by K T Bowes
Chapter Nine
Sophia woke up on her back with some kind of fabric up near her head. A constant clicking assailed her ears and she wanted it to stop. She tried to flap her hand at it, to make it go away, but it kept clicking and clacking. “Shut up, you’ll wake Dad,” she grumbled at the noise. Her brain did a mental check of her body, sending little electronic pulses down her nerves and came back none the wiser. She felt nothing. A pervading numbness had taken over her body like a paralysis. It felt nice and Sophia gave into it with gratitude.
The next time she woke, she felt more urgency about her need to work things out. Her brain sent out the same signals and enquiries and brought back a different message. Pain. Pain everywhere. It occupied her head, arms and legs, especially her legs. Her left hand registered problems and Sophia concluded whatever was wrong seemed wrong all over.
She fought the panic impulse and lay for a while longer, knowing she would have to face up to the strangeness. She moved her fingers and contacted something soft and fluffy like fur. She wondered who let the dog on her bed, before remembering she didn’t own a dog anymore. Her nose began to work and there was that scent again, deodorant and spearmint chewing gum and the vague hint of cigarettes.
Sophia urged her eyes to open and focussed in on white ceiling tiles, white wall tiles, equipment, wires and strange lurid curtains. She managed to work both eyes at the same time, feeling clever until they locked onto Dane’s face in front of her. She inhaled, exhaled and hit him hard in the face. She figured he might be a trick of her tired imagination, but when she heard him swear, knew he was real. “What the...geez, ow!”
A curious satisfaction overcame Sophia and she turned her face away, ignoring him. “Using me,” she slurred.
A woman in uniform appeared and made checks of the equipment, babbling something nonsensical at Sophia. She managed to get one of her hands to work, noticing as she lifted it, the long spray of blood erupting from the top. Dane pressed his fingers over his reopened lip, his eyes squeezed shut tight. “She bloody hit me!” Blood dripped from his chin, plunging downwards into nothingness.
Sophia hoped it hurt and tried to say so, emitted a garbled jumble of words. The nurse fiddled around with her hand, making a sharp scratchy feeling that induced lots more pain. “You need to be more careful, sweetheart! You’ve lost enough blood already. I’ve put another line in. Don’t hit your friend again or it’ll come out.” The woman straightened Sophia’s gown and left.
Dane pushed through the colourful curtains and Sophia heard the sound of running water. She imagined herself back at Raglan on the edge of the shore with the water rushing over her bare toes. She smiled.
“It’s not bloody funny,” Dane snapped and Sophia opened her eyes. The cut on his lip oozed.
“Go away,” she said tiredly but he didn’t. “Dog off.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” he replied. “I need to talk to you, Soph. Please don’t go to sleep again.”
When she woke up, this time more alert, Dane still sat next to her bed with his head resting near her hand. She didn’t hit him again, but only because last time was such a disaster. He appeared to be asleep and she heard gentle snoring. She smelled the spearmint flavour again and wanted some of the gum more than anything. She felt thirsty; a desperate physical need.
“Drink,” she pleaded and poked him in the head. Dane rubbed his eyes and reached for the white plastic cup of water and dribbled it into her mouth. It overspilled down her chin, soaking the gown which replaced her school blouse and skirt. When she’d drained the cup, Sophia told him, “Now go away.” It came out with unbridled rudeness and Dane smirked and sat the cup back on the cupboard next to her.
“In your dreams!” he retorted and Sophia thought about that sentence hard.
“My dreams are freaky,” she said. “I can’t trust them.” Dane laughed then, head back, mouth open, relieved. “I want spearmint gum,” Sophia yawned, dropping back into sleep so fast, Dane wondered if she’d made her final request and died before he could even get the packet out of his pocket.
Dane stared at the foil wrapper and sighed. It was almost empty. He used the gum to mask the day’s chain smoking, waiting for Sophia to return to what he thought might be her car in the almost deserted car park.
He followed Sophia to the corridor outside the art room door and heard Sandra’s spite tumble from her mouth. Evil ran through her genetics, as twisted and vindictive as his stepfather. Dane rubbed a hand over his eyes at the memory of the stabbing and the blood, sickness budding in his chest. He ran after Sophia as she fled, pushing his elderly vehicle to its limits and following her as far as the turn to Bridal Veil Falls. “I knew you liked me,” he whispered. “My life is so complicated at the moment. I don’t even understand my own feelings, let alone yours.” Dane stretched out a hand and brushed Sophia’s dark curls from her face, feeling the clamminess of her skin.
