Another Excerpt From Current Manuscript - "In Limbo: Suffering the DP Blues"

Here's another excerpt from the manuscript I'm working on (formerly titled "An Epiphany in Lilacs.").

And yes, I thought about today's weather tying in with the excerpt. Here it is:

"The July heat could sometimes get clammy and oppressive under the glare of the morning sun, but Hirschel didn't care about peripheral meteorological considerations. What he cared about as he traipsed and traversed the grounds, the meticulously mowed lawns, the proliferating lilacs always in bloom, was an sensation that rippled throughout his body, the entire network of valves and veins constituting his inner being, the framework of his soul and flesh, a feeling so powerful and ineffable, it always bubbled up inside his head, manifesting in three simple words—“I am alive.”

Sometimes he would say these words aloud, sometimes within the earshot of other patients, some ambulatory, others not, yet all who heard would faintly acknowledge Hirschel’s prosaic but freighted affirmation of being with their own gesture of recognition and affinity, be it an askew nod, a wry smile or a knowing wink.

Like other survivors, Hirschel was plagued with guilt, confusion, disorientation and shock—the symptoms of post-traumatic stress that sometimes felt more terminal than transitory. But there was another emotion he shared with them, or rather a byproduct of an emotion, as he wasn’t ever sure he could qualify it as one, and that was gratitude. And it was this thankfulness, this visceral appreciation of just how lucky he was when far worthier beings like Tante Masha and Cousin Aaron had not been, which instilled him with awe and wonder during his outdoor digressions. “I am alive.”