The Ink Well Prompt #63: After the Fire

"It was the frequency of transactions that alerted us," the bank manager's voice was sympathetic. "There were multiple withdrawals throughout the day, and into the night. If we didn't act to freeze your account, there'd be nothing left."

"How much is left?"

The manager must have said something in response, Tonya was sure she did, but she only heard static on the other end.

Slowly, struggling not to gag on the acrid scent of smoke and burnt flesh, she turned her head to look out of the hospital window. She needed to think, but the remnants of the fire that stuck to her interrupted her thoughts.

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The hospital yard was empty at that time of day. The lawn was well manicured in stiff and formal, straight lines that, Tonya thought wryly, shouted to the observer, "This is a place where people come to die."

She wasn't dying of course, not in a physical way. Her body was putting up a pretty tough fight, but her soul was on its last gasp, standing by the graveside, staring down into the hole that would hold it and wailing.

"Hello, ma'am are you still there?"

Tonya's eyes hurt to blink, the lids covered by a thick and hard crust, the lashes singed.

"Yes, of course," she said, forcing her voice past the clumps of coal that blocked her throat. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking for a bit."

She paused, struggled to swallow, and added, "Can I send someone else into the bank so that they can get to what remains?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. The holder of the account must come in."

Tonya struggled to listen to the bank manager across the phone, but the lines were either crossed or blood was filling her ears because she could hardly hear much else. She tried to swallow to clear her head and a trail of liquid fire raced down her throat.

She thought to sit up, maybe she'd hear more clearly if she did, remembered the assortment of painful and angry scars that covered her body- thick, black crust, pink flesh, and pus- and gave up, folding herself in like pastry amongst her pillows. In her condition, there was nothing else she could do.

Propped up on the hospital bed near a window, under a blanket-like layer of sofra tulle, she even hurt every time the breeze blew.

"I need to be able to access my money," she said. "My mom needs to get the remaining funds so that she can get me some of the things I need while I'm here."

"You'd need to come in then," the manager said.

"I can't though. I'm at the hospital. It's been only two days since the fire. I can't discharge myself."

"I'm sorry," the manager said, and Tonya wondered if there were a human on the other end. "You trusted the wrong person with your pin, ma'am. Now that it's frozen, your account would stay closed until you can come. Those are our rules."

Struggling not to be petulant and throw the phone, Tonya put it down to rest alongside her on the bed and turned again to the window, hating her condition, wishing she could reverse the hands of time to the hours before the fight with her boyfriend, before the fire that sent her world up in flames, the flame that pushed her over the edge, separating her soul from her body.

Later that evening he came, a wolf, slinking down the hospital corridors, eyebrows arched, cheeks hollow, lips lifted in a slight smirk, eyes haunted.

"You're here now," she observed, "Because the bank account is frozen and you can't get to my money."

He shrugged. He didn't even pretend penitence.

"This entire situation is stressful for me," he said. "I needed some release."

"But with my money?" she cried. "You'd destroy the both of us? This entire situation started with you using my money to feed your habit, taking drugs. Now, here I am, a burnt and broken shell of myself, and there you are, still using my money and taking drugs."

Lava burnt trails down her cheeks.

He stayed silent, arms folded, head cocked. His smile was condescending.

"I wish you didn't do what you did," she said, exhausted. "This is a fresh humiliation for me."

He sniffed.

"They need to change your gauze," he said.

She paused for a bit and then looked at him sadly.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "We are on different wavelengths, battling different demons. It seems you've made peace and become bed fellows with yours. I can't fight for both of us anymore."

He chuckled.

"No one asked you to fight," he said cruelly, and wrinkled his nose again. "You really should have that gauze changed."

Later that evening, when he left and her mother visited, her mother asked her, "So what will you do? Will you come back home with us when you leave this place?"

Tonya thought of her life in ashes.

Her boyfriend was a drug addict, she a pyromanic. There was a chasm that separated them from the rest of the world.

She looked at her mother, standing stiff and uncomfortable near the foot of her bed, struggling to hold up under the weight of the gossip and the condescension and scorn that she would suffer simply because of their association.

She thought of her boyfriend, moving through the world on the balls of his feet, head held high, smile on his lips, eyes defiant, chuckling.

"No one asked you to fight," she whispered.

"I'm sorry?" her mother frowned and leaned in closer. "I didn't hear you."

"No, Mom" she said, and her voice was hollow. "I'll stay with him."

Hi Guys,

There's a really great prompt over in The Ink Well community. Writers are invited to produce a work of fiction in accordance with the prompt Frequency and to simultaneously avoid Author Intrusion. Please participate, it's challenging and fun. Here's the link with the details.

For me, I didn't even know what author intrusion was. I'd never heard about it before, I'll have to confess, and so I tried to do a bit of research before. I hope I was able to achieve this goal, but I really, really tried. 😅

In writing this piece, I looked at frequency in a number of ways: the multiple bank transactions, the cellular frequency causing static on the phone, and the sense that the protagonist and her boyfriend were on different frequencies, first with each other and then with the rest of the world.

I'd love to see your pieces as well, and will be looking out for those throughout this weekend. Have a great day, everyone!