Absolute Sunset (27 page)

“I think it was out of boredom!” the raven said. “Either way, it’s over now.”

Hanka disagreed.

“You could have told me! More precisely!” she cried.

The raven jumped onto her shoulder. Maybe he pitied her.

“Well. I’ll tell you more precisely,” he said gently. “I promise. Next time.”

Hanka—Board Any Train

The raven kept his word.

“This time it’s about a rail crash,” he announced, wandering around the top of the wardrobe and rocking from side to side.

“Rail again? There was already the accident in Baby!” Hanka was becoming suspicious.

“Again, again...” the bird mimicked. “They haven’t renovated the line, have they?”

“No.”

“Oh well!” Her nighttime companion rolled his eyes. “Are you going to guess or not? I don’t have time for this kind of pointless discussion.”

“I am, I am!” Hanka answered quickly. “But say it straight out!”

She easily deciphered when and where the disaster would take place. The problem reminded her of one of the sudokus they printed in the daily papers. It was enough to guess the numbers and put them together and it was done: March 22, departure 1:07 a.m., the train from Katowice to Łódź would crash with another train after one hour and thirteen minutes of travel.

“Bravo!” the raven cawed. “And now: what will happen next!” It flapped its wings and flew away.

That day Hanka got up just after 4 a.m. with the intention of cleaning up. For a moment she wandered around the flat, putting things in their places.

“It doesn’t make sense,” she said after a while and sat down in the kitchen.

She ate a few cornflakes that were past their sell-by date and drank her juice. It tasted a little like alcohol—it had probably stood too long in the fridge. No problem, her stomach had always been strong. She washed herself and got dressed. She packed a bag. Documents. Money. Tissues. After a moment’s thought she threw in deodorant. And a thin book, some novelette. Some mascara that had gone a little dry. Enough.

She closed the door carefully and went to the railway station. She had quite a bit of time to wait, so she decided to take a walk. She went slowly, looking at the pavement. Grey slabs of concrete passed before her eyes—some cracked, others bleached by the sun.

She bought her ticket at the only ticket office that was open. One way, to Łódź. She folded it carefully, put it into her pocket, and sat down in the nearly empty waiting room. Homeless men were sleeping on two most distant benches. An odour of plonk and urine floated in the air.

Half an hour before departure time she bought a hamburger in the bar—flat, stinking of oil and of the juice of some strange cabbage with which it had been stuffed. Awful. She ate it only because she was famished.

Then she headed into the catacomb-like corridors that led toward platforms. There were inscriptions decorating the passage. “A bald man is a prick.” “Fuck Agnieszka in the ass.” The pavement beneath her feet was stained with vomit and there was an intrusive odor of dirt—typical of the station in Katowice. Fortunately, at this time of day there weren’t any drug addicts mooning around. Sad creatures, often barely able to stand.

“Platform 1.” Hanka read the inscription from the board out loud. To the left, so she turned. Above, she noticed a bright rectangle of light. The corridor began to climb toward it. And it became narrower, almost tight. A birth canal.

The train arrived in a squeal of brakes. It stopped. With an effort, Hanka wrestled open the heavy door. She found her seat and sat down, closed her eyes.

They left after an hour’s delay because of a lack of water in the toilets. Hanka didn’t care—she wasn’t in any hurry—but in the aisles the frustrated passengers visited each other, complained, and gossiped. As soon as the train’s engine moved, they fled back to their compartments and Hanka was left alone. After some time, a guard appeared.

“Ticket, please!” He smiled.

Hanka passed her ticket to him.

“It’s rather empty here today, isn’t it?” the man asked.

“Yeah.”

“Strange. There are more people in the cars toward the rear. They didn’t get as far as this one—just you. If anyone bothers you, I’m in the guard’s compartment, right there.” He pointed it out to her. “Join us if you like. Sometimes there are some nuts on here.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank you.” The guard doffed his hat to her. He had beautiful eyes, with long eyelashes. “Have a nice journey.”

He left without closing the door all the way. Through the narrow opening that remained, the raven entered. He jumped onto a seat and critically eyed the worn upholstery. Hanka was struck dumb for a moment.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered, once she’d recovered her voice.

“I came by to keep you company!”

“In broad daylight?!”

“Why not? By the way, if you don’t do something about it, he’ll be dead, too.”

“Who?”

“The guard!” the raven bridled. “But don’t be afraid. We still have fifty-eight minutes.” The bird seemed almost to smile. “The train will jump the track at a crooked spot on the line,” he explained. “Because it’ll be going too fast, trying to make up for the delay. It’ll roll down an embankment and catch fire. The cars will roll, burning, like a roast on a spit—unless you do something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to have a nap,” Hanka’s companion climbed up to the luggage compartment and began to snore.

After thinking for a moment, Hanka decided on what seemed like the simplest solution. She got up cautiously, so as not to make noise and wake the raven, left the compartment, and went towards the locomotive, entering the cabin without hesitation.

“Good afternoon!” she yelled at the top of her voice so as to be heard over the thunder of the wheels.

The engineer sitting at the controls turned, surprised.

“Good afternoon!” he answered mechanically. “What are doing here?” He recovered quickly and his tone became more formal. “You’re not allowed to be here!”

“Please, I know that it sounds strange, but we—you, me, the passengers—are in danger.”

The engineer looked at Hanka with wide eyes. Encouraged by his silence, she continued.

“A dozen or so kilometres down the line there’s a turn, a sharp one, running along the top of an embankment, right?”

