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Copyright © 1998 Carole Tyrrell.
All rights reserved and reproduction without written permission expressly prohibited.
The Reclining Coffin
It was after the encounter in the underpass that I became aware of
someone in the house that I had invited in. Muffled furtive sounds in
the night. The cat's treacle eyes watching something unseen making its painful and slow progress
across the room towards me. A shadow, obviously human despite its strange curvature,
mimicked mine on the bedroom wall. And I began to dream of the white room.
In my dream the open doorway to the room stood over me as I was carried inside.
There was to be no escape from the strong arms. Inside it was as quiet as the
church it resembled. The same silent worshipping of thin air. The cold, stale
atmosphere. But the crucifix on the far wall didn't fool me. No living god was
worshipped here. The white painted walls scared me, making me feel naked and
exposed. Soft shoes walked away from the bed as a white coat came towards us.
"This way. He has to meet her sooner or later. And of course it may help her to
recover." But it was the high-sided bed beneath the crucifix that scared me
most. As I started to struggle, the arms became hoops of steel around me. "Ssh,
ssh, Christopher." The figure in the bed could have been a child. She looked
pathetic and shrunken confined by the sheets. The hands were curled like dead
leaves, crossed over her chest wmst her knees were drawn up to meet the elbows.
A tube led from the nose and over the bent back to a drip feed. Machines
monitored her heartbeat and breathing. They were the only sounds in the room.
Inexorably, slowly, as if underwater, I was lowered towards the face. That was
what always lingered afterwards. Pale as the sheets, one eye was closed, the
other eye stared upwards but although she was blind I knew that she was aware
of me. She seemed ancient under the wizened skin. I was then made to touch her
lips in a grotesque kiss. Then the dream would abruptly end.
[End of this extract. The full story was published in Gravity's Angels]
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