Hotel room (Part 2) by Catterina Coha

Using Catterina’s words: “here is a short part II, which is a prelude to part III” – Stay tuned!

Chicago, May 2015

The call caught Juliet by surprise. It had the unexpected power of changing her life. She realized that immediately but could not accept it for a while. The explanation provided by the hospital officer was clear, and Juliet responded on the spot with a composure that surprised her. After putting down the phone, however, she found herself in a state of numbness, dominated by the desire of reverting to the reality that just few minutes before had preceded the phone ring. She had experienced this feeling once before, when she was much younger and for the first time had to face an irreparable break in the harmony of life: the sudden death of her father in an automobile accident; that phone call that had shattered the serenity of a perfect day and a perfect life till then like a stone that brutally perturbs a lake’s smooth surface in a windless summer day.

She did not allow herself to focus on her own feelings for too long. When her wondering gaze paused on the watch, she swiftly returned to the current status of affaires and concocted an action plan. After all, her sister was not dead “yet”. There may be hope. She needed to get to Chicago as soon as possible, and at least say goodbye to a warm body. The importance of this she had learned the hard way, by feeling the lifelessness of her father’s cold corpse, which could not be warmed by any amount of love flowing from her parting hug.

Juliet decided that for the time being she should not inform anybody in the family about the tragic event. As she was accustomed to do, she took it upon herself to worry about the downfall that such news might have on each of the people close to her, and the least painful way to deliver them. In addition, she needed to protect Madeleine from unfair judgment, whether she would live or die. Making up a plausible excuse, she arranged for a colleague to cover for her the rest of the next two days at work. She then ran home, without forgetting to buy the Russian newspaper for her father-in-law and the cereals for her daughter. The feeling of following a mission, a mission dedicated to Madeleine, had a comforting effect. It was like playing a make-believe game, as they used to do in their childhood, and gave Juliet the strength to lie to her inquisitive teenager daughter about the reasons for her urgent departure without arising suspicions.

During the flight, the hum of the engines sung a lullaby for Juliet, who exhausted by the intense day, became drowsy, closed her eyes, and went into a semiconscious sleep, populated by vivid images. She saw the bedroom that she had shared for so many years with her sister, in the house where they grew up. Her desk was a mess, and she was anxiously looking for something important but could not find it, and the more she looked frantically for it, the more the objects, books, papers, brass jewelry and all the strange stuff kept accumulating on the desk, making it more and more difficult to look for it. She felt the gaze of her sister, her blue eyes with an ironic expression, looking at her with amused criticism.

The scene then changed abruptly. Madeleine was in a bus next to Juliet, both of them dressed up, going to a party and there were two boys, who looked familiar next to them. When they reached their destination, they found themselves in an ice-skating rink, and Madeleine was helping Juliet get on the ice, holding her hand, …and they were much younger, just kids, perhaps eight and six year old. It was snowing, and they were trying to imitate the figure skaters they had seen on television watching the winter Olympics. Other girls came, who were friends of Madeleine but did not pay attention to the younger Juliet, making her feel jealous and deserted. But that childish feeling metamorphosed, and Juliet, now an adult, saw a grownup Madeleine parting from her. The ice-skating rink became surreal, the falling snowflakes were now a fog that swallowed Madeleine and an imperceptible barrier prevented Juliet from following her sister. She saw Madeleine disappear and in desperation called her, tried to run after her, but to no avail: she could not find her way in the fog, a virtual space that that she could not cross.

The feeling was so powerful that Juliet woke up, her heart beating fast, her consciousness struggling to regain control of reality. Shivering, Juliet feared that perhaps her sister had died just at that moment. Then she tried to convince herself that it was just her fear showing up in the dream. The plane was about to land, and Juliet like a soldier resigned to face the inevitable battle he would rather avoid. Soon she walked the path to exit the plane, than the airport, eager and afraid at the same time to reach the hospital and find out the truth.

The fading light of dusk welcomed Juliet to Chicago in a warm late spring night.