Lesson 13 for review and comment please:

Lesson 13

Noa jolted awake. She opened her eyes, but her lids would not obey. She tried again. The exertion was too much. Panic set in. Her mind was blank. As she acclimatised to the sounds and smells surrounding her, she deduced that she must be in a hospital, but why? The monitoring equipment beeped, and astringent disinfectant invaded her olfactory senses. A wave of exhaustion engulfed her and the space she’d just identified, disintegrated.

She is crouched in a cupboard, clutching her knees, holding her breath for fear of being discovered; footsteps getting louder. In the crisp early morning, she stands on the deck of an ocean liner waving to someone on the harbour wall. She’s crying. Plunging into the icy ocean, the perigean spring tide bobs her about like a cork, disorienting her. Panic sets in. The waves take her under. He is walking away, not turning to look back. Now she’s sitting at her desk in an online meeting. Her head is so heavy, she cannot hold it erect. Her breathing is shallow and accelerated. Nausea envelopes her. Something is very wrong. Noa knows she needs help, but she is too weary to seek it. ‘Maybe this is my time’ she drowses. Her mother’s face looms before her. She can feel her mother’s vice grip on her arm. ‘Don’t let go’. She waivers. ‘Mum?’

‘Don’t let go.’

‘Noa? Can you hear me?’ The instant recognition of Antony’s voice catapults her back into the hospital. Why is he here? Suddenly she is lucid. The pain of their last encounter floods her consciousness, threatening to engulf her. Tears well in her eyes. She is grateful they will not open. She doesn’t want to see his face, especially not now, lying vulnerable in a hospital bed, not knowing the circumstances that brought her to this place, or why he is here.

Nine years have done nothing to quell the pain of his betrayal and cowardice. Nothing.

‘Please go away.’

‘You called me, Noa.’