The phone call that ended all
1450 Words
What could destroy a man’s dreams and happiness? He never thought he would be affected like this by a single phone call.
The same morning everything was perfect before he went to work. He did everything he usually did every morning before leaving to work. He kissed her while resting his hand on her belly that was showing the fourth month of pregnancy. He was happy and was waiting impatiently to become a father and his wife was happy she passed the morning sickness phase. Everything was perfect for a few hours until the phone call.
He was talking with a client who had problems with his car, trying to get the details of what was wrong with his car before starting the work. That was the moment when the phone started singing in his pocket.
He smiled seeing his wife’s number displayed on the screen. Excusing himself after passing the client to one of the other mechanics, he took the phone and went out of the deafening noise and sat on a bench. In the meantime the call ended without him answering. He called back and after a few rings she picked up.
“So, do you miss me already? It’s been only a couple of hours since I left the house. Is everything ok at home?”
A moment of silence took over on the other side and when an unknown male voice answered, his smile froze and his mind went blank while he listened to his words.
“Mister Vlad Basarab? This is agent Vasile Dogaru from Road Police. I’m sorry to inform you that your wife Diana Basarab had an accident while driving and passed away while on the way to the hospital. I was in the ambulance with her and tried to call you with her phone at her request but you didn’t answer. I’m sorry for your loss.“
He was staring at the phone in his hands unable to comprehend what just happened. Closing his eyes, he tried to shake himself back to action, but his body didn’t listen to any of his desperate commands. He must have spent minutes there with his eyes closed when he was awakened by a light touch on the shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked to see who touched him, but nobody was in sight.
Finally his shackles gone, he stood on shaky legs and went back to announce his boss his need for a leave. He was understanding and ten minutes later he was on his way to the hospital. When he entered in the courtyard he saw the same guard as when they came for the appointment a couple of days earlier. When he asked where the dead are kept the guard looked at him with pity and asked him to wait for a moment while he made a call and someone will take him there.
Sure enough a couple of minutes later a man-nurse in green scrubs came at the gate where he waited in silence, indifferent to the guards questions.
“Are you mister Basarab?”
At his nod of acknowledgement the nurse waved him over.
“Please follow me. I’m sorry for your loss. From what I heard from the agent that came with her she tried to call you on the way. That is true love if I ever saw one.”
The nurse kept rambling but he was dead inside. His feet were moving on their own as he followed the nurse in the back of the courtyard. They entered a long dark hallway and after some turns left and right they stopped in front of a metallic door.
“This is as far as I can go. The doctor is waiting inside.”
With a nod, he turned and knocked at the door. A muffled voice called from inside calling for him to enter. Opening the door, he walked into a big room full of metallic tables on top of which some bodies were laying covered in white sheets. One of them was his wife. And their unborn baby.
A man was sitting at a wooden bureau and writing. When he entered the room, the man in white lab coat lifted his eyes from his work.
“Yes, can I help you?”
“Yes, I am here for my wife. She died today in an accident and I’m here to see her.”
“And her name?”
“Diana. Diana Basarab.”
“Ah, yes. The pregnant lady. This way please.”
He walked to a table to the far side of the room. The sheets were smeared in red over her body. He was shaking when the doctor removed the sheet covering her face.
“Trust me, it’s better to see only the face.”
He ignored the doctor’s rumbling in medical terms about her sustained wounds. He looked at her face and finally his eyes burned as his tears started falling. The tightness in his throat made him cough while he tried to hold back the howls of pain deep inside.
With his shaking hand reached for her face that seemed to sleep peacefully. He tried to imprint her face in his mind forever. Her blonde shoulder length hair was a bit disheveled and her face had some light bruises. Unfortunately her eyes the color of her favorite flower, cornflower, were closed forever. He always was fascinated by her eyes since the first time they met.
When his fingers touched her face, the cheek was still warm. With his fingers lingering on her skin, he closed his eyes trying to relate the sensations between touching the body in front of him now and the woman full of life and hopes from a few hours ago. But nothing and he opened his eyes again. For a moment, seeing her face so peaceful, he hoped she would wake up.
But it didn’t happen and he let his hand fall by his side. It finally was sinking in the fact that life as he knew it was over. Ten years since he knew her. And now he had only the memories.
Forcing himself to get back to the present, he turned back to the doctor. What he was saying, he couldn’t understand. It just wasn’t sticking in his brain. He figured it must the shock. Shaking his head to clear his mind, after wiping his tears he said with a raspy voice.
“I’m sorry doctor, but now I’m not in a mood for talk. What I’d want to know is how she died. Why she died. And if there was pain, although there must be by the way this sheet looks and her trying to call me. By the way, is the agent that answered the phone around?”
“Ah, yes. Everyone likes to know these things. She died as a result of the injuries sustained after a truck lost control and collided with her car. For more details about the accident, you can talk with the agent that brought her. He gave me his phone number in case you’d ask. Here it is.“
The doctor searched his pockets, finally finding the paper that had the phone number and the agent’s name. He took the piece of paper and, after a short look at it, folded it and put it in his shirt pocket. In the meantime the doctor kept talking.
“As about the pain, there should have been, but the agent said she was smiling and said something strange before she died.”
“Strange? What did she say?”
“The agent said that she smiled and said ‘so this is the reason I loved him’. Not a normal thing to say in those circumstances.”
Furrowing his brows, he tried to understand the meaning, but it eluded him. Shaking his head, he gave up.
“And what about her body? When can I get her?”
“I still have to follow the rules and do the autopsy. But tomorrow after 8 am you can come for her. I’m sorry for your loss.”
He nodded and walked out the door, resisting the urge, that was screaming inside, to look at her.
He walked along the hallway until he was in the courtyard. Looking up, he saw the sky starting to get dark from the storm that was coming. It would have scared her. She was always scared of thunder and would always hide under his arms. But not anymore. Her life was over and he had the feeling his was gone too, alongside hers.
He closed his eyes for a moment when the first drops of rain started to fall and in the distance he heard the rumbling of the thunder.
He started walking in the rain. He had a funeral to take care of. After, he didn’t know. He wasn’t thinking that far ahead anymore.
- Writer