“Right, so what? One look at the map on the corridor wall and you know the route,” the man snorted.

“True,” Hanka admitted. “But that’s not all. Today you’re going faster than usual because of the delay. Too fast for this line, especially since the line isn’t good there.”

“What are you babbling about?”

“Please, slow the train down. Now. Once we pass that part you can speed up again.”

“Why should I slow down? Because you don’t like the speed we’re going? What’s going on here? Some kind of candid camera or something?”

“Please, slow down! I swear to God! I have prophetic dreams and I know: we’re in danger! Slow down!”

“You must be crazy!” the engineer shouted, getting up from the controls. “Leave! Immediately!”

“No!”

“Get out! Get out!” the man was becoming very angry. “Get lost, you crazy woman!” He caught Hanka and bodily removed her from the railway engine, slamming the door after her. He turned the lock and waved at her from behind the pane, grinning in satisfaction. Hanka gave him her middle finger and then, with all her might, pulled the emergency brake lever, which stood near the door of the first car.

She heard a shriek as the wheels, suddenly frozen in place, scraped against the line. The train lurched, and Hanka heard shouts from the passengers, who were bombarded by luggage falling from the overhead compartment. Sparks sprayed from the wheels, but the train slowed down.

When it had slowed by nearly half, it reached the embankment. Hanka stuck her head out the window and tried to judge whether they would get through the turn safely or not. “Slow down, slow down!” she chanted, as if she might cast a spell over the train. The first three cars rolled uphill, and they were already halfway through the arc when the entire train suddenly shook as if a bomb had exploded.

“No!” Hanka cried. “No!”

The locomotive leaped like a show horse over an obstacle. It turned to one side, bounced off the line, and sprang into the air, dragging a tail of train cars after it. The last thing Hanka saw was the steep embankment. The locomotive smashed into it, penetrating several metres into the loose soil, and stayed there. Hanka hit the wall with her temple and tumbled half the length of the car, breaking her right collarbone. Another shock, caused by the first of the cars crashing into the locomotive, pressed her against the window. Tortured metal moaned. After a moment the next car came crashing down with a thud and the back of Hanka’s head was struck by a door handle. An image of Janusz appeared.

“Dad!” She was elated, and reached toward her father with one hand.

Then, again, a crash. Hanka saw a flash, then felt nothing. Emptiness and non-existence.

Paweł—The Comeback

“Ms. Jadzia, I’m heading to number three, then I’m heading home,” Paweł said in the direction of the duty office. Ms Jadzia looked his way, willing to chat as always.

“Ok, you go, it’s already late.” She waved at him. “Just come back before you go and tell me how she’s doing, okay?”

Paweł nodded confirmation and went to room number three. He knocked gently and pressed the door handle. The resident in this room was calm and submissive, but it was better not to frighten her.

“Good evening!” he said, smiling.

“Good evening, neighbour!” The cheerful woman approached him. She held a plush Mickey Mouse in her arms, rocking it steadily. “Please, sit down, I’ll put Bartek to bed and I’ll have a word with you in a minute.”

“Please, don’t bother,” Paweł protested shyly, but the patient interrupted him.

“No big deal. Would you like to take a seat? Mom and Dad will come back in a moment. They went shopping because we’ve run out of cheese.”

“But...”

“Hush, hush,” the woman whispered to the mouse, putting the toy on the bed. “Okay, he’s asleep. Now we have a moment!”

“How are you?” Paweł asked in a quiet voice. The patient would get cross if anyone spoke loudly in the presence of the sleeping mouse.

“Quite well.”

“And do you like living with your parents?”

“Yes, it’s wonderful! We eat breakfast, lunch, and supper together every day. We go for walks. Mom combs my hair. Do you like it?” The woman turned around to show him her messy bun. “It’s great! Maybe this year we can go to the seaside!” She clapped her hands and bounced a little.

“That’s excellent! I’m going to say goodbye now. I have some plans.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Good night, Hania. Say hello to your parents for me.”

“I will!”

“Bye!”

“Bye!”

“So, how is she, doctor Niewiara?” Jadzia asked when he returned.

Paweł sighed. What could he say? He knew his patient well. Previously it had seemed to him that she had a chance. But now? She lived in an imaginary world. In retrospect he thinks that maybe he accepted her previous revelations too quickly. There’s a suspicious blur on her x-ray looks more like the result of an old head injury rather than the crash, probably something during her childhood. It’s funny, sometimes nothing more than a single, precise blow to the head separates a healthy person from a delusional one. Terrifying. Paweł shivered at the thought. He took his glasses off, rubbed his nose, and rejoined the conversation.

“Ms. Jadzia,” he sighed. “Everything’s fine. Give her diazepam as usual and she’ll sleep.”

“She’s lucky, isn’t she? It’s amazing that she woke up from the coma at all with that much damage to her head, but she did it! Quite a stroke of luck, huh?” As usual, engaging Paweł in conversation. “Half a train landed on her, but she survived! And she’s fine.”

“Well, not entirely fine. She won’t leave it here any time soon unless a hospice takes her.”

“But she could easily have died!” Ms Jadzia pointed out. She thought of the psychiatric ward as a nice place, which made her an excellent worker. Paweł appreciated her, so he let himself be drawn into discussions about patients, or the world in general, that weren’t strictly necessary. “Nobody died—it’s really a miracle! They said the train slowed down and the engineer did everything he could have. A real professional!” the ward sister finished.