Toubib Or Not To Be

Why would anyone inhale smoke willingly? Her mom always asked her that, her scolding mellowing down to a few quips here and there. She took a breath through the cigarette she had nursed for a few minutes, because the break was ending, and the people were screaming, and the night was long. She stubbed the end on the short wall, dusted her slightly itchy scrubs, and walked in. The moment the door opens, the voices grow louder and more agitated. The cries and wails and laughs, the threats and begs and desperate last resort attempts at bribing. It was overwhelming, but she dealt with it.   Her mom always asked her why she took such long shifts, because her mom didn’t know how hospitals work. She thought it possible to just walk up to a senior, tell them that you'd rather spend the night at home sleeping, and they would immediately give you what you want. Her mom insisted that her lifestyle would never land her a husband. As if that figured anywhere on the list of her priorities. She wa...

She had to admit that there was a beauty to the still body held in her arms. The soft fur losing the warmth that was embedded in it, one of life’s last desperate attempts to cling to its skin. The deer’s eyes were wide open, slightly watery at the edges, as if they were stuck right at the moment when tears were formed. It was still too early for the coldness to settle. For the numbness to reach deep into the bones and turn the flesh rotten.  She will always be afraid of herself before taking the first bite, her fingers clutching the stomach of a creature whose only mistake was existing at the exact time and place of the hunt. Hunger rumbled in her stomach, reminding her of the reason she came here, guided by nothing but a dull moonlight, small feet scrunching on the forest floor. She unwrapped the knife Sophie gave her, tucked the handkerchief into her dress’s collar, and got to work. The blade ran smoothly along the skin, uncovering the pungent smell of blood and entrails. She f...