Page 5

I was scared. Fear is, after all, the first emotion taught to any living thing.

I did not have to keep on guessing for long, however, as through the corner of my struggling eye, I was able to appreciate him somewhat. I uttered something in response to being so scared, though I was unable to understand it myself at the time. Then I felt a pair of trembling fingers gently caressing my face and my eyelids. Those wrinkled hands then proceeded to go all over my naked body: checking, poking, searching.

Examining.

My eyes could not do much else but wander aimlessly while that was all taking place; trying to divert my attention of what could be going on. I then noticed some luteous markings on some of those darkened walls �" although I was unable to read them, they still held some interest over me, if only momentarily. My eyes decided then to continue their penurious tour only to be halted again by one of those beds. Someone was twitching under a few heavy white blankets, someone even smaller than me I would say, twitching and complaining, and right before my mouth could exclaim a word, my face was turned away from it.

A warm and trembling hand was now making me stare at an even older face: one whose wrinkles easily drew an expression of worry. I started to hear his voice, hoarse, masculine, and old; completely the opposite of what mine had previously sounded like. I could tell he was urgently trying to tell me something but his words, just like my very own, were no more than indistinguishable sounds to me. Gently his trembling fingers began rubbing around my eyes as if he knew they were hurting, and sure enough after a while, any remaining blurriness still holding onto the corners of my sight was gone. Immediately after, and as fast as he could, he began removing all the restraints tying me to that bed, and after that was done, he helped me to sit.

He had a big smile on his face as if he were so proud of me, and although I could not understand the sounds coming from between his lips, his eyes could easily tell me as much. More than once I signalled him that I could not understand him, but no matter how many times I would nod my head he still would not stop.

His mouth kept moving as if my ears could make all sense out of them. He tried and tried and tried until he made me smile for the first time, shyly at first but eventually he even managed to steal my first giggle. He smiled back. I will never forget my first pleasant exchange with another, nor will I forget that loud sound that came to interrupt it.

A big shriek, the sound of metal being dragged across more metal; it interrupted us and made him look away from me. That older face turned away from me so fast, towards that door opening, and the younger man that

proceeded to walk through it. They began to hastily exchange sounds between them and the more they did, incredibly, the easier it became for me to understand what they were saying.