Читать книгу A Question of Time - Jamie Ashbird - Страница 16

PART 1

I did not know loneliness until there was no one left to hear my voice. I have nothing. No one. All I have are memories I would gladly give away, and a life I am not prepared to let go of.

Last Wednesday, that’s when little Wiggins died.

My entire village is gone. I should’ve died too, I should’ve joined my Mary and be done with it. Now I tramp my way, praying I am not alone in the world.

Another village looms dark and still in the evening light. I think to find a house to sleep in that is not someone’s tomb. There is not a movement to be seen, not a sound, but that’s when I see the faint glow of firelight from beneath a door.

That is where I find him, pale as the figure of death that sits at his head, waiting, alone. Dark bruises ring his eyes. He has no rash I can see, only the wicked buboes, one upon his fevered neck, the other in the crease of his thigh – that one burst and bleeding.

I sit beside him, laying my cool hand upon his heated brow, as I had done with so many others. At my touch the man gasps deep. I watch his chest deflate again and wait for his next breath.