Читать книгу Integrity - Anna Borgeryd - Страница 7

Mayday

‘Confianza.’ That’s what he had said. He who wanted to be called Juan.

She lay awake in the darkness and felt the breeze from the northern Colombian rainforest blowing through the mosquito net. The scent of vegetation and life blended with more pungent fumes reminiscent of death. The singing of the cicadas didn’t disturb the calm breathing of her colleagues. They usually fell into bed and slept deeply, exhausted from their long workdays. But tonight she lay fully awake. Memories of the last 33 hours played like a film in her head.

The blindfold had prevented her from seeing where he was taking her. First towards the northeast, she guessed, down into the lush ravine where the leaves steamed and the birdsong was most intense, but then south again along meandering paths, upwards. She had understood that they were in a real hurry. But when he had removed the blindfold from her eyes, he had nonetheless taken the time to look at her with respect: ‘Your trust is good.’

Yes, that’s probably true. She had been rewarded with hours during which she had felt extraordinarily alive. That passion for life and the adrenaline kick that comes just when you need to fight for it. Anxiety that her efforts wouldn’t be enough. Would she be able to stop it – would Juan’s trust in her prove to be well founded? Or would the newborn baby boy’s mother die from blood loss despite her efforts? What had he really meant, the new grandfather who anxiously gesticulated towards the fantastic view? And who were these people – the white-clad indigenous group who had built tidy stone roads and steps that crisscrossed the steep mountainsides in the jungle?

Their huts and gardens; their respectfully offered, peculiar food and unfamiliar language; last night in a surprisingly comfortable hammock – everything spun around in her head until her thoughts returned to the most important question: would the patient survive the difficult birth? She thought so. She had had the presence of mind to take the station’s best flashlight and a broad-spectrum penicillin in addition to the standard equipment. She had needed to use 27 stitches. They were not as perfect as if Adam had done them, but they were properly placed and, judging from the flow of blood, she had done them in the right order.

Now she was back in her bed in the greying wooden building that housed the aid organization’s maternity clinic. She ought to be dead tired, but the life-affirming experience of having felt so fully giving and receiving pulsated through her body. Such a beautiful world, and, strangely enough, she had fitted in, had been filled with purpose.

Unforgettable, she thought, smiling, yet at the same time irritated because she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t get the rest she so desperately needed. Because who knows what I might be needed for tomorrow?

Suddenly, threatening male voices broke through the chorus of insects outside. They weren’t speaking loudly, so they must be close! She sat up in an instant, filled with a chilling feeling of danger. She had just put her feet down on the old missionary station’s worn wooden floor when she heard Pierre trip up the stairs. His usually calm eyes were round with fear when he rushed in among the bunks in the women’s dormitory. ‘They come! You run!’

Footsteps on the stairs – heavy boots – blocked the escape route. She ran to the window, ripped off the ramshackle frame with the mosquito net that blocked her way, and, with a pounding heart, looked down into the darkness. Maybe the tall grass below would cushion the fall. But it must be at least four meters!

She swung one of her bare legs smoothly over the window frame and hesitated. She caught a glimpse of Pierre’s pajama-creased back when he bravely turned back towards the strangers. She heard the dull thud of a rifle butt hitting a cheek and how her boss tumbled heavily to the floor.

Jump or die flashed through her mind as she pulled her right leg sharply over the wood. She left blood on the frame, but didn’t notice the scratch as she fell from the second floor into the darkness. When she landed, the only thing she could feel was a stabbing pain in her left knee. She fell helplessly backwards and everything mercifully went black.