Absolute Sunset by Kata Mlek Read Free Book Online Page B

the light on and then back off. Fixed the pillows. She jumped on the bed for a moment. She ran frantically over the soft mattress, her feet sinking into it. She hurried out to the hall, then returned wearing her coat. It made no sense. Sabina didn’t get up. And she probably wasn’t going to get up or go anywhere on her own. “Calm down!” Hanka raced into the living room, then the kitchen. She couldn’t find anything that would help. In the end she covered her mother with a blanket she took from the couch in the living room and stood next to her.
    “Mom?” she asked. She couldn’t make up her mind: stay or leave?
    Sabina opened her eyes slightly.
    “Run to the neighbours, find someone,” she muttered. “Run for help. Waters broke. It’s coming,” her mother whispered and pulled the blanket up. Hanka felt she had done something right. The blanket was a good idea! It came in handy! She nodded and almost saluted.
    “I’m going, you stay here,” she whispered and left immediately.
    At first she raced upstairs to Ram’s. They had a phone. The elderly granny was always sitting at home. She ran, stumbling on the steps from time to time. She counted the floors loudly. On the third floor, she banged on the door rather than clear her throat or gently knock.
    “Mrs. Ram, Mrs. Ram, help me!” she cried.
    She stopped for a moment and heard someone behind the door. The old lady was in her flat.
    “Mrs. Ram, help my Mum! Open up!” Hanka kept yelling. But the old lady still hadn’t opened the door. Hanka was sure she heard the spyhole click. An old eye flashed. Then the apartment went quiet. Nasty lizard! She wouldn’t open!
    The girl ran to the door across the hall, knocking and crying out. Nothing. She raced to the fourth floor, then the second and first floors. She drummed on the railing with her hands, babbling and screaming. What if the baby came out? She would have to cut the umbilical cord! Agata had told her about it. No, no, not that. She began to kick on another door. No one opened. They were all used to the screaming of the neighbours and didn’t want to meddle in some scandal from the first floor.
    “Help, help!” Hanka cried again and again. “Help!”
    Crying, she returned to the Ram’s door. She kicked it a few more times. It made no sense. She had to go back. To watch this
something
crawl out of Sabina’s belly. She was about to go home again when she heard the clanking sound of a door being unlocked. Surprised, she squatted, so as not to fall. After a long, long time Mrs. Ram’s face appeared in the darkness of the flat. Half her face. The rest was hidden inside.
    “What’s going on?” she whispered.
    “Mom is in labor,” Hanka whispered and sat down heavily. Her mission was completed now.
    “Holy Jesus!” Mrs. Ram shrieked. “Come on, kid! We’ll call the doctor!” Mrs. Ram grabbed Hanka’s hand and pulled her inside.
    An ambulance appeared almost immediately. Hanka didn’t even have a chance to say that she was the patient’s daughter. There was no time.
    “Quickly, take her downstairs, we’re going.” That was all Hanka could understand from what the paramedics said. Sabina didn’t say a word to her. She lay stiff. She looked like she was trying not to pee. Hanka found the sight amusing.
    The van door slammed. Red light flashed. A siren scared the pigeons. The ambulance started off and quickly disappeared. Hanka returned to the flat. She closed the door carefully, as Sabina had taught her. “You never know what danger can come here, right to our housing estate,” Sabina always used to say.
    Hanka sat by the kitchen window, just like her mother used to do. The block standing opposite to theirs was decorated with flags, celebrating the first of May. They hung dolefully as if they were dead. Soaked with yesterday’s rain.



9
    Sabina—I Don’t Want You
    Sabina thought she wouldn’t be afraid. Hanka had been born so long before. So many years had passed. The memory of the