Memory Lane

17. Under the need

17. Under the need

Back in the Conscious realm of reality, Madeline Nitch had traversed London for two days straight. She showed signs of fatigue on her face and sweat gathered across her forehead after hours upon hours of walking and traveling. Every police station she had turned to came up with no signs of Fred being remanded into custody or being the victim of a crime. Madeline's only remaining option was the hospitals. From both sides of the Thames, Madeline could see bombed out buildings, rubble everywhere, and trails of smoke filling the air across the city. The average hospital during the Blitz became a new frontline of the war, with soldiers and civilians struggling to survive. 

The first three hospitals Madeline had visited were scared symbols of hope teeming with scrambling patients and doctors, blood staining the pavement leading into the building. It appeared as not a single building she saw had been untouched by the air raids. By the time she chose to visit the fourth hospital on her increasingly desperate rounds, Madeline began to fear the worst had happened to her husband elsewhere, but she was not ready to give up her search just yet.

 The feeling of dread intensified when she passed police and Home Guardsmen picking through the rubble of destroyed houses, only to find a body or two in the mid-morning overcast. The Wellhouse Hospital in the northern suburb of Barnet was the next try for Madeline to find Fred. As with the others, the hospital was a melting-pot of desperate relatives and the wailing of those caught up in the raids which echoed through the hallways. It looked more for all the world like a luxury two storey house sprawling over a large area, while the leading cause of death among the patients was injury, not disease.

"Excuse me" Madeline walked up to the front desk and called out to a short bald doctor with a moustache.

"sorry love, we're a little busy is all" the doctor shuffled through papers on the desk while talking to the lady on the other side.

"no, I'm just looking for someone" Madeline stated.

"if it gets me out of the theatre for a moment, then fine. Who are you trying to find?" the doctor rustled his white coat and stood up from his chair.

"my husband, Fred Nitch. Tall, brown hair" Madeline gave the same description of her husband that she had given three times before.

"we've got a lot of them, Mam" the doctor looked sceptical.

"he could have kept his suit on or stayed late at the office. Please, sir!!" Madeline pleaded.

"tall, brown hair, suit. Let me see what I can do. in the meantime, wait here. I'll come back" the doctor wondered. He came around the desk and directed Madeline to a chair in the hallway where she could stay until he returned. Half an hour went by before the doctor came speed walking down the plain white plaster halls of the hospital.

"alright Mrs Nitch. It took a while, but I think we may have someone here who looks like the person you described. Follow me" the doctor escorted Madeline through the hospital to the second floor. Each room down the halls contained a bedbound person and their relatives by their side for moral support. At the edge of the hallway was a well-lit room with little furniture and a battered man in a business suit resting on a hospital bed.

"is that him?" the doctor pointed to the man in the room, which made Madeline gasp and rush into the room at the sight. It was Fred, or his body at least.

"oh my god!, Fred!!" Madeline clutched Fred's arm as she knelt by the bedside.

"what happened to you?" Madeline continued.

"he hit his head pretty hard out there. Brought him in after the latest raid. Nazi bastards. Since then he's been unconscious, but he's still breathing. I will give you some time" the doctor explained.

"wait. What do we do about him?" Madeline stopped the doctor in his tracks.

"all we can do now is wait. I'm sorry" the doctor finally left the scene.

"oh, my dear Freddy. What were you doing out in all that?. I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm glad you're okay. I may have caught you at a bad time, but I was so worried about you. the truth is a life without you is a life that's not worth living. I know you understand, and I hope you feel the same way about me because, you're my everything. We only have each other with Peter gone, so I need you to come to your senses and wake up, for me, please. I just can't lose you too" Madeline talked to Fred's body as if he was in a deep sleep. The good news was that he was still breathing but seeing Fred like he was at present made Madeleine break down into a shower of tears and heartache, waiting once again for the time when her one and only would return to her.