A sensation of something crawling over her face woke Serenity up. She instinctively grabbed the space over the area where the said sensation was felt and a small spider got caught between her fingers.
I should keep the windows closed for the night. For it's that time of year when spiders seek refuge inside the residential houses for winter.
The waning gibbous moon was up in the sky and the moonlight poured into her bedroom through half drawn curtain.
I wonder what time it is?
She checked her mobile phone out. It was a few minutes past 4am.
I no longer feel sleepy. Let me get up. Make myself a cup of tea and go online. It's a good time to binge watch the informative public videos by the world famous psychotherapists. I find the videos quite helpful in managing the inner conflicts and the intrafamily drama. That is because those particular psychotherapists speak from the place of both their professional and personal experience. The "wounded healer" approach is more wholesome in my view. It inspires confidence in their online audience. And I am one of them: trying to learn advanced coping techniques of the every day psychological pressures.
While listening to the educational videos Serenity has slowly drifted back to sleep. The ringing of the doorbell has woken her up. The Social Housing Estate Manager was at the door. She was holding a large water bottle in her hand.
"Good morning. Sorry to wake you up but there has been an emergency in the building."
"Good morning, Estate Manager. What sort of emergency has brought you here, may I ask?"
"The good news is the huge water bottle that I brought for you for today. The not so good news is that the tap water supply to our building has been cut off. The service team suspects a water pipe rupture and leak but they are not sure about the exact location of the problem."
The thundering sound of the excavator digging a trench outside the social housing estate interrupted their conversation.
"The works have been just started on the housing estate grounds. We don't know how long it will take for the problem to get fixed. We might have to wait until the end of the day at least."
"I understand. Thank you for the water. Hoping for the pipe leak to get fixed soon. Good day."
"Good day."
I will bake a pumpkin pie and go visit my parents today. They must be back to their suburban property. I can take a shower there.
While opening the door of her parents' house Serenity greeted.
"Hello, it's me!"
Her father appeared in the doorway.
"Hi, there. How have you been so far?"
"I'm fine, dad, I'm fine. Here I have baked a pumpkin pie for you and mother this morning. Where is she by the way?"
"She's at the cultural fair today. Working as an animator along with her colleagues from the cultural establishment. They will teach the visitors ancient cooking recipes and cook over the open fire dressed in medieval attire. It's an open air fest in the regional park. Don't you know?"
"Now I know. Would you like some digestive tea to accompany a slice of a pumpkin pie?"
"Yes, please."
Serenity places a cup of tea and a plate with a slice of pumpkin pie on the table in front of the father and sits down herself across from him.
"And are you going to attend the fair yourself, dad?"
"Yes, most certainly. For that reason I wanted to ask you to teach me how to take photos on the new smartphone that the rest of the family has gifted to me on my birthday. I want to create warm memories from the fair by capturing them in the photos.
"Sure, dad."
I'm so happy within that my father has finally started taking interest in culture and socializing after so many years spent in social isolation and in the company of addiction to the news channels. Moreover, he wants to learn new things and engage with technologies within his capacity, of course.
Serenity has listed and demonstrated to her father all the steps on how to take simple pictures on a smartphone.
"Thank you very much for this. How do you find my clothing ensemble for today's outing?"
"It looks nice, dad. Except, please, do remember to wear your brown shoes instead of those bright orange plastic slippers."
"Don't worry. The slippers are very comfortable."
His sight has caught a plate with walnuts on the table and he remembered his earlier mental and emotional dilemma about the providence of those walnuts.
"Would you like to have a taste of some walnuts that I've found on the table? They seem to be very freshly harvested. Have they been offered to your mother by somebody that we know?"
"I'm not sure, dad. Why are you asking me something like that? I hope you will have a great time at the fair. I will see you later."
Serenity's father left on foot to the regional park. Lovely day for some exercise.
