Ch 16
Marilyn Riddley
She woke up to the sounds of hospital machines, beeping and a tube down her throat. She nearly panicked at the sensation of it, and then a nurse had been right there, looking down at her as she’d reached for it, a hand on hers to stop her from pulling it out herself. “It’s alright, it’s a breathing tube, just relax I’ll remove it for you okay.”
She’d nodded slightly and felt the uncomfortableness of that tube, even from that one small movement. She could feel pain starting to spread throughout her entire body as she regained consciousness fully, and her head hurt, quite a bit. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was here in the hospital, or how she’d come to be here, not even how long she’d been here.
She followed the nurse’s instructions to cough really hard, and the tube was removed as she did so. It set off a bit of a coughing fit, and then she looked at her nurse once more. “What happened?” she managed to rasp out, sounding a bit croaky, her throat was really dry.
“Do you know who you are?” she asked.
She thought about it for a moment, and nodded once more, “Yes, Marilyn Riddley.” She stated, “What’s wrong with me?” she asked.
“You were in a car accident.” She was told, “You’ve been here with us for over a week now. I saw you were starting to waking up and have called the doctor. He’s happy you’re awake and on his way to talk to you.”
It didn’t take long for a man in a white coat to turn up and stand at her bedside. He looked at her, her vitals and smiled. “Well hello there, how are you feeling?” he asked.
“My head hurts, and so does my chest.” She told him. “My legs feel heavy.”
“You sustained some pretty serious injuries, though if your car didn’t have air‘ s, you’d likely not be here at all. You’ve got two broken legs, a broken wrist and several broken ribs, a broken collar bone. And your head hurts because you had what is called cerebral édema, caused by a traumatic brain injury from your accident which caused swelling in your brain.
“I had to do a procedure called a ventriculostomy, which is where I drilled a hole in your head to drain the excess fluid around your brain to relieve the pressure that was built up there. You might have a headache for a few days still. And we are continuing to monitor that, but the edema has been resolved. That is the good
news.”
“Alright.” She murmured. “I… I don’t recall the accident.” She murmured as she racked her brain for something. There was just nothing other than she felt like she’d been going home.
“Do you know who you are?”
“Yes, Marilyn Riddley.” She nodded.
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“Um… Bedford.”
“Okay, that’s not that faraway from our hospital, you’re a local then.”
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< Ch 16
“I think I was driving home.” She murmured.
+8 Points
“Your next of kin, we couldn’t find anything on you about that, just your driver’s license is all. There were no family pictures or anything for us to contact anyone. No one has called looking for you either.”
She thought about that and frowned for a long time, and he just stood there and waited, appeared to be watching her intently, “I don’t know… I don’t… I can’t remember anything… before waking up here. Just a sense of going home is all.”
“Alright, it could just be the after–effects of your concussion. Try to remember anything you can.” Though he
was frowning now.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It could be a form of amnesia related to your head injury. It could resolve itself in a few days. We’ll have to run some tests on that one. But let’s leave it for tomorrow. It’s late, but there is one other thing I need to discuss with you…” he stated, and hesitated for a moment until she asked what it was.
“You’re pregnant, we didn’t pick up on it right away, you went right into surgery, we only got that from your blood work a day later. An ultrasound has been attended to and so far everything looks to be fine. You’re about seven or eight weeks along from what the ultrasound specialist could tell. She’ll want to speak with you about that now you’re awake, try and determine exactly how far along you are.”
Marilyn was just staring at him now. She didn’t recall any man in her life and as her brain fired off in many different directions, her headache increased slightly, as she tried to recall if she had a husband or a boyfriend. She didn’t even know how old she was right this minute, she realised. “Pregnant?”
“Mm, you got yourself a tough little baby, I hear your car rolled down an embankment and rolled over many times. We’ll be monitoring that closely over the next few days. Now get some more rest, and I’ll come back in the morning,” he told her.
She nodded and saw him give the nurse instructions and, once again, she was alone in a single room. She
to a ward in a day or two, asked the nurse where she was “Intensive Care Unit. But you’ll likely be mov when your surgeon gives the all clear.”
She spent the night sleeping on and off and still couldn’t recall anything at all, though a baby? That was news to her, though she didn’t recall anything at all prior to the accident. She may well have known about it and just forgotten she supposed.
She was moved to another ward two days later, where she found the police at her bedside, along with her surgeon. She, however, couldn’t answer any of their questions. She didn’t know how the accident she’d been in had happened, not even where it happened. Though they informed her it was her fault and, thankfully, no one else was seriously injured.
The accident had been recorded with dashcam footage from other drivers. She’d veered across to the wrong side of the road and tried to correct it and gotten into an accident. From her own dash–cam recording, it sounded as though she had called someone named Calvin. But they couldn’t actually find her phone to confirm that or contact that person themselves.
She didn’t know who the man was, shook her head and told them as much, though a part of her wondered if that person was the father of her child. The doctor informed them of her amnesia and the officer had nodded, though she was fined for talking on the phone while driving, and causing reckless endangerment, for the damage to the other vehicles on the road.
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< Ch 16
+5 Prints
She just nodded, could only apologise, there wasn’t much more she could do, she had no idea what had happened, couldn’t refute any of it, and if there was footage, she wasn’t likely to either. Just accept it and pay the fine and the loss of her license if necessary. “I’m certain I would have had insurance, but…”
“You do it was in the car’s gloves box,” she was informed. “It’s been given to the other drivers.” He nodded.
She got to hear her baby’s heart beat that day as well, and kind of just stared at it. She didn’t know what to do about that. The doctor asked her about the baby’s father, and she shook her head. “I don’t remember.” Was her only answer she could give. “I guess it could be the person I called, that caused the accident. But that’s anyone’s guess right this minute. If it is, and I called him, likely he’ll turn up at my house at some point, I guess, if I’m seeing him.”
“Mm, that is true.” She’d smiled at Marilyn. “Although…”
“Although?” she’d questioned and the woman had touched her left hand, her wedding ring finger to be exact, and when she looked at it, there was a defined tan line. “You might have just separated or gotten divorced.” “Oh.” had come from her as she too looked at it. She supposed that could well have happened.
She’d spent that night looking at her hand, and it was very defined, she held a good tan, more so than those around her even. She sighed as she thought through everything in her mind that the police had told her, the number plate on her hire car had been from Texas. So to her, it was likely she had divorced and moved away. Those rings had to have come off recently with how white her skin was, under where they had been. She also didn’t hold the same accent as they did. The police suspected she came from Texas themselves. But her address on the driver’s license was here in Virginia. They’d come to the conclusion that she’d just moved here recently.
Though there was no actual proof of her getting a divorce. Women wore jewellery all the time, just because she had tan lines on her ring finger, that didn’t mean she was married. Maybe she just liked wearing rings. She was she knew, trying to convince herself of that, that she wasn’t some unwanted divorced woman, about to raise a child her ex didn’t want either.
e were no missing reports No one was looking for her, that much she did know. The police had told her linked to her name and, with her being unconscious for a week in that hospital before waking up; and it having been a few days now since she’d woken up, if she was missing, someone would have surely reported her as missing, but no one had; so it was just her and her baby now.
