The Great Cleanup - стр. 7
She glanced at the door were the policeman left, wondering how soon she'd be let go. If the procedure were to linger, not enough time might be left for a proper great cleanup. And Anna really wanted to achieve a perfectly organized house by the time her husband and kids came back; with everything sparkling and shiny, no longer annoying her, the true mistress.
Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes, smiled and said very clearly:
“You are so kind and nice… You're like Mommy… I remember her. She was so… so… like Mommy… and Dad, he… he would do to her… and she could not, she could not bear…” The girl shuddered. “You know, I don't have much time left, either. You think I like this? I am just blacking out the pain. Tomorrow, perhaps today, I'll kick the bucket.” She slowly moved her hand to her chest, pulled the pin out of the leather of the jacket and stuck it into the lapel of the blue dressing-gown. “It's a gift…”
Anna did not have time to answer, as the girl's eyes rolled, her lips frozen in a blissful smile, her body going completely limp. A blue vein on her neck pulsated quickly, then started to slow down.
Seeing that the blood in the girl's body was slowing its circulation, Anna struggled to understand whether her new acquaintance was just out for a while, or really dying in the arms of a stranger. Again, Anna glanced at the door where the policeman went; perhaps a doctor should be called?
She did not have time to decide that, either. The next moment, another event took all of her attention. There was some sort of rumble at the other end of the corridor and then grey smoke billowed from there, quickly filling every bit of space around her.
Anna had no idea what to do. Escape? But she would not leave the senseless girl in the apparent start of a fire. Yet she hardly had the strength to carry the limp body. Also, in this thick smoke, the woman would have to find any doors or walls by touch alone.
She still could not see an actual fire, but the smoke continued to thicken. Anna became scared. She never was in a fire before, or any smoke like this, and of course she did not have a gas mask on her. She started to think she would die here along with this done-for junkie.
Anna started to cough, growing weak. Her consciousness was leaving her. She still kept the girl's head in her lap, but started to slide down to the floor herself, saying a silent farewell to her husband and children. But she did not end up on the floor. Suddenly someone swooped her up and put her firmly onto the bench again. Anna saw a face before her eyes.
At first she thought that it was a hallucination, that she was now out completely, as there was just one huge eye on the man's face. Yet her lingering senses told her that the man now stooping over her was wearing a protective mask, designed to break through the smoke. To rescue people, to get those trapped by the fire out.
Her saviour bowed closer to Anna, nearly touching her face with his mask, then moved his head close to her gown-covered breast. He appeared to be inspecting the fire victim. It seemed to Anna that he was trying to work out whether she is alive, whether she needs to be carried out of the smoke-filled building. Pulling the last remains of her strength together, she shook her head, showing herself not dead yet, and at the same time pointed at the girl lying nearby.