I didn't need to open my eyes to know I was in a hospital bed. I
could smell the disinfectant and the cold fresh air gently caressing
my face, hear the hushed whispers of concerned voices around me.
“Look she’s waking up!”
The pain, of a nurse or was it a doctor, ripping the bandage from
around my wrist made me jump and moan. The stinging, tearing
sensation made me want to cry out but I was so confused, so sleepy
and dazed I couldn't even do that. I opened my eyes eventually. It
was indeed a nurse, she took no notice of my shredded skin and the
dried blood stuck to that bandage, her job was to change it and she
did so as if I was a dummy with no feelings at all. Of course, I
understood, she had to take care of it. Studying my wrist through
still sleepy vision I was surprised, shocked even at the number of
neat black stitches holding my hand on to it, but my concentration
was interrupted.
“Who did this to you?” a voice screeched
making me jump again It could only be one
person – Mam, looking like a reject from a horror movie with her
wide green eyes and red wiry hair trying to escape in every direction
from her head! She looked like she'd been running through a forest
for a week, her face care worn, exhausted, the remnants of mascara
rubbed across her eyes.
“Who did it!” she demanded, clutching
at the woollen blanket that covered my legs.
I
knew she was traumatised, knew she needed to know. I opened my mouth
to answer, but my throat felt dry and sore. I closed it again,
stared bewildered at the sea of faces around me, relatives and
friends, all pretty much in the same anguished state, waiting for me
to reveal the criminal, but the truth was, I didn't know. I just
wanted to cry but not even tears would come. My body wanted to shut
down, escape back into the blackness of sleep where it was safe,
where nothing hurt. My whole body hurt and ached from the terror it
had endured..
“If you can remember anything,” said a policewoman from the back
of the room “Let me know as soon as you’re able”
The only response I could
manage was a blank stare yet somehow I knew I had to communicate. I
had to think.
“Why am I here?” I asked myself
“She needs rest!”
the nurse snapped back at them all, breaking my concentration her
glum chubby face fixed on her work.
“Yes but as soon as she says who it was we could arrest him!”
“You know it was a him then?” Mam screeched
her voice piercing and loud, hurting my ears.
“Or
her” continued the policewoman
I didn’t take much notice of her
features, my vision was slightly blurred and I was so sleepy.
“Didn’t they leave any evidence?” said another voice,
one that I recognised, but couldn’t quite place
“Only a footprint on the
back door”
Could’ve been anybody’s,” muttered another voice.
“It was a size seven,” ventured the
policewoman looking at me. But I didn’t feel
like talking. How many people wore a size seven shoe! I wore a size
seven shoe! Did I try to kill myself? I doubted it. I thought
hard, I couldn’t begin to understand why I was here anyway, didn’t
know anyone with that size shoe, well except for….
But I drifted off to sleep.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hanbury-Park-Carol-Ann-Lewis/dp/1489566007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415869041&sr=1-1&keywords=hanbury+park
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