Fight for Freedom

Ann sat staring out of her living room window. She could see the first signs of spring, which, to her, had come along suddenly. A month had passed since her departure from the hospital. She remembered little about her stay; her thoughts had been lost in the Northern Lands.

She had not discussed any of her memories with her doctor, making the decision he would probably not believe her. Instead, she had decided to let her mind work on the problem. A decision had to be made, was she going to try to return to the Northern Lands, and see what had happened to Serge.

The phone rang. Ann decided to ignore it. She did not feel up to speaking to either, her mother or her work colleagues. Both had been trying to persuade her to go back to work, she did not feel ready yet. There were more important decisions to make.

Ann would often find herself combing her long red hair for ages having forgotten what it was she was trying to do. Everything was a great effort for her at the moment. She wandered around the house for days pondered on her problem. The reference books from the local Library had not been any help; no one recorded having an experience like her own. At night dreams haunted her of the last moments when she left Serge. She would wake feeling frightened and responsible, he had been kind to her, and his kindness, probably had got him hurt, or worse killed.

After a very difficult night of nightmares, she decided she needed to do something about getting more sleep. The lack of sleep was stopping her from thinking clearly lately, and that was not helping her shake off her dark mood. She had also been off her food and had lost some weight. With being slim already, she could not afford to loose too much weight.

She managed to get an appointment for that morning; she used her recent accident to sway the receptionist decision. Feeling better for taking positive action at last, she set off for the doctor’s surgery.

* * * * * *

Later that day Ann sat with a bottle of wine, in one hand, and a bottle of sleeping pills, in the other.

She had made her decision. The answer had come to her when the doctor had warned her about taking too many of the pills. Ann now knew how she would get back to Serge. All this time the answer had been lurking in her head; she had just needed to find it.

Pouring herself a large glass of wine, she recalled the doctor in the hospital telling her how close to death she had come. That was the answer to her question: how to get back? She needed to be close to death again.

She had bought the wine for Dutch courage. This course of action could have terrible consequences for her.

Taking a deep breath, she quickly drank a large glass of wine and allowed the first alcoholic affects to come over her. Picking up the bottle of pills, she hesitated a moment. How many would be enough? Mentally she shook off her hesitation and swallowed a handful of tablets. Ann reclined in her chair and held the red pendant that Han had given her. Closing her eyes, she thought of Han. Slowly she became sleepy, but she kept Han’s face in her mind. She had to think about him and find her way back.

Ann felt cold, and wet. Slowly she opened her eyes, quickly shutting them again when rain splashed into them.

Suddenly it dawned on her, she was back. She had done it. Turning over onto her knees, she pushed her wet hair out of her face and looked around her. Woodland surrounded her on all sides, and it was raining, hard. She tried to recognise her surroundings. Nothing jogged her memory; she scolded herself for not taking that much notice of landmarks during her last visit. How am I to find Han? She looked down at the pendant, and smiled, remembering his feathered friends.