My eyes were still closed, but I heard people talking a few feet away from me. A man said, “She can’t stay asleep.” Another woman with a concerned voice said, “But she looks so peaceful. Like a child. She needs to rest.” The man snorted and said, “Boris can’t keep protecting her. She is a danger to him.”
The woman said, “Boris, of all people in this world can only help her.” The man said, “He can’t stop her thoughts. Maybe her actions, but what she is thinking? What she is seeing? He can’t possibly do anything anymore.” The woman said, “We don’t know if it’s true. Boris would have told us and not brought her here.” The man spoke with a loud voice, “Boris is delusional! He has been for ten years. He never recovered from that day and he will always …”
A door loudly opened and hit the wall. There were loud footsteps and they suddenly stopped. Boris spoke, “If you want to talk loudly, do it somewhere else. She can hear you.”
I tried to open my eyes but I couldn’t. What was happening? What were they all saying? Boris said loudly, “Go back to your work!”
Small footsteps were slowly fading away and the door closed. Other footsteps were getting close to me, and someone sat next to me on the edge of the couch. I tried to open my eyes slowly, and Boris was there staring at the door. He then said in a low tone, “I know you heard them. They don’t know what they are talking about.”
I opened my eyes all the way and then he looked at me. He said, “What you heard was not true. None of it.” He then hesitated for a few seconds, grabbed my hands and said, “Is your head still pounding? Can you walk?”
I tried to lift my head, but I had a hard time. Boris put his arm around my shoulder and tried to lift my head up. I was getting closer to him, almost to his chest. He kept moving me closer, and he hugged me, tightly. He said, “I will never let anything happen to you Lina. Please trust me.”