Motto:
"Repay blow for blow, contempt for contempt, curse for curse—with your fair share of it! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, always fourfold, a hundredfold! Become a terror to your opponent, and if he gets in your way, he will have the added wisdom to reconsider his move." Anton Szandor LaVey
"Could we meet?" she asked over the phone. Her voice was so trembling that I was truly frightened.
"Okay, Magda... But tell me what happened!
" "I'll tell you when we meet. Can you be at Pole Mokotowskie in an hour?
I could, I couldn't... I simply dropped everything and ran for the bus. On the way, I wondered what had happened to my usually cheerful and wild friend. Maybe she had argued with her father again and wanted to run away? But what about her rehabilitation and hospital stay?" Exactly, or maybe...
"They kicked me out of the hospital! The day before yesterday..." she said without blinking, looking me straight in the eye as we sat on the pub terrace drinking beer. It was a warm summer evening, with birdsong coming from the park.
I remained silent, looking at Magda. A guy sitting at the table next to her winked at her and smiled slyly. Magda froze him with a look and gave him the finger.
"So what did you come up with?" I finally decided to ask.
"Nothing," she shouted suddenly. They, the nurses, the doctors, have come up with something, and my health could suffer!
I lowered my head; everyone in the pub started staring at us.
"Okay," I said as gently as I could. But tell me exactly what happened.
Alcohol, or cigarettes, I thought, looking at my friend. Or both. I knew well what life was like in a rehabilitation hospital for young people in a well-known spa town near Warsaw. I'd spent my previous summer there, after all. It was there that I met Magda, where I became friends with her. Maybe because we shared a common goal: overcoming that constant boredom after morning exercises. And there was only one way to do it: get a beer (or cigarettes) from a nearby bar. It wasn't even about getting drunk, but about that adrenaline rush. Would someone catch us or not? Would we, the patients, prevail, or would they, the hospital staff, try to treat us like little children who should be quiet, playing checkers, or watching TV? It was a constant battle, but it was obvious someone would get punished for this.
"So do you want to hear me out or not?" Magda snapped at me.
"I do, of course. Go ahead.
" "I'll tell you everything in order." So that day started innocently enough. It was incredibly hot, so no one felt like doing anything. Justyna, my roommate, and I had planned to sunbathe, maybe play cards with the guys...
Well, after dinner, Guśka came over, you know, a classmate. We were sitting in the hallway, laughing, I don't even remember what we were talking about. A new doctor, Szymaneg, walked by... and at one point he asked me, "What did we take?" We laughed in his face...
"Did he mean drugs?" I asked incredulously. Magda has long been a staunch opponent of drugs.
"I thought he was just playing around," she continued, lighting a cigarette, "but when I went to the room, Justyna said the nurses were looking for me. Okay. So I went to the nurses' station. And they were just like the doctor:
"What did you take?
" "As for drugs, nothing," I replied calmly. And they continued:
"What did you take? What did you take?"
Then the doctor came in. I started getting angry. And he continued: "I'm acting really strange, laughing strangely, and Guśka probably brought something and we took something." I told them they could run tests on me, blood, urine, and then let them accuse me. And you know what that doctor said, you know?
I shook my head. I didn't know. Magda lit a second cigarette.
"Don't be such a smartass, you brat!" That's what he told me!!! I was stunned, you know. But I won't let him fool me. I told him he was a total asshole and had no right to baselessly accuse me. And I slammed the door. The nurses didn't do anything, even though they knew what Zuzka had gotten herself into with drugs.
Yes. Everyone who knew Magda knew her sister was using heroin and barely managed to get off it. That's why Magda is preaching to everyone that drugs are a huge mess and that anyone who thinks differently will be immediately wiped out.
" "I called my father immediately. I didn't care anymore whether they saw me smoking or not. I stood on the balcony, smoking, and talking on my cell phone with my father." Then someone came up with the idea that I was so high I wanted to jump. Sure, I wonder what would have happened to me if I'd jumped from the first floor... Never mind...
My father arrived in about two hours. He went straight to that Szymaneg man. And that stupid doctor, with the line that they offered me tests, but I didn't want them. When I heard that, I thought I'd literally explode. I started cursing them, saying I hadn't done anything. I understand if they caught me doing anything, okay, but not like this. They couldn't catch me doing anything, so they made it up...
Tears started streaming down her face, which didn't stop her from practically screaming. I knew how emotionally draining it was.
"Not only can't they do a single decent operation on my hips, not only do I have to spend every vacation here, but I'm also being punished for something I didn't do because some new doctor wants to show how much power he has, because they want to show who's in charge."
I remained silent. I didn't know what to say. I glanced at the next table. The creepy guy who had been smiling at Magda earlier was gone. In his place sat a skinny blond man of about twenty-five, looking through a stack of papers.
"That happens. It's not your fault that other people have insecurities. Szymaneg probably just found out what was going on here—you know, the alcohol—and probably wanted to punish you for show..." I tried to comfort her.
"Of course, it's not my fault. My father said he wouldn't leave it like that. He took me out of the hospital then, and we went for tests fresh. It's good that at least he believed me. But I wanted...
" "And what are you going to do? It's just a hospital. You'll be eighteen in six months anyway, that was the last time you were there. There's no point in arguing with them. It's just a waste of time, nerves, and maybe even money.
" "But I won't let anyone humiliate me like that, you know. They should feel the same way now that I did then." There has to be some kind of justice. My father said that when the head of the ward returns from vacation, he'll go to her, and if they don't fire this doctor, it'll go to the prosecutor's office and the media! It has to...!!!
"But wouldn't it be better to take care of your health? After all, the point is for you to be able to move around normally, to walk? Wouldn't it be better to start looking for another hospital or some private rehabilitation right away?
" "And then it'll be all over me that I was taking drugs. Maybe they'll send some paperwork to my school, how do you know?" Magda, though still crying, didn't give up. I saw fire in her tearful eyes.
"And why do you want to become like them? To wage some crusade against something that really doesn't make sense. You won't change anything anyway. You think a doctor can be fired so easily!
" "But they deserved it!!! That stupid doctor thinks he's nobody's business!" Not only is it so hard to get into a hospital these days, but they're kicking me out for something I didn't do...
"Excuse me," we suddenly heard a slightly intimidated male voice. I turned around. It was the blonde guy sitting at the next table. "I happened to overhear a bit of your conversation and... Well, I'm a journalist for a local newspaper near Warsaw, and I can guess which hospital you were talking about."
Magda's eyes narrowed dangerously. I knew she wouldn't miss this chance. The opportunity for revenge. Because really, this was about revenge, not any kind of justice. I knew her too well not to realize that.
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