Anda and Eleni

Anda had been helping out for days. She didn't really know how long she had been there at the hospital, she had lost track of time. She hadn't had much sleep really, but that was to be expected during an emergancy like this one had been. But now the amount of new injured ones had died down, there wasn't as much emergency work that was needed, and Anda did have more time to sleep, but everytime she tried to relax, she began to agitated, and would have to get out of her makeshift bed, to go round and make sure that the patients were alright, and didn't need anything.

Usually, most of them were asleep, but there was always at least one who couldn't sleep, due to bad memories, depression, or nightmares. Anda enjoyed to be with these patients, it was better then being on her own, and one who she particuarly liked to be with was Eleni.

Eleni never spoke much, but usually Anda would just tell her various stories about her life, her friends, and her family. She would try to stick to happy, upbuilding, or funny stories. Eleni had already been through more than enough doom and destruction for a lifetime.

It was the same again for Anda tonight. Unable to sleep, she wondered around the hospital, ending by going to check on Eleni. As usual, Eleni was just lying in her bed, and staring out of her window. She turned to look, as she heard Anda come into the room, and then turned back to look outside.

Anda pulled up a chair, next to the bed, as she always did, facing the window, the same as Eleni, and sat down.

"Hey Eleni. How are you tonight?" Anda asked smiling. Eleni didn't answer, but then, Anda didn't expect her to. "Can't sleep huh? Me neither. I'm not sure I can think of anymore stories I can tell you... Oh wait!! I know! There was this one time--"

"How did you have such a happy life?" Eleni suddenly interupted, still staring out of the window.

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"You never seem to have any problems.... Everything in your life has been so happy and good...." A tear rolled down Eleni's face, unseen by Anda, "You can't possibly know what it feels like to loose everything you ever had. To have the life you knew and loved suddenly and cruelly ripped away from you!" More tears came pouring out of her eyes.

"Hey! Don't cry!" Anda jumped out of her chair, and sat on the bed, next to Eleni, and stroked her hair, "My life hasn't been all good and happy!! I just didn't think you wanted to hear any bad stuff after all you've been through!" She craddled Eleni's head in her arms. "I've had planty of bad times in my life. I thought my first husband really and truly loved me. He would do anything for me... But he wasn't who I thought he was... He cheated on me, and it turned my whole world upsidedown..." A tear rolled down her check as the memories came flooding back, and she turned to look out the window, at the stars in the sky, "I know its not half as bad as what you've been through, but it still hurt, and I lost everything that I had. Thats why I moved to where I live now. I wanted a new life, away from him!" The tears rolled freely down her checks now aswell, and she dropped her head onto her chest.

They stayed like that all night, Anda telling Eleni about everything bad that happened to her in her life, and as the morning light came into the room, she had finally run out of things to say. Eleni had fallen asleep, and Anda had run out of tears. She didn't know how it had helped Eleni, but she seemed to have calmed down while Anda had been talking. She smiled happily, and her head fell onto her shoulder, as she too fell asleep.