The Silent Child

Curse this weather, rain always rain, now he had aquaplaned in a deep puddle and his car was in a ditch. It was badly damaged, a write off for sure. There was acrid smoke coming from inside and the steering wheel was bent as if by some heavy impact. But the air bags had deployed and he was unscathed, remarkably so in fact considering the impact and all that mangled, scorched metal.

He could remember the impact, just about and something else vaguely, he may have hit something, an animal quite large but he didn’t stop. Then everything went dark and now he found himself, though he couldn’t remember how he got there, standing by the car. Actually Marion’s car, she would go nuts, it was her pride and joy and the insurance premium that would go through the roof once those vultures got their little calculators working.

He didn’t know quite where he was as the satnav had stopped working about an hour ago along with his cell phone, must be all the trees and hills. Come to think of it he hadn’t seen another vehicle for ages in any direction. Now it must be past midnight, he checked his watch but it was broken the glass cracked and scorched and the hands fixed at 9.31. Jeez, yeah he had been lucky to walk away from this one.

He thought it might be best to start walking, maybe try to find a house or garage, but he was indecisive and just hovered a few feet from his stricken car, unable to make a decision. Then in the distance he could make out lights, headlights, yes definitely and above the teeming rain he could hear the growl of a high powered engine. As the vehicle drew nearer he was dazzled by the headlights fixed on full beam. There was a squeal of brakes and the vehicle skidded to a halt just inches from where he was standing. The driver gunned the engine and he heard an electric window slide smoothly open. Due to the lights he could not tell the make of the vehicle but it was sleek dark and powerful.

Inside, the driver was slightly illuminated by a dull red glow from the dashboard, though the whole interior of the vehicle seemed to be lit uniformly by the light. The front passenger door sprang open making him jump with the suddenness. He moved to the driver’s window and put his head just inside. He could not fully make him out, but could see he was dressed in dark clothing and wearing a hooded top. He continued to stare straight ahead through the windshield and offered no acknowledgement.

‘Can you help me please, bit of an accident, that’s my car in the ditch there.’

The driver did not look to where he pointed but continued staring straight ahead then inclined his head forward in a nod.

‘Thanks I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along. Just drop me anywhere a garage or an all night burger bar.’

‘Hospital.’

‘No that won’t be necessary I’m fine, really, just need somewhere with a phone.’

‘Hospital.’

The driver slowly moved his head towards the back seat where lying very silent and still was a small child, his head contorted at a strange angle.

‘Oh I see is he ill? Does he need to go to the hospital?

‘No he has no need of a hospital, he has been released from pain and now he sleeps the long sleep of the innocent child. You need to go there, for the formalities to be completed.’

Now somehow he was inside the car next to the driver; ‘oh I see the police maybe and a bit of a medical check. The boy is he your son? He sleeps so soundly.’

The boy’s eyes snapped suddenly open and stared at him in a fixed yet vacant way.

‘Oh sorry I think I’ve woken him.’

‘Yes he is awake.’

The driver put his foot on the accelerator and the car took off at high speed. The rain was torrential but somehow, despite the deluge, the wipers did not operate though the screen remained clear. Loud music filled the car, Riders on the storm, The Doors. He normally loved this track but when Jim Morrison sung the lyrics “There’s a killer on the road his brain is squirming like a toad,” he has had enough. The child continued to stare with fixed vacant eyes at the back of his head and he is aware, without needing to look, that they are boring into his skull, malevolent and angry.

‘Actually you can just drop me here I think I’ll just walk, just anywhere will do.’

‘Hospital, formalities, they are waiting for you there’

‘Who is? Who is waiting for me there? The police, medics who? Please tell me I don’t want to go there.’

‘You won’t be there long and then we will all be leaving and you will recall everything clearly, over and over and over.’

He turns to look at the silent child his eyes still fixed unblinking malevolent and he begins to remember.

***                                      

He became aware of blue and red lights flickering at the corner of his vision and sounds rising and falling, wailing and twittering. There were voices; recharge quick, we’re losing him, get that line in.’

‘He won’t want to live anyway not in that state.’

‘keep trying anyway, you want to get sued by the grieving widow?’

‘Nothing I like more than a grieving widow to comfort, especially if she’s hot.’

‘Keep it in your pants, charged, ready.

A jolt ran through his body and now he could see two men in white scrubs looming over him, attaching something to his chest, he felt pain, searing terrible pain.’

‘Hang on in there my friend we’ve reached the hospital now.

‘No, no I don’t want to be here, not here.’

‘It’s the best place for you I can assure you. Once we arrive you’ll go straight up to ITU and they’ll get you stabilised, you’ve been in an accident, we don’t think anyone else was involved, no one at the scene anyway.’

He looked beyond the two paramedics and could see the driver of the car and the child with the awful fixed eyes staring at him. The driver spoke, the paramedics made no response, it appeared that only he could see and hear them.

‘We are waiting for you, all of us, waiting to take you on to the place where you will remember everything. Just the formalities are required, everything by the book and we’re used to waiting and all the time in the world to kill.’

***

 Bleep beep.

Alarm clock? It sounds different, must get up.

Bleep beep.

Dark what time is it, what day? Can’t move, open my eyes.

Bleep beep.

Who’s that who’s there? Marion, Marion, who are you talking to, who’s there, where am I?

Bleep beep.

‘Sorry Mrs Wright, we had hoped for a better outcome but the damage, well it’s, just too severe I’m afraid.’

‘Will he die, no surely there must be something, save him please I love him so much, the children, oh God, David please wake up, darling please come back to us.’

‘Sorry but he can’t hear you I’m afraid. The coma is too deep, he’s brain dead and it’s just the ventilator keeping his organs functioning. Sorry but you need to know, there really isn’t anything more we can do now. Just keep him comfortable until—‘

‘You aren’t going to let him die, never I won’t let you.’

 Bleep beep.

Marion what’s happening I can’t move or open my eyes can’t speak. What’s happened to me?

‘Mrs Wright, you will have to make a decision, not right now, but soon. You’ll need to be strong, but you will have to make that decision. He won’t have died in vain. His death could give others life. His org—‘

‘His organs, no