Softly Shouting

  I felt my eyelids flickering. First there was this explosion of light; behind my eyes and in my brain and then… I dawned upon me. Thoughts and images fluttered through my brain. Who was I? What was I? I didn’t know anything from before that explosion but in the seconds, minutes after it, impressions came to me and before long it was all galvanised in my conscience. I was. I was thinking, thus I was. The next phase was beginning to live in my bodily form. I moved a finger, then another. I wriggled my toes. Through a series of tiny movements, I ascertained that all my body parts were working. There were no pain sensations, only the odd tingling of my extremities. I felt I was strapped to a bed, with stiff, leather straps. I explored my senses. I could hear birds twittering. It was an extraordinary sensation. I sensed someone was with me, breathing heavily. After a flutter of my eyelids I noticed my eyesight was working too. I moved my head sideways and opened my eyes. ...