A flash A loud bang Darkness Darkness
The darkness finally begins to clear. A voice says:
Emily Thompson, this is the rescuer, something explodes there.
Through the pain, he feels the touch of a hand on his neck. He tries to open his eyelids. It works with difficulty. Before his eyes is a pendant in the form of a rectangle with zodiac signs engraved on it… The eyes of the woman in the white coat
To the operating room! the voice sounds right next to him.
Parents return from work. The mother immediately rushes to the kitchen, glancing into the room where the son is doing his homework. David enters the room and immediately notices that his son’s mood is not very good.
Tommy, what happened? The father pats him on the head.
Nothing, the son mumbles, a fourth-grader.
Come on, tell me!
Women’s Day is coming soon. The teacher kept us today and said we must prepare gifts for the girls.
So what’s the problem? The father smiles.
We have equal numbers of boys and girls. She distributed who gives to whom, the son sighs heavily. I got the ugly one, Emily Thompson.
All girls want to receive a gift on Women’s Day, even the ugly ones, the father tries to speak to his son like an adult. How did she distribute? By alphabet?
No, by zodiac signs?
How? David cannot help smiling again.
By compatibility. Emily is Virgo, and Virgo suits Taurus the most. And I am Taurus.
That’s good if you match! When you grow up, maybe you will fall in love with her.
The father cannot hold back and laughs. The mother immediately runs into the room:
What’s going on here?
Laura, go to the kitchen, the father’s face becomes strict. We have a serious conversation with our son.
When the mother leaves, Tommy asks in a sad voice:
Dad, what do I do now?
Prepare the gift!
What?
Tomorrow at work I will make a gift for your chosen one.
Dad, what gift can you make? You work at the factory.
Yes! But I work in the plating shop. We produce all types of metal coatings.
Dad, I don’t understand.
Tomorrow you will see yourself!
***
The next day the father brings a pendant on a chain in the form of a rectangle that looks golden. On one side two zodiac signs are engraved, Taurus and Virgo, and on the other finely but beautifully written:
To my classmate Emily on Women’s Day! Thomas.
Oh, how beautifully this pendant looks! And when the mother packs it in a cellophane bag, it looks completely stunning.
***
And now March 7. The teacher is not going to lead lessons. First the schoolchildren hand her a gift. She thanks for a long time. Then she announces for the boys to give gifts to the girls.
What starts here! All the boys rush to their chosen ones. Tommy also approaches Emily Thompson and says, as his dad taught:
Emily, congratulations on Women’s Day! Perhaps someday fate will connect Taurus and Virgo.
After saying the memorized phrase, Tommy heads to his seat and, of course, does not notice how this girl’s heart, ugly in his opinion, starts to beat.
Soon Emily’s parents move to live in another area, and Emily herself from the fifth grade begins to study in another school.
***
Thomas opens his eyes. The white ceiling of the hospital ward. He tries to move his arms and legs. Only the left arm moves.
Where am I? He addresses no one in particular.
There is some clatter and a patient on crutches approaches his bed, looks at him carefully and asks:
Woke up? You are in the emergency surgery department.
Are my arms and legs all whole? Thomas asks in a quiet voice.
Seems everything is in place, the other reports the joyful news. Only you are bandaged from head to toe.
This is good if everything is whole.
Here the nurse approaches and asks caringly:
– How do you feel?
– What happened to me! Thomas answers with a question.
– Your life is not in danger. Arms and legs will work. Only many scars will remain, she hands over the switched-on phone. Your mom asked to call when you wake up.
– Son, the mother’s voice comes through tears.
– Mom, everything is fine, he tries to speak as cheerfully as possible. They said only small scars will remain. They will discharge soon.
– They didn’t allow me to stay with you at night. Son, I am coming now.
– Mom, don’t get particularly upset!
He puts the phone next to him, tries to smile at the nurse:
– Thank you!
– Well, they won’t discharge you soon, the nurse smiles back. You will lie here for three weeks. That’s for sure!
– What happened to you? The neighbor in the ward asks when the nurse leaves.
– I am a rescuer. At the factory oxygen cylinders began to explode, Thomas begins to remember. They called us. We arrived before the firefighters. The room is huge, three victims inside. We ran in, tanks scattered, fire in some places. We started carrying out the victims I was the last to leave When I was already near the door, another cylinder exploded I don’t remember anything further.
