The Darkness in the Light by Daniel Kalla

Author:Daniel Kalla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

I slept in again the next morning, but I couldn’t blame it on the hydromorphone. I was learning how to manage the chest discomfort with only Tylenol. I hadn’t popped a tablet of hydromorphone in almost twenty-four hours. The haze from the concussion had lifted, too. But I still could barely drag myself out of bed. More than fatigue, I was immobilized by an overwhelming sense of futility.

At about nine o’clock, I finally got up and went to the bathroom. I eyed the bottles on the counter, focusing on the nearly full container of Ketopram. I considered what Javier had told me. Maybe my growing apathy was an indicator the major depression was coming back? Maybe the warning lights were flashing again? But I couldn’t bring myself to even touch the bottle. Despite Javier’s impassioned argument, Ketopram was sullied in my mind. I associated it with death.

I dressed carefully so as not to aggravate my injuries, but I was indifferent to the end result. Evan had texted me earlier to prompt me to get my follow-up chest X-ray taken at the hospital, and if only to escape the monotony of my room, I headed downstairs to meet the taxi I had called.

The sun was out, and the bright daylight only reminded me how much I missed the dark of night. The streets were quiet as ever as the cab rumbled down the dirt road. The discrepancies in design between neighboring houses that we passed made them seem unrelated to one another and struck me as a metaphor for the isolation of the community.

As the driver pulled up in front of the hospital, I noticed an ambulance and two NSB police SUVs lined up in front of the ER’s entrance. I would have ignored them, except I spotted Chief Bedard standing beside the ambulance and talking to one of the paramedics, so I veered away from the main entrance and toward him.

“Thanks, Lorna,” the chief said to the young, uniformed Iñupiat paramedic. “I will take it from here.”

She nodded solemnly and then headed for the open driver’s door of her rig.

When the chief turned to me, his face was impassive, but his eyes were deeply troubled. “We found Amka.”

Emotion stirred in me for the first time today. “In the ER? Is she hurt?”

“She’s not there.”

“Not there? Then where is she?”

He hesitated. “The morgue.”

His words hit me like a rockfall. “How?” I croaked.

“She drowned.”

Just like her sister. I couldn’t believe it. “I want to see her.”

“What for?”

“Please, Chief. Let me just see her.”

He wavered a moment. “I’m heading in there now.”

I followed him inside, and we trudged down the hallway to the morgue. Neither of us spoke a word. How could this be happening again?

We entered the cold gray room where two gurneys stood, only one of them occupied. It was Amka. She lay on top, fully dressed down to her boots. Her coat looked waterlogged, and a few strands of wet hair stuck to her forehead, but otherwise, she appeared as if she were already embalmed and prepped for an open-casket funeral.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.