She came back to adjust my arm, her fingers surprisingly warm against my wrist where my skin felt bare and cold. She looked down at the dark bruising already forming along my forearm.
“Did you really fall down the carpeted stairs, Elena?” she asked.
I looked at the light fixture on the ceiling, counting the tiny dead flies trapped inside the plastic cover. There were seven of them.
“I tripped,” I said.
“We see a lot of falls here,” she said, her hand resting gently on my shoulder blade. “If you do not feel safe going back to that house, you can tell us.”
I kept my eyes on the ceiling and did not answer. The silence stretched between us until she sighed and turned back to her console to save the images.
The orderly who had brought me down was waiting by the door with the wheelchair. On the way back to Bay Three, he took a shortcut past the hospital cafeteria, where the double doors were pinned open.
Daniel and Patricia were sitting at a small corner table near the vending machines. Patricia was holding a paper cup of tea, her silver rosary beads draped over her thumb.
“I called your office from the lobby,” Patricia said, her voice carrying clearly into the quiet hallway. “I spoke directly to Arthur.”
Daniel took a quick drink of his coffee. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him you were delayed by a family emergency,” Patricia said, her pious whisper sharp enough to cut. “I made sure he knew there were no police involved.”
Daniel tapped his gold watch face with his index finger. “Good. If the board hears about an investigation, the land acquisition is dead.”
I leaned back in the wheelchair, pulling my hospital gown tight over my knees as the orderly wheeled me past the doorway. The realization that Patricia had called Daniel’s business partner before she even thought about an ambulance sat in my chest like a cold stone.
When we reached ER Bay Three, the blue curtain was pushed aside to let Dr. Morris in. She carried a small plastic cup of ice water and set it on the bedside table.
“Your X-rays are being processed now,” Dr. Morris said, adjusting her silver-framed reading glasses. “While we wait, I want to give you this.”
She handed me a small, folded piece of paper with a local telephone number written in blue ink.
