Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

A dull hammering pounded against my brain. My eyes pushed open and two further knocks rattled off the wooden door.

“Aisha, breakfast.”

It took me a few seconds to make sense of where I was. And then I remembered.

I rubbed my eyes and opened them fully to see a pale, miserable morning light trickling in through the window and landing on the wall by the door, throwing black shadows of the five bars. The room seemed even smaller than it had last night. The weight came over me again.

“I’m comin.”

“It’s in ten minutes. In the common room I showed you last night. Just make your way down when you’re ready, okay honey?” Sanders voice trailed off as her heels clacked away down the corridor.

I stayed under the covers a while longer, savouring what little warmth, comfort and security they provided. Then I scrambled out of bed and heaved myself over to the window. It was still foggy and it covered the hospital grounds, hanging thickly in the air. All I could see was the tarmac of an old road two floors below, and the bare brick wall of the building twenty yards across.

Just make the most of it, I told myself. Just do what you always do- take one day at a time.

I pulled out some clothes from my bag and put on a plain black shirt and a pair of jeans. I pushed my feet into my old trainers and tried the door. It had been unlocked. I swung it open and stepped out into the ward, following the other patients who were making their way towards the end of the corridor. As I headed along a balding man- in tracky bottoms and a white Adidas t-shirt that was three sizes too small for him- quickly walked up the side of me, glanced me side-on then slowed his pace. He smiled and put out his hand.

“Hello, my name is Robert.” he said slowly.

He folded his sweaty palm around my hand. His big, brown eyes had a dull but warm expression, and from the way he smiled, he didn’t seem particularly dangerous.

“I’m Aisha.” I said. I pulled my hand away and let the sweat settle on my hand by my side, forcing a smile back as we walked together. With each step that he took his shirt lifted up a little higher, revealing his stout belly.

“Is this your first day?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I replied.

We past the other rooms on my right and the windows on the left. A car was parking up in the fog outside, the trees were swaying softly, but apart from that everything beyond the window looked so calm and still. It seemed like the land was asleep.

I felt Robert’s gaze on me again. I looked back at him, but he didn’t look away.

“Breakfast is my favourite.” he announced, looking at me seriously. He was scratching at the bald patch between his greying hair- balding and greying despite the fact that he only looked about thirty-five. His jaw was gaping open and I noticed the salivation gathering at the corners of his lips.

“Your favourite… meal of the day?” I asked.

“Yeah… I like coco pops. What do you like?”

The saliva multiplied and as his mouth continued to gape open, long white sticky drips hung at the back of his throat like stalagmites forming at the back of a dark cave.

“Hm, I like coco pops too.” I replied.

“Do you?” his eyes widened.

“Yeah.”

As we turned into the common room, following the many bodies in front of us, Robert seemed to be pondering what I had said, but catching sight of the TV he suddenly seemed to forget himself. He rushed in to join the other twenty or so patients who were gathered in front of its massive screen, all of them sitting in the four rows of the white plastic deck-chairs that I had seen last night, the same ones that are about a fiver each in Asda. Most of the other patients had plastic trays of food on their laps and they were all sitting with their backs to me, captivated by the sight of Spongebob Squarepants.

Jesus, I thought, looking at them all. More than three-quarters of them were severely overweight. All I could see as I looked around was an assortment of chunky necks, fat torsos and glooping jowls. I glanced away from the TV crowd to the three people sitting at the table tucked away in the far back corner of the room, and then at the two older guys sitting amongst ten empty seats at the table to my left. But what immediately struck me above everything, was the atmosphere in the room, the silence beneath the TV.

“Oh, morning Aisha!” a voice chirped. I turned to my right to see Sanders clothed in a tight white shirt and skinny jeans, standing behind a trolley with two other nurses either side of her- a good-looking man in his mid to late twenties on her left, and a woman in her thirties, morbidly obese and the biggest on the ward by far, on her right.

A few patients turned to look on hearing my name, then quickly lost interest and went back to their food.

Sanders face broke into a wide, warm smile. A few loose strands of blonde hair hung over those sparkling, chestnut eyes. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine, thanks.” I replied, nearing the trolley, feeling all three pairs of eyes pouring into me as I stood before them.

Sanders kept looking at me. “Oh, where are my manners, eh? This is Kev, and this is Liz,” she said, indicating to each one, “They are some of the other nurses on the ward.”

“Hi.” I said, glancing first at the man whom she had called Kev. He had been slowly looking me up and down through a set of laughing blue