Notes on a Zombie: A Novella by Daniel Betts

Author:Daniel Betts [Betts, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

6

I’m jolted awake by the knock on the door.

“Morning!” says a nurse as she enters my room, “Sorry to wake you, my darling. Just gonna take your obs.” She pulls her little observation trolley in behind her.

I manage a nod; befuddled and half-blinded by the daylight streaming through the window. “What time is it?” I ask.

“Nearly nine.”

Whoa. I slept. Four and a half hours. The manuscript paper is still in my hand. I quickly stuff it into my pocket of the sweat shorts I have been living in for the last week.

The nurse takes my blood pressure, temperature and pulse whilst I sit there, staring out the window, still stupored by sleep.

“Looking good.”

“Hm?”

She smiles. I must look like a state; punchdrunk on four hours of sleep. I think I had too much to dream last night.

“Everything’s looking good.”

I nod. “How’s he doing,” I ask, jerking my head toward the wall.

The nurse continues to smile but the warmth leaks from her eyes.

“There’s still time for him,” she says.

“No family, or anything yet?”

She pats me on the shoulder. “Go back to sleep, my darling.” She piles up her wires and pumps into her trolley and rolls on out the room. I lie back and let sleep reclaim me until my breakfast arrives shortly afterwards. I eat it quickly before my head reminds me that it’s time to lie down again.

I pull the musical scribblings out of my pocket. I stare at the crotchets and semiquavers as if the three years of piano lessons I took two decades ago would allow me to conjure forth the tune from the paper.

Why did I take it? I honestly don’t know. Is it because I’m drawn to things that are beyond my understanding? How the hell do people write music? I find it fascinating. And the fact that the shambling corpse next door was once capable of such a feat (I presume he wrote it) well, it feels cruel beyond belief.

I should return it. But there’s no way I’m going back in there again. I’m not a superstitious person, but I used up all of my luck units whilst cutting his nails.

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