Thursday's Child (6 page)

Pulling off the rings, she laid the engagement ring on the table next to the bed. Maybe he would look after it until her memory came back. The wedding band she put on the chain around her neck.

She was so tired and wanted to sleep, but all the noise meant slumber eluded her. She had had her eyes closed for what seemed like a grand total of thirty-five seconds before someone else came over.

“Mrs. Harkin?”

“That’s what everyone tells me.” She opened her eyes tiredly.

“I’m Dr. Coleridge. One of the staff neurologists.”

“I don’t need a shrink,” Niamh muttered. “I want to sleep. I thought you weren’t coming until morning.”

“I’m not a shrink,” he said gently, sitting down on the bed next to her. “And it’s a little after nine a.m.”

Huh?
Niamh glanced at the daylight streaming through the window and then back at the doctor. “Oh… it didn’t seem like I slept at all.”

“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Like I got hit by a bus,” Niamh said. She reeled off the list of injuries they had told her she had. “I’m sorry if I snapped, I’m just so tired.”

“That’s quite all right. Dr. Anders asked me to come and see you. He tells me you can’t remember anything.”

“Well, nothing recent. The last thing I remember is a bonfire party, but my brother tells me that’s ten years ago. I remember nothing since then.”

“I’d like to run a few tests, starting with an EEG. It’s pretty boring and most people sleep through it. I’d also like to do a CT scan this morning and possibly an MRI too, just to rule out a few more things.”

Niamh looked at him, trying to read his expression. Were all doctors as good at hiding things or was it something he’d perfected over the years? Mind you, she needed the poker face in her job. “Why can I remember some things and not others?”

“There is still a lot about the brain that we don’t understand, although we are learning more each day. But, assuming the tests show no significant damage, your memories are still there; you just can’t access them. I can’t give you a time scale on remembering anything I’m afraid.”

“Will I ever be able to?”

“We hope so.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

He shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”

“OK, just do what you have to do to help me.” She glanced at the ring on the side. “Before you start, do you have an envelope or piece of paper, please?”

Dr. Coleridge nodded. “Sure.” He pulled an envelope from the back of her notes and offered it and a pen to her.

“Thanks.” Niamh wrote on the envelope and placed the ring into it. She sealed it and looked at it. “Could you see that Jared—Mr. Harkin gets this next time he comes in, please?”

“I can’t hold on to it personally, but I’ll take it over to the nurse’s station for you.”

“Thank you.” Niamh closed her eyes as he started attaching the leads to her head.

****

Jared stood at the nurse’s station and sighed. “I know it’s not visiting time. But I’ve just got off the night shift. I’m due back tonight and I need to sleep. Please, I only want five minutes.”

“I’m sorry. The doctors are with her right now.”

He sighed. “OK.” He turned to go, pausing when the nurse spoke again. He turned back and took the envelope she held out to him. “Thanks.” Glancing down he read Niamh’s writing.
Jared Harkin. Please keep this safe for now
.

His skin grew cold and his heart turned to ice. His hands shook as he tore open the envelope and tipped his wife’s engagement ring into his other hand. He turned and stumbled from the ward, his breathing coming in gasps and tears blinding his vision. Searing pain filled him, and he was aware of nothing else as he strode down the hallway, the ring clutched tightly in his hand.

He started running, pushing doors aside, letting them thud into the walls, no idea where he was going. Finding himself outside a final set of doors, Jared realized he’d found the chapel. He went inside and sat on one of the pews.

Tears fell like rain as the gold dug into the palm of his hand. He didn’t even have the words to pray, the only thing coming to mind was the phrase
Oh, God. First Dayna and now Niamh. Why?
Over and over again, like a mantra. Sliding off the pew onto his knees, he sobbed, his heart breaking, as he leaned upon the only One he had left.

5

Half an hour after Dr. Coleridge finished all his tests, and Dr. Anders had done his ward round with half a dozen medical students, Niamh looked up as another man came over. He wore a short white tunic over grey slacks and looked like a dentist. She hoped he wasn’t. She hated dentists. She was also tired of the constant parade of doctors wanting to see the ‘freak who’d lost all her memories’.