– Yes, you got it bad.
– Thomas Walker, the nurse’s voice. A colleague from work to see you.
– Hi, Tom! How are you?
– Arms, legs whole! The victim answers optimistically. But I can only greet with the left hand so far!
– Come on!
– What happened next?
– We were already leaving when it exploded. Immediately rushed back, pulled you out you were all in blood doctors were already nearby
– Thanks!
– Tom, what are you saying?! Suddenly a smile appears on the friend’s face. – Seems they want to present us with medals.
– By that time they will discharge me.
– Okay, I am going. You will have rounds now. The nurse said not for long.
The friend does not have time to leave before the doctor enters, a man about forty:
– Well, how are things, hero? He approaches the bed.
– Normal.
– Since you are already talking, you will live. Come on, I will examine you!
– Did you stitch me? Thomas asks.
– No, Emily Thompson. She will come the day after tomorrow.
***
Two days pass. Thomas is already trying to get up. True, the pain in the legs is still strong, the right arm is torn. And there are no less than a dozen wounds all over the body. Two on the face, when it exploded, he hit the door, good that he managed to put his right arm forward. He looks in the mirror. The face is still swollen.
Today the rounds should be by the doctor who stitched him for five hours in the operating room. Thomas even gets a little nervous.
And here she enters. Young, slender, true in glasses, but they don’t spoil her at all, and the white coat is completely to her face. Thomas at twenty-seven is already married. But after half a year they separated characters did not match, as written in the statement, but in fact the ex-wife did not like the rescuer’s salary.
– Hello! The doctor says and heads to his bed.
– Hello! Did you stitch me?
– I did, she smiles. Is something wrong?
– Let me examine you.
And she leans over him Before his eyes the pendant with zodiac signs, dangling from her neck:
– Emily Thompson!!! He exclaims.
She looks carefully at his swollen face.
– Sorry! She says, still not recognizing.
– I am Taurus, and he points to the pendant.
– Tommy Walker? Her lips tremble. Do you still remember me?
– Of course, Emily? Seeing tears in the woman’s eyes, he lowers his palm on her hand.
– Sorry! She takes out a handkerchief and wipes her eyes. I never thought we would meet like this.
Emily does not enter his ward anymore that day. But Thomas already understands that her schedule is like his: day, night and two days off.
He so does not want to look helpless in front of her. All the next day he tries to walk around the ward leaning on the beds, a couple of times, holding the wall, goes out into the corridor.
Evening. The doctor working the day shift has left. The new shift has arrived this is felt from the conversation in the corridor. Now rounds
And suddenly cries, hurried steps in the corridor. This happens when another victim is brought.
It is already ten o’clock. The nurse enters, turns off the light in the ward. But he cannot sleep. Already after midnight someone’s steps are heard in the corridor, they quiet, and in this silence Thomas rather feels than hears that someone is crying in the corridor. He gets up and carefully goes out into the corridor.
At the duty desk sits and, with head dropped on hands, his former classmate is crying. He approaches and puts his healthy hand on her shoulder:
– What is it, Emily!
She gets up and buries in his shoulder:
– I operated on a woman, she got under a car, choking with tears she begins to tell. I did everything possible and impossible She is now in intensive care, but she will not survive. She has two children her husband is now with her in the room
– Calm down, Emily!
– Three years I work as a surgeon and still cannot get used to people dying.
– Calm down, calm down! Such are our professions. In five years I also saw so many deaths, but we saved quite a few lives, Thomas sighs heavily. – That’s why my wife left me. She says I come home not myself and earn little money. And I always have forty you can live.
– Same with me, she looks at his face. Guys look at me as if crazy. Still not married, live with parents like a kid.
– Come on, we are only twenty-seven the whole life ahead.
– No, Tom, we are already twenty-seven.
– Dr. Thompson, her pulse is disappearing, the nurse shouts, running out.
– Sorry! And Emily rushes to intensive care.
Thomas cannot fall asleep this night. In the morning the nurse comes, as usual gives him an injection.
– The woman who was operated on last night, is she alive? He asks unexpectedly even for himself.
– Alive, but the condition is extremely serious.
***
Three weeks pass. The wounds on Thomas’s body have healed. He sees Emily when it is her shifts, moreover, he is drawn to her more and more. But the emergency surgery department is not the place where you can talk about something very personal.
