So far so good

Well the week has been pretty much ok so far. I have been reasonably productive and have kept myself pretty busy. I finished and posted the first piece of work for my course and that is quite a large hurdle to get over. It is largely an online experience and written work is posted for everyone else to read and of course comment on, so it is a bit like taking one's clothes off in public. The brief was fairly open but had to be in the first person and limited to 500 words. That is in itself daunting. 500 words sounds like a lot until you try to tell a story. However i bit the bullet an posted mine yesterday and feedback has begun. Unsurprisingly, people are being very kind, and no mud is in evidence yet. It will only take one to start it though, unless of course everyone is going to be very civilised. I rather hope that will be the case. Interesting that so far no tutor comments have been forthcoming. It's like setting homework to a class and then getting the class to mark it!!!

Anyhow i thought you might like to read my first effort. maybe I'll post my stuff here too so that I have a record of what i do.
(Actually I exceeded the 500 words)

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The pain was intense, and seemed to have no distinct origin. Waves of agony swept through my body, intermingled with the dream. Lucid images of a girl and a bar kept flashing before me like a high speed slide show, each image erased by a new wave of pain.

I forced my eyes open, needing to escape from the dream but the pain remained, enhanced by reality. I tried to move but my body refused to respond to instructions. I could see nothing, the blackness was complete as was the silence. I was lying down, on a hard surface and held down by a blanket of coarse material.

I tried to make sense of what was happening, images came and went but nothing made sense. What the hell was happening to me? I told myself that this was a dream, even that the pain was just a dream. I recalled that I had gone out drinking, and as usual I had drifted from one bar to another. I had met a girl, that was no dream, ok I was drunk, but not that drunk, I must have groaned aloud.

I tried to bypass the pain, focussing on the memories that flashed rapidly through my mind, and gradually something began to make sense. There had been a girl, and we had gone back to her place; they all look beautiful at that stage of the evening. She plied me with more drink and that is all that I could remember.

Fresh waves of sheer agony swept through me and I guess that I blacked out. When I came to, there was a grey light filtering into the room through ragged curtains. I could see that the room was unfurnished and that I lay on my back on bare floorboards covered by a blanket. I could turn my head and move my hands but an attempt to make any other move led to excruciating pain.

The silence was broken by the muffled sound of a cell phone. It took me some while to realise that the source lay beneath the thin pillow, and with difficulty I reached for it, pressed a button and held it to my ear.

“Glad you are awake at last.” Said a strangely familiar female voice.

“Don’t try to move and just listen to me. To save you asking, your location is unimportant right now. I am just a girl you met and will probably never remember.”
I tried to fix her face in my mind but I couldn’t.

“I am calling to tell you that you need to get to hospital pretty quickly.”

“But why…..” I began, but she cut me off quickly.

“No questions. There is a number pre-programmed in the phone. Call the hospital and someone will come to get you.”

She gave me the address, I didn’t recognise the street name. I sensed that she hadn’t finished and waited for her to speak again.

There was a long pause then……….

“You are probably wondering about the pain. “ another long pause.

“We took both of your kidneys two days ago. You need medical help, I am sorry”

The line went dead. The silence that followed was broken only by my screams.