Nashira was in a pleasant mood today. She won another case today and decided to treat herself today for a job well done. She bought a large slice of chocolate cake and took the scenic route back home. It was a bit longer but it allowed her to relax a bit before reaching home. As she drove along the road her thoughts started to drift a bit to things that she would need to get done before the next day. As if by intuition something suddenly made her alert again and she immediately swerved her car and mashed the brakes.
“The hell…”
Looking out the car door window, Nashira saw a lump of cloth lying in the middle of the road. She was pretty sure that was not there before. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and looked out the window again. Still there.
“Oi!” she called out to the lump.
No response.
“Oi, are you dead?”
Well obviously, they would not respond if they were dead, she thought to herself. I can try to drive around and let someone else deal with it. Shame on you Nashira what would your mother say?
Should I go out? I have read enough thrillers to know how this will end. I could end up dead in a ditch somewhere and my car sold for parts.
She let out a deep sigh. She was overreacting. She really was not but she was trying to convince herself that she was in order to leave the comfort of her car.
Fine.
She stepped out of the car to check on the lump in the middle of the road. Walking closer she leaned over the body to see what it was exactly. It was a young male, basically a child still. She shoves him lightly with her heels.
“Oi! You alive?”
She let out a yelp when the young man let out a groan.
“The road is not the best place to take a nap you know.”
She shakes him to try and wake him up. More groaning.
“Water.”
“What was that?”
“Water please.”
“Oh! Wait here I have a bottle in my car.”
She just realized what she told the boy. Where exactly is he going to go? He’s lying half-dead in the road she thought as she rushed back to her car to grab the bottle of water. Hurrying back to the young boy, she propped him up with her body and poured some of the water into his open mouth. She watched as he almost finished the entire bottle.
“I think you need to go to the hospital,” she told the young man.
“No! No! They will find me!” he shouted at her.
She immediately became worried and looked around. She knew she should have stayed in the car.
“Who is going to find you?” Nashira asked.
“The Dark Lord! He will kill us all!”
And he lost her at this point. She finally took notice of his clothing and paired with the glazed look on his face she decided he had one too many to drink. Or maybe it was drugs. She knew nothing about what the young people were doing anymore and finally understood why her mother was always warning her away from those things. She wondered if it was too late to leave him here still and go on her way. She was sure someone else would find him.
However, would it bother her conscience if there was a report of a dead body the next day? She tried to convince herself that it would not. She took a deep breath.
Could you ignore your conscious if there was a report the next day if they found someone dead on this street?
“Ok. No hospital. But I cannot just leave you in the middle of the road. Can you walk?”
“I need more water please.”
“I will let you have more water in the car but I need you to move,” she tried to negotiate with the man.
“Car? What is that? Are you tricking me?! Are you one of his followers?! Unhand me this instant!”
He struggled against her hold, shoving her down and crawled away.
“I won’t allow you to kill me!”
Nashira was not impressed by the speed of his escape.
“You are an absolute idiot,” she said, as she stood brushing off her clothing, “you will get in the car and I am driving you to the hospital!”
She went towards him and grabbed him under his arms to drag him towards the car.
“Unhand me this instant! I will not return to the Dark Lord!”
“You need to lay off whatever it is you took. Fuck!” she exclaimed as she struggled with the young man.
The man flopped onto the ground and shuffled as if trying to find something among his many layers of clothes.
“Hah!” the man said as he brandished a twig at Nashira.
“The hell… is that a stick? What are you going to do? Poke me in the eye?”
She moved quickly towards the man, grabbed the stick and flung it towards the side of the road
“No! My wand! Get it back this instant!”
“It is just a stick, calm yourself, you can get another one at the hospital.”
“What! I said no hospital woman! And I need more water!”
If looks could kill, the one she gave the man for ordering her around would have landed him 6ft under. This is what she gets for helping people. All she wanted was to do a good deed for the day. Help the man, drop him in the hospital and go about her way. But apparently, the world is conspiring against her as she is stuck with helping the ungrateful bastard. She stared at him.
“You want more water?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Well listen carefully about what is going to happen, you are going to get in the car and we are going to drive to the nearest store, I’ll get you the largest bottle of water I can and then I am going to drop you at the hospital,” the man opened his mouth, “no, no, no to whatever you were about to say. You either do it my way or I leave you here until someone else finds you. Do you understand?”
The male opened his mouth to speak.
“Ah, ah, ah, just nod or shake your head if you understand.”
A nod.
“Good. Now can you walk?”
The man looked down at his legs and then looked back up at Nashira and shook his head.
“Hmmm. Now I am about to help you up and drag you to the car. Is that okay?”
A nod.
She walked towards him and hooked her hands around and proceeded to drag him towards the car.
“I need my wand,” the young man said.
“What? Your little stick?” Nashira was honestly fed up with the entire situation, “I’ll get you another at the hospital.”
“No! I need my wand, I cannot and will not leave my wand behind!”
“Oof!” she got hit in the stomach as the man struggled against her. “Stop that! I am trying to help you, you ungrateful bastard!”
“I will not you wench! And my parents were married!”
“Who are you calling a wench!” she dropped him.
She felt like stomping him but controlled herself. Seeing that he had no use of his legs, she grabbed them and proceeded to drag him to her car.
“No! Unhand me, you vile woman!”
“You are not worth the good karma I could get from helping you!”
Nashira did not want to imagine how this entire situation would look if someone was passing by. A grown woman trying to drag a young man into a car in the middle of nowhere. She prayed no one passed by. After a few more minutes of struggling, they reached her car. She felt as she had just run a marathon when in fact it was barely a few meters. She looked at the panting man on the floor
“Get in the car,” she demanded.
“No, I will not move another inch until I get my wand.”
She stared at him for a few more seconds, “Fine.”
She walked towards the side of the road where she thought she flung the stick and stared. She was in trouble, there were many pieces lying around from the trees around the area. Eventually, she picked up a random piece and walked back to the man
“Here,” she said as she handed the man the stick
He took it and flung it away.
“Are you daft, do you not know what a wand is? What are you? A squib?”
Nashira pursed her lips and looked towards the sky. She was trying to figure out exactly what she did to deserve this. Of all the things she has been called, a squid was not one. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, reopened them and walked back towards the area and picked up another random piece.
“Is this one better?”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
“You look more and more like a dead man to me,” was her response.
“That, you imbecile, is a piece of stick, I need my wand!”
“Fine.”
She walked back to the area and picked up another random piece of stick. She turned around and stared at the man leaning against her car.
Dents in her car be damned.
She lobbed it at the man. Quickly as she could she grabbed another piece and threw it at him. She continued flinging each piece she could get her hands on, at him.
“Stop that! Stop that this instant!”
“You ungrateful, arrogant, crazy man-child! All I was trying to do was to help you and this is the thanks I get! All for a stick!”
“That is quite enough! Oh, I got it!”
She paused in her throwing to stare at the man. Frustrated at the happy expression on his face she threw a few more pieces for good measure.
“Now that you have your stupid stick, will you please get in the damn car!”
The man looked at the car behind him and sneered.
“I am unable to use such a… contraption.”
“I hate you.”