HIGHFALL (novel based on a true life story - EPISODE 3)

Did you miss Episode 2 of Highfall? If so click here to catch up. 

Are you new to HIghfall? If so click here to start from the beginning.

 Here we go...

 The smile was still there when Annika woke up. She felt happy simply knowing that Stefan existed, and that was something completely new. Thinking about some guy first thing in the morning was something she’d never ever done before. Standing under the shower, Annika recalled each and every detail of the previous day and lived it all over again. She was charged with positive energy and in a radiant mood.  

Fresh and happy, she ran down the stairs and went out. She had to be at the university in an hour. Unlike yesterday, it was a perfect sunny day.  

The first thing she saw was the black car.  

Stefan had been waiting for her the whole night. After Annika had left he had just sat there and thought about her. However foolish it might sound, the idea that she was close by had made him feel very comfortable. So he had just stayed there, trying to imagine how Annika was sleeping, what her room looked like and what she was thinking. He even had a crazy question turning round in his head, “Is she dreaming about me tonight?” As he saw her coming out, he stopped breathing for a second. A reaction both unexpected and very predictable at the same time.  

Annika ran over to the car and kissed Stefan through the open window. She felt just as if her life had always been like that - with him in it.  

They spent a whole hour drinking coffee and having breakfast, talking of nothing and everything at the same time. After that he took her to the university.  

Annika studied medicine for the first half of the day and was an intern at the hospital for the whole afternoon. She worked with patients with different kinds of burns. The odour of burnt skin was the most terrible stench Annika had ever smelled. She took long showers trying to wash away the smell and forget the pain and despair of her patients.  

Neither of Annika's parents was a doctor. Nor had being a doctor been her childhood dream either. She had never wanted to become one... until she was ten years old. That was when her friend Mike got sick and went to hospital, diagnosed with a scary illness called leukemia. She regularly visited him there and they would play together. One day Mike asked her to promise that when she grew up, she’d learn how to cure people like him. She promised. Mike died three days later holding Annika's hand and she felt that she just had to keep her promise.  

Annika studied and worked hard. Helping her patients she felt as if she were helping Mike. She truly believed he watched over her and smiled every time she succeeded. Leukemia, unfortunately, was not something she could cure and children still die from it every day.  

Needless to say, the black car was waiting for her in front of the hospital when she finished. She walked over to it as if she had been doing it for ages.  

To be continued...

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