Like mother, like daughter. She being an unemployed person keeps covering her mother's social interactions' track in exchange for some pocket money. It's clear to me that wife's office paramour has gifted her those walnuts. Walnuts are known to increase brain power which they both need in order to outsmart me. I'm not going to leave it like that! Today I'm going to take many pictures of them interacting at the fair. This will serve as additional evidence of their affair.
The educational and entertainment activities of the fair were concentrated on an open field surrounded by trees and bushes.
Serenity's father quickly spotted his wife frying pancakes over the fire along with her colleague maintaining the flame. Surrounded by a crowd of onlookers waiting for their turn to taste those pancakes. He hid himself well behind a huge tree and dense bushes a long distance away so as not to be spotted and recognized by anybody. He pulled the smartphone out of his pocket and focused the camera lens on his wife and her colleague.
I need to keep the smartphone very steady like that with my two hands and keep clicking the capture button at a regular intervals. My eyes cannot be busy looking through the lens. I need to employ my eyes in order to spot potentially more secret admirers in the crowd around them. I need to remember all the minutiae details while gathering the evidence. As soon as he observed mother's colleague lean towards her and whisper something into her ear his breath started becoming shallower and shallower, his fingers kept pressing all over the touch screen, the camera focus held by shaking hands went in all directions until he could no longer withstand the internal emotional outrage and... fainted.
At the University Hospital General Surgery Department ward two-o-three.
"Here is a bucket of fresh apples from my parents' garden for you, Auntie. How have you been?"
"I have good news to share with you: I'm being discharged from the hospital tomorrow."
"That's good to hear."
"By the way, any news regarding my late husband's slippers?"
"No, unfortunately, not. May I ask what color those plastic slippers are?"
"Bright orange. Difficult to miss."
"Oh... maybe we will learn something with time. We need to be patient. I have to go and do some urgent work online. Wishing you a safe return home. Goodbye."
The door to the Surgical Residents' Room was closed.
So glad it is closed. I no longer wish to hear anything about the shadows of the profession. Since I'm feeling thirsty a nurse has mentioned to me that there was a beverage vending machine somewhere on the ground floor at the end of the corridor. There are so many corridors at the University Hospital. As a medical student I used to get lost each time during our routine patient visits between different departments. Nothing has changed. There is no vending machine at the end of the corridor but there is a door with the inscription "Chapel" above it. I didn't know that there was a Chapel in this hospital.
Serenity was about to open its door out of curiosity when she heard familiar voices conversing on the other side of the chapel door.
Female Surgical Resident 3: "I've come here in order to update our Chaplain regarding the state of our VVIP patient from the reinforced psychiatric ward."
Male Surgical Resident 2: "What has happened to this patient that even Chaplain has been taking part in the intervention?"
Female Surgical Resident 3: "He is a sole heir to a conglomerate. He has acquired some very expensive antique artefact abroad persuaded by the seller that this could enhance the owner's spiritual powers. Apparently, the unexpected happened. The Power from the artefact has enslaved and started exploiting its buyer for its own purposes. The latter started behaving like a werewolf: crawling on all fours, howling non stop, growling, attacking objects in the ward. He shred the luxurious silk bedlinen that his family has provided to pieces. Hence, we had to find ways of restraining him in order for our Chaplain to proceed with the seances of exorcism. Not much progress after seven seances."
Male Surgical Resident 2: "Are you sure you want to leave surgery for this? This is just one case. Imagine dealing with similar situations on a daily basis."
Female Surgical Resident 3: "To be honest, I have already transferred. I'm officially a Psychiatry Resident from today."
Male Surgical Resident 1: "Actually, I'm thinking of transferring to biomedical data analytics team and focus on researching medical injuries. I'm sure your late Estranged Uncle would approve."
Male Surgical Resident 2: "You two have left me alone in the Surgery Department. It's easy for you to switch since both of you are first generation and I'm a third generation surgeon in my family. I feel the weight of responsibility coming from legacy unlike yourselves."