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[enigma]

I have always been fascinated with things that are out of the ordinary. Perhaps they are more interesting; perhaps they delve so deeply into the mind's recesses that anything seems possible....and then maybe it is human nature to love something that boggles the mind....
In any way, my fascination with all this began at the age of 11, when I was warded in the hospital for an illness. On the third night in the women's ward of the hospital, I witnessed something very strange. It was way past midnight and sleep was hard to come by. I missed my mother and my bed. Moreover, every time I began to drift off to sleep, I was awakened by some patient who was either calling out in pain or needing the nurse for some assistance. There were about ten or eleven patients who shared the same ward with me then. The bed on my right was unoccupied; on the bed beside it lay a frail old lady who had been admitted just the evening before. She was suffering from asthma. She must have been more than 70 years of age, in my opinion.
Anyway, I was trying hard to sleep. I found that difficult as the hospital ward was dimly lit; I needed total darkness to fall asleep. My ears pricked up when they detected a faint hissing sound from a corner of the room. I ignored it, thinking I was most probably imagining it, but when the hissing became more distinct, I opened my eyes and looked at the corner of the room. Something long and black was gliding along the skirting of the wall. I was in a daze. Then it hit me! But it couldn't be a cobra! Where had it come from? The hospital ward was on the fourth floor! Come to think of it, we were in the city! I was frightened out of my wits, yet I could not take my eyes off this reptile. I saw it glide across the floor to where the old lady lay. I must have shut my eyes tight, for the next time I looked, I saw a dark hooded figure bending over the old lady. The snake was nowhere to be seen. I wanted to call out but no sound escaped my throat. I was frozen with fear.....
I awoke to find the nurse making the bed that the old lady had occupied. When I asked her where the old lady was, she replied gently...."She passed away last night."
It was only years afterwards that it dawned on me that the hooded figure could have been the angel of death....I really don't know what to think. What I do know is this...I was fully awake and it was not a figment of my imagination. It still chills me to the bone when I recall this experience, but whatever it was that happened in the wee hours of that morning will most likely be remembered for the rest of my life..
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Carpe diem~

Life is an educational journey....