He pulled the curtains around the bed, before he turned to her and held out a hand. “Hello, Niamh. I’m Gray Williams the physiotherapist. I know you don’t remember me, but I’m in the same home group from church as you and Jared.”

“Hello,” Niamh said. “Are we good friends? Is it still Headley Baptist?”

“Yes. And yes, I like to think we’re good friends.”

“OK. Am I a church member? I remember applying, but I don’t remember if it got accepted or not.”

He pulled her notes from the bottom of the bed and flicked through the charts. “You are. How about I get Pastor Jack to pop in? He’d be better placed to answer any church questions you may have.”

She furrowed her brows in thought. “I don’t know him. Is he Pastor now?”

“He has been for about eight years or so.”

“OK. That would be good. Maybe when I go home or…” She broke off. “I have no idea where home is. Or what it is. It could be a tent or a shed.”

Gray laughed as he made a note on the chart. “It’s neither of those. I’ll give him a call. Chances are Jared already has, but I’ll do so anyway. OK, now if my treating you is going to make you uncomfortable in any way, since I know you from church, I can send someone else.”

She shook her head. “It makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personally, but I don’t know you. So, why do I need a physiotherapist?”

He smiled. “It’s my job to get you up and walking again.”

She shot him a droll look and pointed to her leg. “Yeah, right. How am I meant to accomplish walking like this?”

“Crutches,” he told her. “First step though is learning how to stand and sit down again.”

Niamh looked at him. “I can’t do that.”

He looked at her. “Am I right in assuming the nurse removed the catheter?”

She winced slightly at the thought of discussing something like that with a man, especially one she supposedly knew. “Yes.”

“So we need to teach you how to stand and sit so you can get to the bathroom,” Gray said.

She nodded grudgingly. He did have a point. She didn’t want to be a burden to the nurses, and the bathroom was something she would rather do alone. Not that she’d let him know that.

She watched as he sat on the edge of the bed and showed her how to push up into the crutches. “OK, your turn.”

Niamh slid her legs off the bed, aware of his hand on her back and arm steadying her. Niamh gasped as she shifted forward slightly, leaning into the crutches.

Gray looked at her. “OK, stop. Where does it hurt?”

“Where
doesn’t
it hurt?” she whispered. She pressed a hand to her stomach. “Here most of all.”

“OK, rest for a minute then we start again.”

She scowled at him and deepened it as he grinned. “What’s that smirk for?”

“Don’t let pain defeat you, take it and make it work in your favor,” he said. “Right on three, I want you to slide off the bed and stand.”

Niamh took a deep breath and did what he asked, though it was more a cry of pain than of triumph. Her arms trembled as she stood, her broken leg barely touching the floor.

“Well done,” he said smiling at her. “That was really good.”

“Don’t patronize me,” she gasped.

“Oh believe me I’m not. If I think you can do better I’ll tell you so in no uncertain terms.”

She nodded slowly. “Now what?”

“Now you sit down and then we start over. Do that a couple more times, and I’ll teach you how to walk.”

She raised an eyebrow. “
We
?”

Gray winked at her, pushing his hand through his hair. “We.”

Niamh thought for a moment. “OK, though from where I’m standing it’s more
me
than
we
. But it hurts.”

“It will,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”

Taking a deep breath Niamh slowly followed his instructions and did what he wanted. She smiled as she managed a few steps. It wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be.

“Brilliant. Right, I’ll see you tomorrow. Say hi to Jared for me when he comes in.”

“Can you leave the curtains closed, please?” Niamh sat in the chair next to the bed exhausted. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. The pressure in her bladder wasn’t helping the stitches.

Taking a deep breath, she gripped the crutches firmly. She could do this. Her hands shook as she pulled upright and swung herself slowly to the curtain. She reached out for it with one hand, trying to balance on the other. Somehow the crutches slipped and she fell, landing hard on the floor, crying out in pain.

Niamh lay on her side on the tiled floor, pain flooding her. What was she thinking? How could she have been so stupid as to try opening the curtains on her own? She tried to pull herself up to a sitting position, but the cast was too heavy, and her chest and stomach hurt too much for her to bend or roll over. She stretched for the alarm, but even that was out of her reach.

