“Nora Kavendash! How does it feel to be rescued six days after one of the nation’s deadliest airplane crashes? Do you think technology played a part in the delay?”
“Had you given up after so much time in the remote forest?”
“Who is the woman with you?”
“Let us see your face, Grace!”
“Were other survivors with you?”
“What did you eat?”
“Are you going to sue the airline?”
4B had her head down, pressed into Nora’s chest, while Nora tried to ignore the questions. She’d been the focus of more than a few press conferences in her past as CEO of AdPrivacy, but she’d been prepared for those. She wrapped a protective arm around 4B and held her own head up against the scrutiny of the chaotic crowd that tried to penetrate the protective ring of hospital guards.
“I have you, 4B. I won’t leave,” said Nora, maintaining her hold on 4B as they swept through more guards stationed at the automatic doors in front of the emergency entrance, which slid shut behind them. The comparative hush of the inside of the hospital enfolded them. The smells of medicine and cleaning products replaced the odor of the helicopter fuel, which had replaced the scents of the forest and campfire. The olfactory changes provided a sense of moving from one surreal scene to another. All of it was so immediate, yet didn’t feel quite solid.
Nora had scanned the crowd for anyone she knew on the landing pad, and then again in the emergency waiting room, as the tall man whisked them through the open area, and immediately past doors emblazoned with signs announcing they were in restricted territory. She looked for Tack, her burly pilot friend. She was dying to find out how he had found them and why it had taken so long. But she didn’t see a single familiar face.
They walked through the busy emergency room, refusing to be separated, and were taken into a single examination room in the back. The nurse who entered with them took their vitals and promised a doctor would be in to see them shortly. She left two charts on the counter by the sink and quietly left the room. When they were alone again, the silence was thunderous.
The room was small, starkly lit with florescent lighting. It smelled of hospital antiseptic and latex gloves. Nora had insisted 4B take the only chair, while she sat at the edge of the bed. The plastic of the mattress crackled beneath her. As soon as the nurse left, 4B walked over and pushed into the circle of Nora’s arms, resting her head on Nora’s chest. 4B seemed small, pulled inward in her fear, and Nora held her close. She inhaled the familiar smoky scent of the campfire they’d left behind but she could make out the unique scent of 4B’s skin, a smell she had basked in the night before. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize it, wondering how much longer they would be together.
“This is so unreal,” said 4B. Her whisper sounded loud in the silent room.
“Don’t worry. Things will be fine,” said Nora, resting her chin on 4B’s head.
“I don’t even recognize my own name. I don’t know who to call.” 4B’s voice trembled with emotion and Nora’s heart constricted at the sound of fear coming from the strong woman she knew. When 4B’s shoulders started to shake with silent sobs, Nora buried her face in the hair near 4B’s ear and whispered soothing sounds, which seemed to help.
Nora lifted 4B’s head and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“I’ll stay with you. I’m sure the airline has information. They’ll contact your family.”
4B searched Nora’s face.
“What happens when—?” started 4B, but a knock on the door interrupted the question she had been about to ask.
A woman in a lab coat walked in.
“I’m Dr. Warren. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Nora sat impatiently on the hard plastic chair in the hallway across from the examination room she and 4B had been in and out of all day. They had waited in the room together between tests and interviews, but the room was empty now. Nora had completed her last interview with the airline over an hour before, but she waited for 4B who had been moved to an office a few doors down. It was the last interview of the day; they’d been promised.
Nora picked at a seam in the new clothes she wore—a gift from the airline, the nurse had said, when she’d handed her the bag from an upscale local department store. They were stiff and not her normal brand, but they were clean, an improvement from the clothes in her pack, which all needed laundering. Because they hadn’t been admitted to the hospital, she and 4B hadn’t been given time or a place to fully bathe, though, and the smell of campfire still clung to her hair. And no matter how much she scrubbed her hands in the hospital sink, the dirt didn’t seem to want to rinse completely from under her fingernails. It had been nice to wash her face and change into clean jeans, though. Fantasies of a warm shower filled her head. She couldn’t wait for 4B to be released so they could head over to the hotel where North Star Airlines had reserved rooms for them.
Nora’s examination had been quick since she didn’t have a scratch on her. 4B’s had taken longer and had consisted of numerous tests. But even after an MRI and a CAT scan, she had checked out fine, aside from the cut on her forehead, which wasn’t serious but would leave a nice scar. Then there was the amnesia, for which the doctor couldn’t provide a prognosis, saying they’d simply have to wait it out. It seemed amnesia was a wily affliction, affecting people differently, manifesting and disappearing with no rhyme or reason. None of it warranted keeping 4B in the hospital, though, unless she wanted to be put under voluntary psychiatric evaluation, which 4B had declined.
At 4B’s request, Nora had remained with her during all of the examinations, but the agents from the airline had insisted they conduct their interviews separately. Thankfully, rather than conducting the interviews at the North Star Airlines offices at the airport, the airline had arranged to use an office at the hospital.