“What Sandra said isn’t true. She’s spiteful. It’s pure jealousy. The boys warned me and I’m so sorry. I knew you believed her. You do this thing with your shoulders when you’re sad and I knew you’d hate me.”
“Hey, she’s going to be ok.” The nurse returned, laying a gentle hand on Dane’s shoulder. “Is she your girlfriend?”
He shook his head. “No. I saw what happened and I know she blames me. She smacked me in the face.” Dane put his hand up to his lip, relieved no blood came off on his fingers.
“Then you know what you need to do, don’t you?” the nurse said with a smile. “If you know who she is, you need to tell them now. Save yourself and her a heap of problems.” She jerked her head towards the other side of the curtain. “We’ll be moving her up to a ward soon. There must be someone worrying about her somewhere.” She patted Dane’s hand and turned at the door. “The cops took her school uniform about five minutes ago. Do the right thing, love, before you get yourself into worse trouble.”
The cops hovered outside in the hallway of the Waikato Hospital. One of them put his head around the curtain. “She awake yet?”
Dane shook his head and lied, “Na, sorry. General anaesthetic. A few hours they reckon.”
The nurse looked back at him and shook her head. The medics always reported stab wounds. Dane suspected they knew who she was, but he refused to confirm it either way, just saying where he found her and when. The thought of the journey back to Hamilton knocked him sick. He drove Sophia’s car, appalled at the litres of blood on the seats. He left his father’s car at the beach but didn’t expect it to still be there by morning. Someone would have stripped or set it on fire by nightfall. It made him sad to think of it, but it would be an honourable way for it to go. He loved his dad. They were a good family. An unexpected collapse in the Huntly mine robbed a nice family of their man and pitched them from one side of the tracks to the other. His mother never got over it. Nor did Dane.
Sophia woke up again with a random request for chewing gum. The nurse smiled and sat her up for another drink of water. They took the blood transfusion equipment away, having replaced what she lost. “The police need to speak to you,” the nurse said and Sophia began to cry and ramble something about passports and England. She called the doctor who sent the cops away. “She’s not fit to speak to anyone yet. Does anyone know her name?”
Dane recognised his own selfishness. He should tell the cops her name so they could get her father. In the north of the city there a man was plunged into a familiar nightmare as the last female in his care failed to come home. But Dane needed to speak to her first. When Sophia woke again, her eyes a little less cloudy and unfocused, Dane seized his moment. “Soph, listen to me. It isn’t true. None of what Sandra said is true.”
She zeroed in on his eyes and he watched her struggle for understanding, although she stayed silent. Dane’s face hovered close to hers but at least she didn’t hit him again. “I’ve liked you since Year 9, on that first day. You were so horrified when the girls kicked off, running around like idiots and I couldn’t take my eyes
off you. I’ve watched you grow up and I’ve tried to keep the girls away from you. Your brother beat me up when he noticed me getting interested and I figured you didn’t need my kind of trouble. I’m sorry about all this. I just need you to know I really like you, Soph, I promise I do. Sandra lied.”
Sophia’s eyes became unfocussed as she turned her face away. He thought she muttered something about ‘England’ as she slipped out of consciousness, taking his hopes and dreams with her. Defeated, Dane got out of his seat, kissed Sophia on the forehead and went into the corridor to speak to the two cops. “Yeah, thanks for that,” the older man said. A weathered officer with many years of experience, he winked at Dane. “It’s alright, mate. We worked it out. We’ve spent most of the day looking for a young, female stab-victim in Hamilton. Her dad’s going crazy; we already called him. Good on ya for doing the right thing.” The younger of the two men slapped Dane on the back. “Well done for getting help. But why didn’t you call the ambos?”
“No phone signal up there,” Dane replied. “And nobody at the car park would help me. They thought I wanted to rob them.” His brow furrowed at the reaction he got from the two tourists he asked for help.
“It’s a bad world,” the older cop said, nodding his head in sadness.
Before Dane reached the multi-storey car park and paid an exorbitant fee for a vehicle that wasn’t even his, Edgar Armitage went on his way, blasting down State Highway One even before the garage door closed behind him.