“Oh let’s leave that now. So the woman driving the tank is the only survivor?”
“Yeah. She hasn’t got a licence, I’ve already checked.”
“I’d say so, looking at that pile of minced meat, the tracks zigzagging all over the place, those legs over there and the villa she drove into. The floor gave in and she ended up in the cellar! That’s women drivers for you!”
“Ha ha ha!”
“Funny, isn’t it? That’s my favourite joke. Anyway, she’s alive, has she given a statement yet?”
“No, and the doctor who examined her said it might be difficult — she’s in a coma, but there don’t seem to be any physical injuries apart from a few scratches and bruises. He hasn’t got all the test results yet though. He can’t see why she’s in a coma.”
“What do these guys ever know? And the rest of the island is OK?”
“The village, yes. The receptionist at the campsite had a body in the cupboard. Looks like the man bit the veins on his own wrists. It’s writers and their antics, said the receptionist, winking and grinning as if he wasn’t quite right either. They took him to psychiatric hospital on the mainland for observation.”
“OK.”
“We found another body on the road, he’d been shot and hasn’t been identified yet.”
“Is that all?”
“We’re still looking, there may be more.”
“There’s a chopper. The boss must be coming. Let’s go.”
The drops hanging from the beams on the cellar ceiling started to bubble, move and tremble. Steam, smelling of old, long disappeared woods, was coming from them, combining into long, thick ribbons, which were wrapping themselves around the front of the tank, sinking into the ground. The vanishing drops were bursting and names were falling out of them. Rays of sunshine forced themselves in through the rubble, making bright patterns in the air. On their way through the light, the names became red for a moment then tumbled over, some of them floated for a while but sooner or later they all became dust before they even reached the floor. The dust fell on the ground with a faint rustle, turning around like a vortex and then disappeared through the cracks and into the soil.
I don’t wanna hear a love song…
