"BORROWED TIME". (0)

 

 BY: MAURICIO ESCOBAR 

bor-rowed time. n. A period of uncertainty during which the inevitable consequences of a current situation are postponed or avoided. Term often used with terminally ill patients.

0. TIME

The ticks from the clock hanging on the wall reverberated in his ears as a distant repetitive echo. The rhythmic breathing of the child lying on the cold bed completed the chorus together with the musical beeps from the cardiac machine. A fearful orchestra that gave him shudders.

But the ticks were hard to ignore. He looked at the second hand and felt momentarily hypnotized by the rhythmic clicking sound. The minute hand followed lazily and silently.

He grabbed the little child’s palm and looked at his delicate face, stripped off of any form expression, covered in tubes that came out of his mouth and nose, pushing and sucking air into the fragile body that arced up and down, following the compass in the only form of motion that he had seen him do for the last six months. The hand of the kid was cold and his skin pale.

The clock kept ticking.

-       We will get you out of this one, champ –he murmured with flimsy voice.

The air was impregnated in the smell of disinfectant solution and alcohol typical of hospitals. The room was pathetically decorated with the kids’ posters hanging from the adjacent walls and his half a dozen toys, which he will never see or use, spread on a nearby table.

The clock kept ticking.

-       We will. –He gasped and squeezed the cold small hand harder. –We will! –He repeated and looked back at the mute face.

The clock kept ticking.

A tear ran down his face.

The clock kept ticking…

And then he looked back at it.

TO BE CONTINUED...