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touching her. This wasn’t
right. She didn’t know this
many people. Well, not
outside work. And she
definitely wasn’t still in the
office. The noises came
again. Loud bangs and
rumbles. Was she on the
tube maybe? Had she missed
the bus after all? Was the
woman with the blurry face
sitting next to her? The pain
began to fade. Slowly at first,
and then quickly. She closed
her eyes.
‘Kim, when you wake up
next, you’ll feel a lot better,’
the woman said.
Then there was nothing.
✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿
The first time he saw her,
they were lying together inthe queue for X-rays with
Rav’s bed facing hers, their
feet almost touching. In the
narrow corridor, she was
the only thing he could see
clearly without his glasses.
So, he focused on her. Her
eyes were closed, her skinonly a shade or two darker
than the white sheet covering
her body. Her hair was
brown, pushed back from
her face, tumbling a little
across the pillow. Poor
girl. Poor woman? It was
impossible to tell how old
she was. She looked tiny
from where he lay. It was asobering thought that bad
things had happened to other
people apart from him.
She made a noise, like a
little whimper. He stared
harder at her. Her eyes
remained closed, her face
creasing in what he assumed
was a ripple of pain. He
knew that feeling so well.
How could they just leave
her here like this, with no
one watching over her?
Rav tried to shift on his
trolley, but it was impossible.
He could hear people in the
room behind him, talking
and sometimes laughing,
the bang of doors and the
beeping of machines a
constant soundtrack to their
actions. There wasn’t a lot of
point in trying to move, he
already knew that much.
They’d got him strapped into
some kind of a frame to keep
him still and it was great at
its job. So, he stopped trying
and refocused instead on
the girl. If he couldn’t call
anyone to her, he could at
least keep an eye on her.
In fact, it was just about all
he could do – keep staring
at her, just to make sure she
was OK.
Minute after minute. Her
eyes closed. Her face so
pale. He traced every inch
with his tired eyes. In the
end, he was sure, he’d have
recognised her anywhere.
She had the most perfect
cupid’s bow he thought he’d
ever seen, clear and defined,
above pale pink lips. He
knew all about cupid’s bows,
growing up with threemake-up mad sisters. But he
couldn’t remember a time
when he’d actually studied
one for this long before.
And there was more. Just
below her mouth, on the left,
was a very small mole and
across her nose he thought
he could make out a handful
of freckles. Although hecouldn’t be entirely sure,
not without his glasses.
‘Mr Dehwar?’ A man
dressed in blue took a chart
from the end of Rav’s bed
and flicked his eyes from the
folder up to his face. ‘Let’s
get you in, shall we?’
It wasn’t really a question.
He couldn’t say, ‘No, I want
her to go first’, could he?
As the man began pushing
him backwards, Rav
managed to hold up his arm.
He pointed beyond the man
to the girl. ‘Is she going to be
all right?’ he asked.
The man glanced back
at the girl and shrugged,
pushing Rav just a little faster.
‘I’m sorry. I don’t know
what’s wrong with her. But
don’t worry, mate. Someone
will be out for her soon.’
It wasn’t that simple,
though, was it? In a place
like this, worry was just
about the only thing you
could do. In two days, it
would be a week since
his leg had been badly
broken. Rav had done
nothing but worry.
When, 20 minutes later,
they wheeled him back out
again into the thin corridor,
he had just a few seconds
to glimpse the spot where
she’d been. A trolley was still
there, but she was gone.
Her replacement, a large
middle-aged man, gave him
a hearty grin as he faded into
the distance.
✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿
For four weeks, she stared
at the sombre grey buildings
that stood too close to the
window on her left and
at the bed opposite hers,
which was mostly occupied
by a small woman with
enormous, wide eyes.
It was beyond Kim’s
understanding why there
was a window here at all
when the proximity of the
wall outside obliterated any
hope of daylight for the
room’s inhabitants. But still,
it gave her the chance toIf he couldn’t call anyone to her, he
could at least keep an eye on her
©TI MEDIA LIMITED, 2019. ILLUSTRATION: JENNIFER LEEM-BRUGGEN