She cried out in frustration. “Help,” she managed. Even breathing hurt. She must have jarred her ribs again when she fell.

The curtain moved to one side and she saw a pair of black boots and navy blue trousers by her face. “Niamh,” Jared said and then yelled, “I need some help in here!” A hand touched her face. “Don’t move, hon, it’s going to be OK.”

She looked up at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting you, now don’t move,” Jared repeated. “What happened?”

“I was trying to—” She broke off as running footsteps echoed across the ward, and Dr. Anders face suddenly appeared by hers.

“What happened?” he asked. He turned her over, his hands expertly moving over her body.

“I was trying to open the curtain and balance on the crutches at the same time. It didn’t work. I fell,” she said feeling completely stupid. “Agh!” she cried as he checked her over. “That hurts.”

Jared helped Dr. Anders lift her onto the bed. “Where were you going?”

“Bathroom.”

“Why didn’t you ring for help?” Dr. Anders chided. “That’s what the nurses are here for.”

Niamh glowered at the doctor, the pain making her temper worse. “I’m not a child that needs to first ask permission and then be taken to the toilet!” She shifted on the bed. “Speaking of which…” She tried to push up again, ignoring the pain shooting through her.

Dr. Anders looked at her. “I suggest you stop acting like a child, if you don’t want to be treated like one. You can’t go anywhere until I’ve had this chest x-rayed.”

“This can’t wait,” she whispered. “Please, don’t make me beg, this is hard enough as it is. And I don’t want one of those bed pan things either. Look, if my rib is broken, then two minutes won’t make any difference, will it?”

Dr. Anders held her gaze, but she didn’t flinch. Surprisingly support came from Jared.

“I learnt years ago you can’t argue with her when her mind is set on something.”

Dr. Anders nodded. He vanished for a moment and came back with a wheel chair. He lifted her into it. “I’ll get a nurse to take you and then you go to x-ray.” He turned to Jared. “Thank you.”

Jared nodded. “Welcome. Niamh, are you OK? How are you feeling? If that’s not a really stupid question.”

“Other than sore, I’m confused. It’s like I’ve woken up in the middle of a film or a story and don’t have the faintest idea what’s going on when everyone else does. And I hate it.”

“Well, I can tell you about me. If you’d like me too, that is.”

“Yeah, I would.” She’d thrown him out, but he kept coming back and was offering to fill in the gaps. Maybe between him and Li she could piece things together again.

His eyes lit up as he smiled. “Then I will. I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ve just got off the night shift and am due back at six tonight. I thought I’d come see you first.”

Niamh smiled back, grateful he had turned up when he did. “Thank you.” Was he going to say anything about the rings? He hadn’t mentioned the fact she wasn’t wearing them, but maybe he’d got the engagement ring and seen the other one around her neck.

He paused for a moment, then leaned in and kissed her cheek. Her skin burned where his lips touched it and butterflies raced in her belly. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

****

Jared watched her go. He very nearly hadn’t come back, but something had told him not to leave without saying goodbye. His heart had almost stopped when he got on the ward in time to hear Niamh cry out and then pulled the curtain back to find her collapsed on the floor. He’d feared the worst for a moment and still did. He eyed the doctor carefully. “What do you think she’s done?”

Dr. Anders looked at him. “Without the x-rays we won’t know for certain. Her ribs are more painful than I’d like, but that could just be bruising.”

“Can you ring and let me know?” He paused. “I know she doesn’t know me, but I’m still her next of kin until she says otherwise. And Liam will only tell me anyway.”

Dr. Anders nodded. “Of course, but I can only do that until she specifies otherwise. After that, I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything.”

Jared nodded. “That’s fine, thanks Doctor. Any idea when she can come home?”

“Probably in the next day or two. Maybe even tomorrow, but that does depend a lot on these x-rays.”

“Thank you. If you need me I’ll be at home until about five thirty, and then I’ll be at work from six p.m. until nine tomorrow morning.” Jared left the ward and headed for the car park. He sat in the car for a moment, and pinched the bridge of his nose before he started the engine.