1st SHORT STORY: "Only Me"
10 years ago
The air smells like summer, even
though it is already November. Inside a bus, a mother and her little boy are
looking at the street. The mother’s name is Aspasia. She is a young, sweet
woman, which lives and breathes for the boy sitting next to her. Anestis is her
first child and the first grandchild in her family.
The little boy began complaining two
or three days ago, about a pain in his belly. Aspasia made him a few hot soups,
but there was no improvement. Last night, while being sleepless for the third
night in a row, her husband suggested that it would be a good idea, to get the
child to a doctor.
It was almost eleven, when mother and
son crossed the door of the hospital. The doctor was an old acquaintance of the
family. He was well over sixty and had also been Aspasia’s doctor when she was
a child. After examining the child, he called her in his office and told her
that the boy has appendicitis and should be operated immediately. The young
woman felt her legs trembling and the room’s lights shimmering.
"Don’t be afraid" said the
doctor, "it's nothing but a simple routine surgery. Tomorrow you’ll both
be home, as if nothing ever happened".
Aspasia spoke on the phone with her
husband, who was clearly calmer. He told her not to worry and that he would
immediately leave his job and meet them in the hospital. Half an hour later,
the nurses prepared the kid and passed through the doors, leading to the
surgery rooms. Aspasia bent down and kissed her son gently on the cheek. Before
the warm, metallic taste of the hypnotic gas wrap him into oblivion, the boy
turned his face towards his mother.
"Mommy, do you love me?" he
asked her...
by ©James Antoniou 2018
