Chapter One

Hope you enjoy, if you have any questions, please let me know.

     The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good
     intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.
     -Albert Camus

     "When we start recording, just tell us everything you can remember. Okay?"
     "I'll...try," she mumbled.
     Officer Mains placed his cigarette in an ash tray as he turned the camera towards her. He cleared his throat and pressed the red 'Record' button in and began to read from his list of questions.
     "Please state your name."
     "Stacy" she breathed.
     "Middle and last too if you please," Mains urged.
     "Oh, sorry-I mean Stacy Lynn Jackson" she said quickly.
     "Its quite alright Ms. Jackson. You were a nurse at the hospital in question?"
     "Yes, I work-or worked I mean, under three other nurses."
     Stacy felt uncomfortably cold, though she wore a purple turtle neck sweater. The walls of the small dark room were of a smooth gray texture. Drywall mabye? She couldn't tell. A single bulb hung from the bare gray ceiling in the middle of the room. She wanted to go home.
     "What floor were you working on during...the night in question?" Officer Mains asked suddenly.
     "...The third floor" Stacy said finally.
     "Did you always work this floor?"
     "No, I was assigned a different floor every week" Stacy replied.
     "Why was that?" Mains asked quickly, seeming suddenly very intrigued.
     Stacy hugged herself almost shakingly. She felt even colder than she had earlier and half imagined that she felt a chilling breeze.
     "They didn't want us to grow close to the patients" she said finally.
     "Excuse me if I'm wrong, but isn't it part of the healing process to give your patients hope of recovering-to raise their spirits as it were?"
     Mains had leaned forward to meet her gaze evenly.
     "Yes...I suppose so but it just wasn't wise to grow to attatched" Stacy dropped her gaze to the table.
     "I believe if I was dying, hope would be something I strongly needed...don't you?"
     Stacy returned her gaze to him as he lit another cigarette casually. The fresh smell of cigarette smoke hit her unevenly in the face.
     "It wasn't my decision...I was doing as I was told. I tried to raise the spirits of every patient I came in contact with. I'm not the one on trial here. I escaped from that aweful night, that is all!" Stacy screamed defensively.
     Mains blew smoke out through his nose and watched the light bulb as if it was performing a spectacular feat by just hanging there.
     "I'm sorry I'm just very upset, I mean this did happen only two days ago," Stacy said through tears.
     "It's quite understandble" Mains said comfortingly as he leaned forward again.
     Mains seemed to mean every word he spoke to her. She watched him through her tears as he calmly waited for her to recollect herself. Stacy couldn't help but notice how his hair fell perfectly into place. She cleared her mind and tried to move on.
     "The patients were at that hospital because every other doctor had classified them as being uncurable. Only the worst cases were sent to Still Caverns because it was unanimously agreed that the patients needed somewhere 'comfortable' to..." she broke off feeling she didn't need to say anymore.
     "I understand" Mains said quietly as if he understood her feeling of not continueing any further as well. His tie fell slightly to the right as he tapped the ashes from his cigarette.
     Stacy found herself staring at the cuff links of his jacket. The light cast by the single bulb seemed to make them glow from where the sleeves fell as the jacket hung on the chair. The brightness of that glow brought a sudden rush of memories of lying on her back in the fields of Still Caverns, watching the stars and dreaming of what might become of her life while Jimmy Mains lay next to her watching with her, with thoughts of his own. At that time she had only one care in the world; that she would always be happy.
     It was hard to imagine that she had grown from that small little girl with long golden locks of hair tumbling to her shoulders and eyes of sparkling blue to the woman she was today; broken from recent events though still able to deal with the everyday tasks of life. When she was a little girl she had her Daddy to fix all of her problems, anything that troubled her-he was there. What had happened to mold her into a woman capable of taking care of herself in the affairs of life? Her Momma. Her mother had always shown her how to be a 'proper lady'-thats what her mother had called it. She recalled going to church in her best dresses, her Momma dressed in the best she could afford-which wasn't very much, but they lived happily anyway.
     "You don't need money to be happy," her parents had told her, "happiness comes from God and people he places around you to interact with, not material possesions."
     Stacy thought she understood that now, she hadn't then but definately now. Now she was on her own and realized that (in agreement with her father) money does not grow on trees. That thought brought a smile to her heart.
     "Stacy?
     Jimmy's sudden question brought her out of her recent state of mind and back into reality.
     "Y-Yes? she stammered.
     "...How did you get out of the hospital when the fire started?"

Author's Note

My first short story. I hope you enjoy it.