The air was thick with dust.
Janet licked her chapped lips. It had been several hours since the ceiling collapsed. She had turned off
her cellphone to save its battery. She only turned it on to check the time occasionally.
Last she checked, it was already eight o’clock in the evening. She and Ethan had arrived at the cinema
at around two o’clock. Six hours had passed.
Her stomach kept grumbling, reminding her of how hungry she was. She was used to having meals on
time, so naturally, she was quite hungry by now. The popcorn Ethan had bought was now mixed with
dust and pieces of the ceiling. She picked out the clean popcorn and ate it to calm her angry stomach.
The coke had also spilled. The brown liquid was all over the floor.
“There’s a bit left!”. Janet’s eyes lit up. She was lucky.
There was a bit of coke left in the cup.
Using the light from her phone, she crawled back to Ethan.
There was a huge slab of slate on Ethan’s body. One side of the slab had pierced into his body. Blood
trickled down along his body, forming a pool of blood on the ground. His wound was covered with dust
and rubble. The space under the seat was too narrow, so Janet couldn’t reach him. She wanted to
check his wound, but she couldn’t see it clearly.
Fearing that Ethan would lose too much blood, Janet held his jaw and tried to pour the coke into his
mouth. Ethan was unconscious. The coke she poured simply spilled out from the corner of his mouth.
“Honey, can you hear me? If you can, please drink…” Janet was choked with sobs. Tears rolled down
her cheeks uncontrollably.
Ethan’s wound was still bleeding, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Ethan seemed to hear
what Janet said. He frowned and struggled to peel his eyes open. He raised his hand slowly, wiped
away Janet’s tears, and said with difficulty, “Don’t cry.”
When Janet saw that his eyes were open, she immediately pressed the cup of coke to his lips.
“I don’t know when the rescue team will come Honey, just hold on, okay?” A faint smile tugged at the
corners of Ethan’s lips. Only then did Janet notice how pale his lips were. She couldn’t tell if he had
heard what she said just now. Soon, he closed his eyes again.
Janet sniffed, stroked Ethan’s eyebrows, and wiped the dust off his face. Time passed. Janet didn’t
know when, but she had fallen asleep. She woke up to the sound of digging around her. She glanced at
her phone. It was already early morning of the next day.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out in the darkness. Janet had to shield her eyes from the strong light.
“Miss, are you okay?” A rescuer asked warmly, reaching out his hand towards her with a flashlight.
“Please save my husband first. He’s trapped down here.” Tears welled up in her eyes. She refused to
let them save her first. The rescue team obliged. Several men lifted the huge slab of slate off of Ethan’s
body.
Only then did she see a deep gash on Ethan’s back. It looked really bad. His torn clothes exposed the
scar caused by the fire, and now the new wound marred his skin. Covering her mouth, Janet looked
away, a lump forming in her throat.
His old wound healed not long ago, and now there would probably be a new scar. Thinking of this,
Janet couldn’t hold back her tears anymore.
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