Strangers in the Room: Alice's Story and Abu's Story (694 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.95 on 16 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Axolotl (View user info) at 2005-09-23 13:06:26 EDT
http://www.ubersite.com/m/75578 - Intro
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"I'm going to go insane," Adrian muttered. "I'm losing my mind."
"Shut up," came the monotonous voice of the businessman.
Adrian looked around feverishly, eyes exploring every facet of the tiny room. But there was nothing to explore; the room was perfectly cubical, white and flat on all sides, with a barely visible door on one of the walls. The seven stuffy feet of space between walls fit three people, each across from another person on the opposite side.
Hours passed, perhaps days or weeks. Time had no meaning in this forgotten corner of the universe. They had been put there to forget and to be forgotten, like a prisoner in an oubliette hundreds of years earlier. Adrian's mind had spun when the gravity of the situation crashed down on him, but his mind was gradually numbing into catatonia.
"Don't any of you want to talk?" Adrian burst out when the eternal silence grew too much. "I can't stand it here! Anyone, say something!"
There was no response. The five others continued staring blankly into nowhere.
"Who got here first? Who was the first one here?" Adrian pressed on, refusing to be defeated.
"I did," said the red cross nurse.
"Say something, anything!" Adrian begged. "Why did you get here?"
Lashawn, the young black male, craned his head inquisitively. The foreigner and the priest took their heads up from their hands.
The nurse sighed, and said, "On earth I was Alice Stevenson, Red Cross. I died at the age of thirty-one."
"Tell us," whispered Callister.
Alice breathed out deeply. She had a slight southern accent, but was not a pretty person in general.
"All right...I'll tell you."
ALICE'S STORY
"Why did I join the Red Cross? Well, my daddy's life was saved by a Red Cross nurse after he got in an accident in Atlanta, and I was always interested in medicine, so I got in to nursing after college."
"I didn't do much for a while. I rose up to be a head nurse of my region, and the actual physical work passed on to the people below me. I was paid well enough, and knew I was doing good for the world, being a nurse."
"I was a good Christian, too! Lord, I went to church every Sunday, believed that Jesus would one day take me to heaven, voted straight Republican...but I did something very bad, something..."
Alice gave a slight sob; the room jumped. Adrian guessed that they did not show much emotion down in the White Room.
"I fell in love with a man from New York City who was studying in the south. The trouble was, this other girl also fell in love. His name was something like McAlley, Caulway, Caulfield, Caulainc...I don't know. I just don't know. I dated him, and so did she. The relationship was on and off and on again. We scared him a little, both of us competing so hard for attention."
"And I lost...he got married to that little slut right before Christmas 2002. Some cheap Vegas wedding, some alcohol-drenched sinful mess. And my Christmas present to him was...I had bought him a ring! A fucking wedding ring! Christmas Eve I was going to propose to him, to try to make him see that I was right for him, not her, not that little, that..."
"She was younger than me, but so what? She was twenty-five, I was twenty-seven. And we still had to work together, didn't we? We worked together, but I was her boss! How I got back at her, forcing her to clean up excrement and drunken vomit off all the floors of the people who came in, to do all the dirty work."
"Something I had never foreseen took place. The war began, and they sent me to Iraq, to Baghdad. They sent me, and her, that witch who took my love."
"There was a rumor that the insurgents were active in a certain area, down in al-Sadr. This one street was all Iraqi fighters. Well, I heard this rumor, and went straight up to her. I went up to that demon, that seducer, the newly-wed Mrs. McCalley or whatever...I gave her orders to go to that street in al-Sadr. I told her that an American had accidentally shot himself in the foot, that there was no danger of insurgents, just an accident that needed cleaning up. She departed quick..."
"They found her body several hours later, killed and shot dead. I was one of the first on the scene, I saw her bullet-riddled body up against a wall...I couldn't hide my glee."
"But they knew. Marguerite always knew. She was the one who told me that the insurgents were active in al-Sadr. Why would a nurse go alone into such an area? Marguerite knew what I had done, but didn't dare accuse me."
"The next day I went to church, and the reading was about how David sent Uriel into the fore of the battle to die, so that he could steal his wife. I almost had a heart attack right there, I had to leave the church...God knew what I had done, and he was mad. It had to be a sign, a sign that I was doomed."
"I lived for four months after that. Then I got into the wrong part of town, and we got ambushed. My passenger seat that I was sitting in took a direct RPG hit. I died, and went here. In my heart I knew I was damned for what I had did, but I'm not sorry. I'll never be sorry, just maybe a little sad that I came here. It's not that bad, just very lonely and quiet. I'll bet she's in a worse place though, burning in the lake of fire. That is what I have done, and I have no regrets."
The room fell silent. The businessman and the foreigner's mouths were hanging open in shock.
"Good god..." the businessman said. "Was...was her name Callister?"
"Yes...?" Alice vacantly replied.
"My wife!" the businessman moaned, clutching his heart that had not beat since he had been alive. "I'm Callister! I'm John Callister, the husband! You...you murdered her, Alice! I know you, you've changed, but I remember you!"
The priest, Adrian, and Lashawn gasped and shot up in their seats. Alice looked frightened and her fingers shook.
"Not...not Mary Callister..." she muttered.
"My wife..." Callister sobbed, burying his face. "You killer...liar! We never dated, we barely even met! Liar, killer! Inflating your bloated worthless body...you killed her...you..."
"This can't be..." Alice said in not more than a whisper over Callister's anguish. "Why are we together?"
"I hate to say it..." breathed the foreigner. "But I remember doing it."
"Doing what? Doing what?" asked John Callister frantically.