And here during one of the morning rounds the male doctor reports:
– Today I discharge you, he smiles and adds. From the hospital. Immediately you go to your clinic, and there they decide how long you still sit on sick leave.
– Can pack!
– Yes, yes! Don’t rush especially. Now they will prepare the discharge.
When the doctor leaves, Thomas shaves. Looking in the mirror, he notes with satisfaction that the two remaining scars do not spoil the face at all, rather add masculinity. On the other scars it is not worth paying attention.
He packs, goes out into the corridor. A patient is walking towards him, holding the wall.
She still got out! A joyful thought flashes.
The nurse comes out, hands the discharge:
– Goodbye, Thomas! Don’t get to us anymore!
***
He has his own one-room apartment, but he goes to his parents. Mom has been waiting for him so much and worrying. She even took vacation.
– Son! She rushes to him in an embrace.
– All, mom! As you see, I am alive and well.
– Come, I prepared food for you. How thin you have become.
– Oh, how I missed home food!
– Until you recover and marry you will live in the parental home. Your room is still empty, and she shouts like to a child. Go, wash your hands!
***
Until evening Thomas goes to the hairdresser. He enters his apartment. Takes some clothes. The mother immediately starts to put them in order.
In the evening the father comes from work. They sit, as before, all together and talk until the night.
He goes to sleep in his room, where childhood and youth passed, but does not fall asleep immediately:
Tomorrow need to go to the clinic. Then to work. And in the evening
With the thought of the next evening he falls asleep far after midnight.
***
The next day Thomas goes to the clinic in the morning. Until lunch he goes around the offices. After lunch he goes to work, just his shift.
– Where are you going? The father asks.
– Dad, remember long ago, when I was still studying in the fourth grade. You made me a pendant for a gift to a classmate?
– The ugly Emily Thompson? I remember.
– Remember, you also said: When you grow up, maybe you will fall in love with her.
– And I remember that.
– Dad, Emily is a surgeon now. She did the operation on me. And she still wears that pendant on her neck.
– Well, that’s something!
– Dad, your words came true. I am going to her!
***
Twenty-seven years is not so much for the beginning of life with a loved one.A flash A loud bang Darkness Darkness
The darkness finally begins to clear. A voice says:
Emily Thompson, this is the rescuer, something explodes there.
Through the pain, he feels the touch of a hand on his neck. He tries to open his eyelids. It works with difficulty. Before his eyes is a pendant in the form of a rectangle with zodiac signs engraved on it… The eyes of the woman in the white coat
To the operating room! the voice sounds right next to him.
Parents return from work. The mother immediately rushes to the kitchen, glancing into the room where the son is doing his homework. David enters the room and immediately notices that his son’s mood is not very good.
Tommy, what happened? The father pats him on the head.
Nothing, the son mumbles, a fourth-grader.
Come on, tell me!
Women’s Day is coming soon. The teacher kept us today and said we must prepare gifts for the girls.
So what’s the problem? The father smiles.
We have equal numbers of boys and girls. She distributed who gives to whom, the son sighs heavily. I got the ugly one, Emily Thompson.
All girls want to receive a gift on Women’s Day, even the ugly ones, the father tries to speak to his son like an adult. How did she distribute? By alphabet?
No, by zodiac signs?
How? David cannot help smiling again.
By compatibility. Emily is Virgo, and Virgo suits Taurus the most. And I am Taurus.
That’s good if you match! When you grow up, maybe you will fall in love with her.
The father cannot hold back and laughs. The mother immediately runs into the room:
What’s going on here?
Laura, go to the kitchen, the father’s face becomes strict. We have a serious conversation with our son.
When the mother leaves, Tommy asks in a sad voice:
Dad, what do I do now?
Prepare the gift!
What?
Tomorrow at work I will make a gift for your chosen one.
Dad, what gift can you make? You work at the factory.
Yes! But I work in the plating shop. We produce all types of metal coatings.
Dad, I don’t understand.
Tomorrow you will see yourself!
***
The next day the father brings a pendant on a chain in the form of a rectangle that looks golden. On one side two zodiac signs are engraved, Taurus and Virgo, and on the other finely but beautifully written:
To my classmate Emily on Women’s Day! Thomas.
Oh, how beautifully this pendant looks! And when the mother packs it in a cellophane bag, it looks completely stunning.
