I squinted over at my alarm clock. Quarter past six. On a Sunday!
Sleep was out of the question, so I threw on some running clothes before sinking in front of the Pc and postponing my work for another day. On my way out, I heartily slammed the door into the lock behind me, hoping that at least a few of them had woken up.
My path led me directly to the small park, which still lay there as if deserted so early in the morning. I enjoyed the silence around me and concentrated only on the beating of my heart. After six laps I had enough and ran back towards civilization. There was already a lot going on at the intersection and I slowed down before the red pedestrian light. After breakfast, the documents were waiting for me. I stepped impatiently from one foot to the other. Was it finally turning green?
And then it happened.
Within seconds, the sky darkened and a wind gust swept across the asphalt. The next thing I knew, I heard the squeal of brakes and stared in horror at the family van skidding toward a man standing in the middle of the intersection. What was he doing? Was he insane? I could have sworn he hadn't been standing there two seconds ago!
"Hey!", I shouted. "Hey, get away!"
But my words didn't seem to reach him at all. He stared at the approaching car as if in a trance. There was no way it was going to stop in time. I couldn't get to him because other cars were rushing past me. And so I had to watch as the car caught the man, he was flung over the engine hood like a doll and came up again with an unhealthy noise behind it.
I swallowed. Shit.
The pedestrian light turned green and I sprinted to the man lying motionless in the street behind the van. Not a second later, a distraught woman was standing next to me.
"Oh, God! Is he still alive?"
How was I to know? She was as white as a wall and her eyes were huge and fearful. I could feel her panic infecting me. The last first aid class had been forever and my hands were shaking like crazy. Without a word, I felt for his pulse and put my hand under his nose. He was breathing. And now? What was I supposed to do?
"I... I'll call an ambulance," the woman stuttered and took one then two quick steps backwards, almost tripping over her own feet. She was leaving me alone with him? Put his life in my hands? I froze in my place. I should have stayed home, just not gotten up. I bit my lower lip and only now noticed that more cars had stopped. Their drivers were either standing around indecisively or just openly gawking. Hot anger shot through my veins, but before I could say anything, a man knelt beside me and put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly.
"Take it easy. I'm a trained first responder. I'm going to show you what to do, and then we'll get it all figured out."
I nodded and took several deep breaths. Together we put the injured man, who still wasn't moving, in the recovery position and covered him with a jacket. I noticed for the first time that he was wearing strange clothes. Somehow... Medieval? I frowned. Next to him on the floor was something that looked like a necklace. I picked it up, but didn't get a chance to look at it more closely because the ambulance was approaching, as was a police car.
I retreated while the paramedics worked and sat down on the grassy strip. Only now did I feel that my knees were as soft as butter and my breathing was getting faster and more uncontrolled. I was shaking and just couldn't block out the image of the flying body. Again and again it bounced. I felt my muscles tense and sweat break out. Then someone held a plastic bag in front of my mouth.
"Breathe in and out calmly. Can you hear me?"
I tried to get my shaking muscles under control and nodded once briefly as I sucked in air and expelled it. It took what felt like an eternity before I lowered the bag and looked up. The man was just being pushed into the ambulance.
"Are you feeling better?"
I nodded again, got to my feet, and still couldn't take my eyes off the injured man. I cleared my throat and turned to the policeman standing next to me, waiting. "Is he going to pull through?" My voice sounded rough, as if I hadn't used it in years.
"Yes."
"Thank God."
The policeman came closer and looked at me examiningly. "Do you want me to call a paramedic? You don't look so well."
"No, it... it'll be fine. I just want to go home."
"You can do that, too. If it's all right, though, I'd like to hear about the accident first."
He looked at me seriously and I told him what little I had seen. The adrenaline slowly left my body and was replaced by a heavy tiredness. There was no end to the questions. I could understand why he was asking so many of them, after all, the man had appeared out of nowhere, but I felt as if I had been drained. Finally, the policeman let go of me and I could leave.
The walk home was like a dream, I just put one foot in front of the other and didn't even notice that I was unlocking the door. It wasn't until I was standing under the shower with the water running over my body that my spirits reawakened. I savored the time for as long as I could, but when my skin began to shrivel, I turned off the faucet and wrapped myself in a towel.
When I opened the door, my running clothes were right outside the entrance to the bathroom. It was covered in dirt and blood. The images of the accident flashed before my mind's eye again, and I pushed aside the rising panic as I grabbed the clothes and carried them to the trash. I would never be able to wear them again anyway without thinking of that day.
First the top ended up in the garbage can, then the pants. I swallowed, turned away, and pulled the door to the bathroom open again. Something scraped across the laminate floor as I did so. Had the frame shifted again? My gaze slid down and there it lay. The necklace.
I jumped backwards as if I had burned myself.
I hadn't thought about it at all. Not even a little bit. What was I supposed to do with it now? Take it back? And if so, where to? I couldn't just march into the police station and say, "I've taken something from the scene of an accident. Could you perhaps return it to its owner?
I slid down the wall and stared at the necklace. The pendant was silver and I had never seen such delicate work. It was beautiful. And it, just like my running clothes, would always remind me of that one moment when I had lost control, been headless, and completely helpless.
I should throw it away together with the clothes. After all, the police could not know that I had taken the necklace. I sat there for a moment and thought about it. Then I picked it up and ran back to the kitchen, to the trash. As I held it over the garbage can, violent reluctance flashed through me and I staggered back in amazement. Maybe I'd better keep it after all? What if someone asked?
No, that was nonsense. I took a step forward. On the other hand... Whatever! I turned around, opened one of my kitchen cupboards and reached for an empty tea caddy. I dropped the jewels into it and then pushed the tin into the farthest corner. So that it would never cause me trouble, I thought with an uneasy feeling in my belly.