Nora’s interview had only taken forty-five minutes. It had consisted of validating her identity, a description of events leading up to the crash, and a recount of what they had done to survive while awaiting rescue. Nora assumed 4B’s interview would be much of the same, so she wondered what was taking so long. Nora’s knee pumped up and down as she sat in her chair. She looked at her watch again. It had been over an hour. Just then, Dr. Warren left the office and Nora rose to intercept her, looking over the doctor’s shoulder. The door whisked shut without anyone else following.
The doctor stopped and smiled when Nora approached her.
“It should only be a little while longer,” she said before Nora had to ask.
“Is she doing okay?”
“She seems fine. She can’t remember anything from before the crash, though.”
“I expected it to be shorter because of that. Why did they allow you to go in with her when they wouldn’t allow me to go in with her?”
“I think they just wanted to get your separate accounts of what happened.”
“I hope she’s doing okay. This has been pretty overwhelming for her,” said Nora, remembering how scared 4B had been when they first arrived.
“She’s fine. Really. Most people with amnesia react better to the loss of memory than the family or loved ones, actually. They don’t know what they don’t know. So there is very little stress as long as the people surrounding them are at ease.”
“That’s good to know. By the way, thanks for all the time you’re spending with us today. I know you’re busy.”
“We’re a little overstaffed today for once. When they said they were bringing in more survivors, we didn’t know what to expect, so we brought in additional staff.”
Nora wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly.
“Did you say more survivors? There are others?”
Dr. Warren’s brow furrowed. “No one told you?”
Nora shook her head. “This is the first I’ve heard of others. Where did they find them? How many are there?”
“I wish I had more information to give you. The others didn’t come to this hospital and I don�
��t keep up with the news.”
Nora shook her head in disbelief. “I just assumed we were the only ones. I searched the wreckage. There was no one. I should have tried harder.” She sat down in the chair she’d been sitting in earlier. Dr. Warren sat in the chair next to her and put a hand on her arm.
“I’m sorry. I wish I had more to tell you. I don’t know much more other than they found the others a few days ago and they went to the hospital on Elmendorf. You’re the only ones to come here.”
Nora didn’t know what to do with the information. She was elated there were other survivors. But they had been brought in days ago. How had that happened? How many were there?
“What happens next for 4B?”
“4B?”
“Sorry, I mean Grace. Have they contacted her family?”
The doctor shook her head. “She can’t provide any information about her family or next of kin. I gather from the questions she paid cash for her ticket, so there isn’t a credit card transaction to trace any of her personal information.”
“How does this all affect her? She doesn’t know where to go. Does she have to stay here, then? At the hospital until they figure it out?”
The doctor shook her head.
“Her injury isn’t enough to keep her admitted, so, technically, she isn’t my patient. I could possibly recommend she stay the night for observation, but beyond that, I don’t have any authority in it.”
Nora was surprised. “If she doesn’t have a memory how does that work? Someone needs to take care of her. Where will she go? Who will help her regain her life?” Nora asked these questions knowing full well she would do all of those things.
“Technically, she’s capable of taking care of herself, so unless someone contests it, or she displays exaggerated signs of incompetence, she has full rights and control over her own welfare. We can only help her as much as she requests it.”
“So, as far as reminding her, trying to jog her memory, should we just let her remember things on her own?”
“I don’t know. Every case is different. You might want to keep her access to the news and the media to a minimum for the next few days.”
Nora remembered the crowd they had to get through when they came to the hospital. It seemed like it had been days ago, but in reality, it had only been a few hours. She hadn’t thought about the next few days. She wasn’t prepared for what they’d returned to. She knew 4B would be even less so.
A man Nora recognized from the airline approached them.
“Dr. Warren, may we have a word with you?”
The room they had taken 4B to was still closed.
Dr. Warren stood. “Certainly.”
“A woman’s purse was recovered from the crash site and we believe it contains the identification of Ms. Trackton,” said the woman, holding a large plastic bag containing what appeared to be a singed and beaten up black leather bag in front of her. “The airline physician gave authorization to consult with you on how to present the bag to Ms. Trackton, because you treated her.”
Dr. Warren accepted the bag from the official. “I’m not familiar with the airline physician. Is this normal procedure?”
“Normally the airline would defer to the passenger’s personal physician. This case is atypical, since Ms. Trackton doesn’t know who her own physician is and hasn’t been admitted into this hospital. The airline physician might request your assistance with aspects related to insurance and other items that could be considered difficult to assess due to the amnesia. Of course, Ms. Trackton will be consulted, as well.”
“May I open the bag to see what we’re dealing with? It might help me determine how to move forward.”
The female official nodded.
Dr. Warren opened the purse and pulled out a matching wallet. A driver’s license slid out and fell to the ground. Dr. Warren picked it up and studied it. Aside from a little cash, there wasn’t much else in the wallet.
“This sure looks like her,” said Dr. Warren. She looked through the rest of the purse, which didn’t have much in it, just a paperback book, a pen, lipstick, and a small box of decongestant. “I don’t see anything that would cause her undo stress.” Nora looked over Dr. Warren’s shoulder and confirmed the photo on the Massachusetts driver’s license was, indeed that of 4B, a.k.a. Grace Trackton. Now that they knew where she lived, it would be just a matter of time for the rest of 4B’s life to emerge from the shadows.