***
And now March 7. The teacher is not going to lead lessons. First the schoolchildren hand her a gift. She thanks for a long time. Then she announces for the boys to give gifts to the girls.
What starts here! All the boys rush to their chosen ones. Tommy also approaches Emily Thompson and says, as his dad taught:
Emily, congratulations on Women’s Day! Perhaps someday fate will connect Taurus and Virgo.
After saying the memorized phrase, Tommy heads to his seat and, of course, does not notice how this girl’s heart, ugly in his opinion, starts to beat.
Soon Emily’s parents move to live in another area, and Emily herself from the fifth grade begins to study in another school.
***
Thomas opens his eyes. The white ceiling of the hospital ward. He tries to move his arms and legs. Only the left arm moves.
Where am I? He addresses no one in particular.
There is some clatter and a patient on crutches approaches his bed, looks at him carefully and asks:
Woke up? You are in the emergency surgery department.
Are my arms and legs all whole? Thomas asks in a quiet voice.
Seems everything is in place, the other reports the joyful news. Only you are bandaged from head to toe.
This is good if everything is whole.
Here the nurse approaches and asks caringly:
– How do you feel?
– What happened to me! Thomas answers with a question.
– Your life is not in danger. Arms and legs will work. Only many scars will remain, she hands over the switched-on phone. Your mom asked to call when you wake up.
– Son, the mother’s voice comes through tears.
– Mom, everything is fine, he tries to speak as cheerfully as possible. They said only small scars will remain. They will discharge soon.
– They didn’t allow me to stay with you at night. Son, I am coming now.
– Mom, don’t get particularly upset!
He puts the phone next to him, tries to smile at the nurse:
– Thank you!
– Well, they won’t discharge you soon, the nurse smiles back. You will lie here for three weeks. That’s for sure!
– What happened to you? The neighbor in the ward asks when the nurse leaves.
– I am a rescuer. At the factory oxygen cylinders began to explode, Thomas begins to remember. They called us. We arrived before the firefighters. The room is huge, three victims inside. We ran in, tanks scattered, fire in some places. We started carrying out the victims I was the last to leave When I was already near the door, another cylinder exploded I don’t remember anything further.
– Yes, you got it bad.
– Thomas Walker, the nurse’s voice. A colleague from work to see you.
– Hi, Tom! How are you?
– Arms, legs whole! The victim answers optimistically. But I can only greet with the left hand so far!
– Come on!
– What happened next?
– We were already leaving when it exploded. Immediately rushed back, pulled you out you were all in blood doctors were already nearby
– Thanks!
– Tom, what are you saying?! Suddenly a smile appears on the friend’s face. – Seems they want to present us with medals.
– By that time they will discharge me.
– Okay, I am going. You will have rounds now. The nurse said not for long.
The friend does not have time to leave before the doctor enters, a man about forty:
– Well, how are things, hero? He approaches the bed.
– Normal.
– Since you are already talking, you will live. Come on, I will examine you!
– Did you stitch me? Thomas asks.
– No, Emily Thompson. She will come the day after tomorrow.
***
Two days pass. Thomas is already trying to get up. True, the pain in the legs is still strong, the right arm is torn. And there are no less than a dozen wounds all over the body. Two on the face, when it exploded, he hit the door, good that he managed to put his right arm forward. He looks in the mirror. The face is still swollen.
Today the rounds should be by the doctor who stitched him for five hours in the operating room. Thomas even gets a little nervous.
And here she enters. Young, slender, true in glasses, but they don’t spoil her at all, and the white coat is completely to her face. Thomas at twenty-seven is already married. But after half a year they separated characters did not match, as written in the statement, but in fact the ex-wife did not like the rescuer’s salary.
– Hello! The doctor says and heads to his bed.
– Hello! Did you stitch me?
– I did, she smiles. Is something wrong?
– Let me examine you.
And she leans over him Before his eyes the pendant with zodiac signs, dangling from her neck:
– Emily Thompson!!! He exclaims.
She looks carefully at his swollen face.
– Sorry! She says, still not recognizing.
– I am Taurus, and he points to the pendant.
– Tommy Walker? Her lips tremble. Do you still remember me?
– Of course, Emily? Seeing tears in the woman’s eyes, he lowers his palm on her hand.
– Sorry! She takes out a handkerchief and wipes her eyes. I never thought we would meet like this.
