A boy had a COVID test in hospital chair, had a hard time of it, so I think I’ll try the same. To see if it was that bad.
I sit down in the blue hospital armchair. The nurse puts the tube in my arm, but I can’t get comfortable. There’s no pain, but there’s a strange feel of the rubber hose rolling under the skin of my bicep as I move from side to side.
I hold up my hands, trying to adjust my position. My hands are frozen in the shape of duck feet, pale webbing and pink fingers. They might look strange but they don’t hurt, they’re just amusing to looking at.
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Then I am trying to go to the office, but the route is up a large hill and I see that it is very icy.
Skateboarders at the top are poised to slide down. I’m with two women, nurses, one is chubby and is lagging behind the other. And I lag behind her. She struggles because her shoes slip off her feet. Her shoes are black, broken, though I notice one shoe has a bright metallic green heel. Again she tries to slide her feet back into the shoes. She has worn black stockings. Nurses don’t make much. They should be paid more.
And now the skateboarders come flying down the icy hill. They sit on their skateboards at the top of the hill, but despite my thoughts, they don’t try to hit me on the way down. They whiz past and clear me even as I climb the hill. And just as I think they’re being safe, one boy gets too close. Stupid! I could have put my leg out and he would gone flying.
I decide to return home instead, because even at the top of the hill I’m still lost… Because it’s ok if I only go in 2 or 3 times to the office. I used to always be at home.
I tell the nurses I’m going to Elephant and Castle. Isn’t that the station? I ask, pointing down at a corner street in the town.
No that’s not the station, that’s Pratt street. Anyway they are going nearby, to London Hospital, it’s near the General Hospital.
As I descend the other side of the hill and into town, the streets turn into a series of tunnels, with medieval stone walls lit with sconces on both sides. The glow of the lamps casts across the tunnel ceilings and lights the windows of already closed shops.
Image by Nowaja