When the officials and Dr. Warren returned to the room where 4B was being interviewed, Nora went to the cafeteria to get some coffee. The hospital had fed them soon after their arrival, but it had been a few hours since then, and even the limp broccoli in the steamer tray looked good to Nora when she’d passed by. She’d wait until 4B was available before eating again, though. Coffee in hand, she went down to the more comfortable front lobby to wait. She’d been waiting for about a half an hour and was considering going back to check on 4B when she heard a familiar voice.
“I never thought they’d stop asking questions,” said 4B from close by. Nora turned and smiled as she approached.
4B wrapped her arms around Nora’s waist and Nora returned the hug, relived to see her again.
“How are you doing? That took a while.”
“I’m fine. Tired, but fine. They asked me questions about the crash, which I had no information about. And they asked some questions about what we did to survive while we waited for the rescue team. I left a few details out,” said 4B with a shy glance away, and Nora blushed, which earned her a laugh.
“They asked me all of that, too,” said Nora. “But you were with them twice as long.”
“They had a thousand questions about my travel plans, my family, where I live, all the stuff I just can’t remember. For a little while, I had the feeling they didn’t believe I have amnesia.”
“Were they being too aggressive?” asked Nora, a protective concern rising when she heard the last.
“No, they were just persistent, asking the same questions, only in a different way, over and over.”
“Maybe they were trying to jump start your memory.”
“Maybe. It didn’t feel like an interrogation. They were gentle.”
“I’m glad about that, otherwise I’d have to go talk to them about it,” said Nora, the protective instinct raring up again. “I think they found a bag that belongs to you?”
“Yeah. When they brought it in, they stopped asking so many questions.”
“They were probably just looking for ways to find your next of kin,” said Nora. A feeling of apprehension filled her as she said it aloud, and she wondered again how much longer they would have together.
4B’s eyes shifted over Nora’s shoulder to the flat-screen television mounted near the ceiling across the nearly empty room. Nora turned to see what had caught 4B’s attention. The sound was off and the closed captioning was scrolling along the bottom of the picture, which showed men and women in yellow uniforms sifting through a wreck.
“Is that—?”
“Yes,” said Nora. It was the wreckage of their plane. She’d caught the loop from a national news service a little while earlier, and she’d watched, stunned to find out what had happened. She’d felt like crying with relief when she’d heard a thirteen-month-old baby girl had been found among the survivors.
“They’re talking about us, Nora. That’s the wreckage.”
“It’s the other half. They found it on the other side of the mountain. There are other survivors.”
4B watched, stunned, and Nora wondered if she should be watching it after Dr. Warren’s suggestion she stay away from the news for a while. Nora couldn’t stop watching, though. It was compelling in a way she couldn’t describe.
They sat together as the scrolling words described the rescue efforts, how the first group of survivors—thirty-one of them—had been found the day after the crash, once the cloud cover had broken up. And how two additional survivors—her and 4B—had been found six days later, after officials found
the wreckage that had been separated from the rest due to the craggy terrain. A list of names of the survivors flowed across the screen. Followed by a longer list of the people who had perished.
One hundred and two passengers along with the two pilots and five crewmembers had died in the crash.
4B shifted in her seat and looked at Nora, who pulled her eyes from the screen to look back at her. Both of them had tears in their eyes.
“I don’t want to watch any more of it. I can’t,” said 4B taking Nora’s hand. Nora could hear the pain in 4B’s voice and wondered what was going on in her head.
“Is it triggering anything for you?” asked Nora, feeling the anguish she saw reflected in 4B’s expression.
4B shook her head. “So many people died, Nora. I can’t imagine what the families are going through.”
It was early evening, and less than a half an hour later, Nora and 4B stood in the lobby of a plush downtown hotel. They each held a plastic card key, a folder full of papers given to them by the airline, and a small bag containing their dirty clothes. Nora also had her backpack, and 4B—Grace—had the battered black purse that the airline officials had returned to her. She’d gone through the leather bag in the car on the ride between the hospital and the hotel, and although she’d stared at the driver’s license for several minutes, she hadn’t had a reaction to anything inside. With the presence of yet another new airline official sitting with them in the backseat, Nora had held back from asking 4B what she was thinking.
“Please don’t hesitate to call me for anything,” said the young man from the car, now standing across from them in the hotel lobby. He was wearing a neat suit and had a perfect haircut. He handed each of them one of his cards. His eager attentiveness was almost comical. “North Star Airlines is completely available to you. Twenty-four by seven. If you need anything, anything at all, call the number right there and I’ll make it happen.”
“Thank you,” said Nora, glancing at 4B—or Grace, according to the name everybody had been calling her since they had arrived. To Nora, she was still 4B and probably always would be. She saw 4B hide a small smile as the young man actually bowed when he took his leave. They watched as he backed out of the lobby and into the waiting black sedan that had dropped them off at the hotel. A small crowd of reporters was gathered outside, but hotel security wasn’t letting anyone in unless they were registered guests. She wondered how the extra security was affecting business.
Chasing Mercury Page 13