Emily does not enter his ward anymore that day. But Thomas already understands that her schedule is like his: day, night and two days off.
He so does not want to look helpless in front of her. All the next day he tries to walk around the ward leaning on the beds, a couple of times, holding the wall, goes out into the corridor.
Evening. The doctor working the day shift has left. The new shift has arrived this is felt from the conversation in the corridor. Now rounds
And suddenly cries, hurried steps in the corridor. This happens when another victim is brought.
It is already ten o’clock. The nurse enters, turns off the light in the ward. But he cannot sleep. Already after midnight someone’s steps are heard in the corridor, they quiet, and in this silence Thomas rather feels than hears that someone is crying in the corridor. He gets up and carefully goes out into the corridor.
At the duty desk sits and, with head dropped on hands, his former classmate is crying. He approaches and puts his healthy hand on her shoulder:
– What is it, Emily!
She gets up and buries in his shoulder:
– I operated on a woman, she got under a car, choking with tears she begins to tell. I did everything possible and impossible She is now in intensive care, but she will not survive. She has two children her husband is now with her in the room
– Calm down, Emily!
– Three years I work as a surgeon and still cannot get used to people dying.
– Calm down, calm down! Such are our professions. In five years I also saw so many deaths, but we saved quite a few lives, Thomas sighs heavily. – That’s why my wife left me. She says I come home not myself and earn little money. And I always have forty you can live.
– Same with me, she looks at his face. Guys look at me as if crazy. Still not married, live with parents like a kid.
– Come on, we are only twenty-seven the whole life ahead.
– No, Tom, we are already twenty-seven.
– Dr. Thompson, her pulse is disappearing, the nurse shouts, running out.
– Sorry! And Emily rushes to intensive care.
Thomas cannot fall asleep this night. In the morning the nurse comes, as usual gives him an injection.
– The woman who was operated on last night, is she alive? He asks unexpectedly even for himself.
– Alive, but the condition is extremely serious.
***
Three weeks pass. The wounds on Thomas’s body have healed. He sees Emily when it is her shifts, moreover, he is drawn to her more and more. But the emergency surgery department is not the place where you can talk about something very personal.
And here during one of the morning rounds the male doctor reports:
– Today I discharge you, he smiles and adds. From the hospital. Immediately you go to your clinic, and there they decide how long you still sit on sick leave.
– Can pack!
– Yes, yes! Don’t rush especially. Now they will prepare the discharge.
When the doctor leaves, Thomas shaves. Looking in the mirror, he notes with satisfaction that the two remaining scars do not spoil the face at all, rather add masculinity. On the other scars it is not worth paying attention.
He packs, goes out into the corridor. A patient is walking towards him, holding the wall.
She still got out! A joyful thought flashes.
The nurse comes out, hands the discharge:
– Goodbye, Thomas! Don’t get to us anymore!
***
He has his own one-room apartment, but he goes to his parents. Mom has been waiting for him so much and worrying. She even took vacation.
– Son! She rushes to him in an embrace.
– All, mom! As you see, I am alive and well.
– Come, I prepared food for you. How thin you have become.
– Oh, how I missed home food!
– Until you recover and marry you will live in the parental home. Your room is still empty, and she shouts like to a child. Go, wash your hands!
***
Until evening Thomas goes to the hairdresser. He enters his apartment. Takes some clothes. The mother immediately starts to put them in order.
In the evening the father comes from work. They sit, as before, all together and talk until the night.
He goes to sleep in his room, where childhood and youth passed, but does not fall asleep immediately:
Tomorrow need to go to the clinic. Then to work. And in the evening
With the thought of the next evening he falls asleep far after midnight.
***
The next day Thomas goes to the clinic in the morning. Until lunch he goes around the offices. After lunch he goes to work, just his shift.
– Where are you going? The father asks.
– Dad, remember long ago, when I was still studying in the fourth grade. You made me a pendant for a gift to a classmate?
– The ugly Emily Thompson? I remember.
– Remember, you also said: When you grow up, maybe you will fall in love with her.
– And I remember that.
– Dad, Emily is a surgeon now. She did the operation on me. And she still wears that pendant on her neck.
– Well, that’s something!
– Dad, your words came true. I am going to her!
***
Twenty-seven years is not so much for the beginning of life with a loved one.