Chapter Fourteen:
'The Sound of Footsteps’
Four years later, my illness returned, and I found myself back inside a high dependency ward in Airedale Hospital, Keighley. The cancer specialist at the hospital appeared amazed that I’d survived as long as I had with my condition; especially with the precarious nature of me having no effective immune system with which to fight off even the slightest of infections.
I never quite understood the medics’ lack of faith in the quality of their own work and nursing attention they’d given me over the years. While the consultant and the doctors inwardly doubted that I would survive the time to experience another hospital admission and discharge, the thought that I might die soon never once entered my head. I was always more hopeful in the likelihood of a better tomorrow than the next man in the bus queue. I have always believed that one instinctively knows when one’s end of life approaches, and there was no feeling inside telling me that my time was up and that my illness had eventually conquered and was about to claim its ultimate prize!
I never quite understood the medics’ lack of faith in the quality of their own work and nursing attention they’d given me over the years. While the consultant and the doctors inwardly doubted that I would survive the time to experience another hospital admission and discharge, the thought that I might die soon never once entered my head. I was always more hopeful in the likelihood of a better tomorrow than the next man in the bus queue. I have always believed that one instinctively knows when one’s end of life approaches, and there was no feeling inside telling me that my time was up and that my illness had eventually conquered and was about to claim its ultimate prize!
Besides, I’d started writing novels a few years earlier and had received some modest success in having had eleven books published. I’d started another novel three weeks before my recent entry into hospital and one way or another, I was determined to finish it before I popped my clogs. I figured that if I always had another novel on the go, my Maker would not decide to take me back before I’d finished the task in hand and had devised a suitable ending for my readership!
It was 6.55 pm on March 24th as I lay on the bed in my side ward with the door open. It was raining heavily outside and the rain was streaming down the window pane. The hour for hospital patients to receive their evening visitors would soon commence.
Suddenly, I heard the footsteps of a woman’s feet walking up the long corridor in purposeful stride. I knew the footsteps were not those of a nurse as I could hear the clicking of the high heels with each step taken. Then, a weird thought came into my head, informing me that I’d heard these footsteps walk this hospital floor before. Before my mind could cement the certainty of my conclusion, a female body glided into the side ward through the open door and smilingly said, “Hello, Bill. I heard you were back inside hospital. Do you fancy a cup of tea and a bedside chat?”
Suddenly, I heard the footsteps of a woman’s feet walking up the long corridor in purposeful stride. I knew the footsteps were not those of a nurse as I could hear the clicking of the high heels with each step taken. Then, a weird thought came into my head, informing me that I’d heard these footsteps walk this hospital floor before. Before my mind could cement the certainty of my conclusion, a female body glided into the side ward through the open door and smilingly said, “Hello, Bill. I heard you were back inside hospital. Do you fancy a cup of tea and a bedside chat?”
The End.