ABU'S STORY
The foreigner took in a deep breath and said, "I did it. I killed her. Not indirectly like Mrs. Stevenson. I remember how strange it was, an American woman walking right into our base, looking around like she knew where she was going. We tried to capture her, she said no and started running. So she would not give away our exact position, we shot her down on the street. Maybe not within the lines of the Geneva Treaty, but America's invasion of my country was not exactly a legal war either."
"You can't be serious," Alice stuttered.
"I am perfectly serious," the foreigner said. "Abu al-Zahiri, loyal Iraqi. Loyal to my country, not to Sadaam, not to America. I am no killer of women, but I was forced to kill your wife, and your enemy. I apologize most sincerely."
Callister leaned against the back of his chair and wiped his face.
"Maybe we're here because we're all connected together," Lashawn said. "Maybe all the rest of us are connected to you."
"I must have fought you sometime, I was in East Baghdad too," Adrian said.
"I did not fight you long," Abu replied. "I was killed in spring 2004, in the same city of my birth, by the American soldiers. I took up arms as soon as the 3rd American division crossed our borders, and fought with the blessed at Baghdad Airport. All throughout the summer of 2003 my comrades and I fought and died for Iraq. We were happy that Sadaam was gone, but we did not want America either."
"Maybe that was my sin. I was no follower of Osama bin Laden, but you could say I practiced terror in any case. I killed many. More than twenty of my own countrymen have died by my hand and rifle, and one American soldier. I was awarded great praise and jubilance when I killed him...I apologize to Adrian, as that may have been one of his friends. And then I killed others, too...the Red Cross nurse, your wife."
"I fought well and with the blessings of my people against the Americans, but on the fourth day of April, 2004, I joined Muqtada al-Sadr's Imam al-Mahdi army in the great attack against the municipal hall of al-Sadr."
"At five in the afternoon we assaulted the central municipal building, as well as two nearby police stations. We seized the building, but the Americans arrived soon after with tanks, Apache helicopters, and the OH-58 Kiowas within four hours. We prepared for a fight."
"It took three hours of fierce fighting, us shooting out from the municipal building and the Americans firing tank rounds, mortars, and SAW fire back in, but eventually, the battle ended just as we knew in our hearts it would. The Americans wrested control of the building from us around midnight; shortly before that, I was killed by an American bullet, having been one of the last and most loyal defenders."
"And then I came here. The priest has informed us recently that we are in purgatory, but Islam has no word for such a place. I can only assume we are in hell, atoning for sins we have done. Perhaps it was wrong to fight America, perhaps it was some other offense I committed against Allah. It could have been my wanton killing of the nurse, Mr. Callister's wife. But whatever it was, I am here, I have no regrets, and I predict I shall stay here for eternity, whatever the matter be."
Al-Zahiri fell silent. Adrian's mind span as the others took in what the man had said.
"Al-Sadr municipal building..." Adrian said to himself. "I fought there. I was one of those who stormed the building to clear out the insurgents."
"We all seem to be connected in some way," al-Zahiri said quietly. "Perhaps it was you who killed me. I would not be surprised."
"It has to be," Callister said. "Why else would all six of us be in here? Maybe we get to leave if we find out what we're all doing here together! Alice betrayed my wife, al-Zahiri killed her, and Adrian killed al-Zahiri..."
"We're all connected..." Alice murmured.
"If just to pass the time, we should tell our life story, and what we did wrong in life," Lashawn proposed. The priest shook his head.
"We should not revel in our sins," said the priest. "And I know I have had many."
"Lashawn," Adrian said. "What did you do to get here?"
User Reviews
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-25 21:00:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very cool. I like the detail that the research you did brings. I like the Iraqi's attitude, and the obvious mental flaws of Alice.
This is very interesting. There's room for seven people in this room you say? So, they were just waiting for Adrian...hmmm.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-09-24 19:02:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
To theroo:
I thought for a second your name was Thorpe.
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-09-24 13:26:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Gorgeous.
Submitted by theroo (user info) at 2005-09-24 08:34:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is really good.. the intro promised lots, and this really brought home the bacon.
Keep it up - I'm looking forward to the next installment :)
Submitted by Anti-Manifesto (user info) at 2005-09-23 22:42:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
If this story ends as good as it began, fuck dude..
i dont' wanna jump the gun, but i think youre my new fav author...
well, we'll have to see how that four coners story ends by Jack McCallum...
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-09-23 16:03:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah, about the nurse thing, I was originally thinking of a commander whose subordinate steals his wife, so the commander sends him into a dangerous zone, but that would be a little too "Ten Little Indians."
That battle actually happened at al-Sadr, too. April 4, 2004.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/sadr-city-imagery.htm
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-09-23 15:58:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There's going to be another telling of the life and sins of Lashawn Jones, John Callister, and the priest, and a final one with Adrian's story and the ending.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-09-23 15:53:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You are such a badass. This was incredible.
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2005-09-23 14:40:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent.
Submitted by Mike00295 (user info) at 2005-09-23 14:32:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-23 13:53:31 (#)
Ranking: 2
Intriguing...
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2005-09-23 14:07:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
but a two is just a bit too high.
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2005-09-23 14:07:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
excellent excellent idea having them all connected. however, red cross nurses aren't deployed unwillingly anywhere and to the best of my personal experience, they don't go off by themselves anywhere...still a great story. a one is too low...
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-09-23 14:03:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
cool....
Submitted by pantsarestupid (user info) at 2005-09-23 13:57:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I love these. How many more are there?
You're very creative.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-23 13:53:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Intriguing...
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-09-23 13:07:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I tried to upload a "Random pictures on my computer" post, but it wouldn't work. Ah well, I'll try it a bit later. Maybe the file's too big.