Hypertension

I helped her carry a heavy bag to the bus station in Irkutsk. I saw how she stopped several times on the way to catch her breath. We talked while waiting for our buses out of town. She was not young, but not beaten down either. Her talk raced along with salty jokes.

«They brought me to the hospital because of high blood pressure. To the city from the village. I`d never been in a hospital before, to hell with them. I was lying on a stretcher, all squeezed up from the terrible pain in my head, and from fear. I`ve had high blood pressure since the war, but I still held everything together. Children, my cows, and work in the fields don`t leave time for lying down. You get up early in the morning, fire up the stove, feed the cows, and lie down till daybreak. Rarely did I need to leave the village, except to buy something in Irkutsk… I didn`t want to go to the hospital, but my head ached so unbearably that there were white circles before my eyes.»

«From the stretcher they threw me onto the bed. Alongside me lay two women. They were talking to each other; complain that the staff rarely stopped in to see them. And turning to me: «Just half an hour before you appeared, a woman died in the very same bed you`re lying in.` I almost fainted, but dared not protest, although the nurse came in with a syringe – to give me an injection. Some kind of medicine went right into my veins, like fire racing through my body. I hunched up. I lay like this, my hands and legs ice-cold.»

«Later that night they brought in another patient. They say that she took poison; her man had thrown her out with the children. And I got impatient with so little to do. While I was taking a walk to the bathroom, the attempted suicide died. She laid there, the sheet covering her, one foot sticking out. I myself couldn`t get all of me under the blanket. My neighbors were sleeping like nothing happened. The window-vent was swinging here and there, here and there, suddenly banging. I saw the dead woman stir under the sheet. I cried out. A young nurse ran in: «What`s the matter?»

«Well, I say, `your suicide is moving.»

«The dead can`t stir like that, `she answers, closing the window-vent. `It`s the wind. Calm down, the sanitary brigade is coming for her.` And she left. And I became completely sick there. Ran out their hospital. Better to die in my village than to quiver in their white wards.»


My companion`s bus came. I put her heavy bag on the step and helped her get on. Her calico kerchief slipped from the back of her head, revealing her gray hair. With her gnarled hand she pulled me to her:«Be healthy, little daughter.» I waved after her and stood waiting for my bus.