[lamchopz]

Chapter 6: Condemnation

The following morning, I picked up an early mail. I ascertained that the sender had delivered the item by himself as the envelope was left entirely blank.

On my way back inside, I carefully unsealed the mail. It was not a letter that I found, nor a late Valentine card.

“Thank you”, it read.

A smile grew on my lips, and I headed for the door.

Later that day, an emergency call arrived. My aunt had been hospitalized, the reason unknown. Without a second to waste, my family hurried to the town hospital – the place where miracles occurred each day. It was our town’s own folktale. Some even believed that the soil had been blessed before the construction commenced.

“So, his love is also here”, I told myself as our vehicle pulled in the car park.

Two hours of waiting had its own style of rewarding the patient. “Your relative only suffered a minor heart condition. She’s recovering as we speak”, the nurse told us. For once, I knew the true meaning of relief.

It did not stay long, for me, at least. Out of ward 14/2 appeared the one thing beyond my wildest dream. It went past me like an anguishing scent, a device of torment that would condemn my mind for all eternity. In the lifeless hand, the card from last night stuck out.

He was dead.