Boris was a man with a few words. I couldn’t comprehend the way he told a long story like that with so much detail. He looked at my hands that tucked furiously the edge of the bed cover and said, “Dana said to me to help someone, her. Remember?” I nodded and said, “Who was she talking about?” He said, “You.” I hesitated and asked him, “How did you know she was talking about me?” He said, “She pointed her finger from her good side at you. I saw it and lifted up her right away.”
I stared at him and I didn’t know what to say.
He said, “They must have been looking for her; Ellen and the others. But she was in the ward and dead. Someone else killed her, obviously.”
My heart kept beating fast, and I lowered my head. Boris lifted my chin up and said, “I would have saved you no matter what.”
A knock on the door startled me. Boris looked at the door, shifted and stood up. He looked at the panel on the side. He opened the door and a machine stood there with a tray of food. The machine said, “This is the breakfast. All four food groups are on the tray. She must eat them all in order to regain her health and the blood she has lost.” Boris said, “Yes, and she needs to also be left alone and not be disturbed by anyone or anything.” He grabbed the tray and shut the door hard. He didn’t seem fond of machines.
He approached me holding the tray and sat down with it. He lifted back his long sleeve and a wide black band with a small panel appeared. He placed it over the food and moved his arm from left to right. He then said, “The food is fine. It’s organic and safe from any chemical and ready for consumption.”
I looked at him and then the food tray. Organic? Of course it was organic. The Triangle compound had small and round farm areas that grew our crops and provided for our small world. What did he think? Someone may have injected the food with chemicals to kill me? I said to him, “Am I that valuable that food in a tray is suspicious to you?”
Boris handed me the tray and said, “I need to keep you safe.”
I think Boris was consumed in this notion that I need to be protected at all times because I can’t defend myself. I said angrily, “I can protect myself. I am level five authority of defence in the Intelligence compound. I …” He interrupted me and said, “Yes. That’s why you can’t protect yourself. You were trained to protect others but obviously not you. ” I stared at him and he said, “You are a powerful little thing, but you have an instinct to protect others. You forget that you are human and need protection too. Look at what happened to you.”
With anger I said, “I was brutally attacked. I wasn’t expecting it and there was no room near the door for Ellen to strike me with the metal rod.” Boris eyed me suspiciously and said, “Go on.” I covered my mouth with my hands. I said too much, but it didn’t make sense. He kept staring at me and said, “Who hit you then?”