John Gilbert over 18

Rattlesnake poison

From this angle, the city looks very different. Saying that, my leg doesn’t look too clever from here either. What the hell hit me?

Let’s not think about that just yet. Concentrate on the roof tops. Weird, I don’t think I have ever really looked up in the two years I have lived here. Never looked above the brightly coloured plastic façades that brandish all the high street names boasting of this weeks sales. Maybe everyone should take a couple of minutes when they are next in the city, find a bit of space and just lie down and look up.

Red bricks topped with grey hand-cut slate, whole walls beautifully adorned with split polished flint. Tall elegant chimney stacks stretching into the sky. Arched windows surrounded in Victorian styled frames. The odd corner piece slightly eroded by the weather, drizzled with a green topping of moss. Served with a side salad and a dressing of your choice. Ha ha. Shit, don't laugh – that hurts too much.

I wonder if anyone has ever laid here before. Maybe a farm hand swooned a buxom young maid before this city of ours was even built. Maybe a young rascal, man-handled to the cobbles for pick-pocketing a dapper young gentleman. I’ll bet these walls could tell a tale. Look above the plastic and the glass and you have a whole book of history unfolding right before your eyes. Every building is a new chapter into the past.

There seems to be a crowd gathering around me. I can here car tyres squealing, too close for comfort. A man leans over me blocking my view. Get the hell out of the way, fellah. I was enjoying that. He seems to be trying to tell me something so I try to lean a little closer.

“No mate, don't move. You just keep still! You are alright now, you have been in an accident. I’m a paramedic. Can you hear me?”

I can hear myself respond, “Where is my bike?”
“That doen’t matter. Just lay still we will get you into the ambulance as soon as possible,” he tells me.

That's right, what the hell hit me? I was on my bike when something hit me. I try to look up at the guy to ask but this is really starting to hurt now. God, my leg is unbearable, what hit me? I try to look back at the roof tops. Little stars start to appear, night must be drawing in. A taste spreads in my mouth like gloopy iron filings and the stars are getting bigger and red, burning red. The roofs turn neon bright with blue-white noise edges. There is electricity in my ears, like static. Aren’t these the symptoms of rattlesnake poison?

Ah shit, I feel really dizzy and the stars are starting to spin. I try to blink a few times but that just makes things worse. It’s getting really dark here. I guess the big city lights are going out for the night.