Chim - Traffic

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"This room is so much nicer, it even has a window!" Joan nods, as a nurse helps Cheryl into the new bed. After three days she had been moved from the intensive care unit, and was now in a normal room. Her siblings had visited earlier in the morning, and the girls were coming one by one in the afternoon. I was still the only person Cheryl allowed to touch her, and even this was limited to holding her hand only, apart from the medical personnel, and I could tell this frustrated her family, but I was not going to push her into anything she was not comfortable with.

"I'm going to search for a cup of tea. Do either of you want anything?" We tell her that we're fine for now, and she leaves us alone. I sit, leafing through the newspaper I had bought earlier, Cheryl's eyes on me.

"Can I see that, please?" I hand it over to her, and she scans the front page, her eyes widening. "Wait, is it really April?!"

I frown slightly, nodding. "Yeah, you didn't know?"

She shakes her head, staring at the date in disbelief. "No. I haven't seen the date, or even a clock, since..." She stops, and I change the subject quickly.

"Nadine should be here soon." She lays her head back and stares at the ceiling, lost in her own thoughts.

***

That evening, Cheryl is dozing, the visits she had received and inevitable crying that followed had exhausted her. Her mother, unable to witness the mental anguish her daughter was in, had left, advising me that she was only a phone call away if we needed anything. I was supposed to be reading a book that Nadine had let me borrow, but my gaze kept wandering back to Cheryl. She had been taken off oxygen all together about an hour ago, and you could now see the full extent of the bruising on her face, making her almost unrecognisable. The girls had tried to be as sensitive as possible, but we all had questions for Cheryl, mostly about her wellbeing, and some of these were voiced today. She hadn't been able to answer any of them, preferring to stay quiet, a curtain of silence surrounding her. They had all tried to hug her as well, which panicked her, making her alert and jumpy all afternoon, and she had not allowed me to hold her hand all day.

As I'm checking my watch, wanting to know how long I had until visiting hours were over, she murmurs something. Her eyes are still closed and she is frowning, I don't know if she was trying to say something to me or not, but I don't ask, not wanting to disturb her. A nurse appears at the door, advising me that I need to leave for the night before going over to check the machines still hooked to Cheryl and checking her blood pressure, which wakes her. She watches me stand and pull on my coat, and it takes me a second to realise she is crying.

"What's wrong? Do you want me to stay?" She shakes her head, and although I know that I'm unable to stay overnight anyway, my heart sinks. She doesn't want me here.

"I'm going to leave my phone on loud all night. Tell the nurses to call me if you need me to come back, ok?" She gives a small nod, wiping away her tears, and I leave without another word.

***

"So keep taking the painkillers as prescribed Cheryl, and if your pain becomes progressively worse, come back in. If all goes well, we'll see you back here next week to remove the stitches, alright?" Dr Jones hands me the plastic bag containing Cheryl's medication and smiles, leaving us to exit the hospital alone. Miraculously, Cheryl's tests had come back negative for all sexually transmitted infections, as well as HIV, and her uterus showed no signs of pregnancy or miscarriage. After ten days of being in hospital, Cheryl was being discharged. When we reach the main door, Cheryl stops, her eyes darting around the outside world.