Two Villains

Ch. 8- Smell of Trouble in London

I dreamed about Como last night. And hated every bit of myself when I woke up from dreaming.

I wish I could express the amount of sadness and dread I felt when I realized I do not need to wake up before 11 am for breakfast. I wanted to cry out like a baby. But the walls of my apartments are so thin that I could hear my neighbors moaning every night. So, screaming for another trip to Como was not going to do any good to me.

It was drizzling outside and at 6 in the morning, I knew that the infamous greyish, London sun was already up. I had an evening shift today at the hospital. So, no rush whatsoever for chores.

I cleaned myself up and had an early breakfast of my sad, sad toast and scrambled eggs with some nuts and fruits. And I unzipped my luggage to unpack everything. When I was putting my clothes in the washer, a folded paper fell from their folds.

My birthday wish card from my stalker. Julia knew who he was, but she hid his identity from me.

I opened it up and brushed my fingers across the lines.

".... May All the Stars shine brighter for you,

May All the Stars wrap their beauty around you...."

Well, he had nice handwriting.

Maybe to Julia, he was a good guy. Determined to get answers, I decided to confront Julia about his identity when she visited London in May. For now, I tucked the card away in one of my suitcases' pockets, keeping it safe.

Later in the day, I made a trip to the local Aldi store for groceries, cooked both lunch and dinner and packed my dinner to take with me to the hospital, where I headed to work on my evening shift. The hospital's distinct smell made me nauseous as I changed into my scrubs, and I explained it away to concerned nurses as a PMS-related discomfort, not wanting to share the real reason for my discomfort.

We had two laparoscopies and three appendicitis surgeries today. I assisted the Professor. Some of my patients were post-operative, I had the check up on them, access their surgical wounds, and re-bandage some of them. We admitted new patients for pancreatitis, hernias, and so on.

My shift was supposed to end at 11 p.m. But I became free from all the rounds and duties at 10. I had my dinner at Doctor's Lounge. My Professor Dr. Scott came to have dinner as well. He knew I was on vacation. He asked me how it went. I didn't tell him much about my staying at Hotel Caelus, but I excitedly told him about my free Business class experiences.

He gazed at me with questions in his eyes.

"You never went to business class before?"

I shook my head; I was grinning ear to ear.

"You know business class does not provide such experience to the customers. Even first-class passengers don't get what you have. You know this, right?" he asked me with doubts in his voice.

Did the thought I was lying to him?

"I am not lying, they wanted me to upgrade to first class, but they apologized profusely! Though they gave me first class amenities kit to use." I added.

"How many times have you flown to British Airways?"

"First time," I replied.

"You asked for an upgrade?"

"No. I was too busy at Como."

Scott was confused as hell. His eyes were clear enough to tell me that he did not believe a word I told him. I sighed. I couldn't do anything if someone didn't want to believe me.