Alfonso's Bride

Diagnosed-7

Doctor foster burst into Alfonso's room with Helena following behind and a woman Alfonso had never met. A few paramedics in blue lab coats ran in with a stretcher to carry Alfonso on. Annie, one of the staff in the house, stood perplexed in a corner not even sure what to do as Helena sobbed in the crook of her neck. Somehow Alfonso was able to register what was happening but right now his body seemed too heavy to be movable.

He could not even open his ets let alone raise his arm. He sensed Helena sobbing in the corner with Annie feebly holding her but not in the least comforting her. She wanted to comfort her he realised but Annie herself was too confused to even move anymore. She couldn't comfort another woman right now, she needed to be convinced that the man she had taken care of since the age of before birth was alright. Alfonso was calm, his forehead uncreased now, but barely conscious.

Helena, at the other end of the room could not even look at Alfonso. This was too much for her to handle. She wanted to go back home and forget that this whole marriage fiasco ever happened but she could not do that.

The whole house hustled as they tried to get Alfonso on the stretcher and carry him to the ambulance. Helena got in the back of the ambulance sitting next to Alfonso who was lying on a stretcher looking as helpless as ever while a female nurse set up some intravenous tubes feeding glucose into his body. She injected something blue into his wrist and he stirred a bit causing Helena to shift uncomfortably as if wanting him to wake up but afraid of him waking up.

His face was pale already and his lips a dark shade of purple. She massaged his shoulder not in a gesture to comfort him but in a gesture to tell herself that she was stronger than she looked. She knew the truth however, she was just as weak as she looked and there was no fixing that.

The nurse put a breathing mask over Alfonso's face and stuck a pulse stabiliser on his wrist and neck. She then looked at Helena, when her work was done and nodded in approval as if in agreement with an acquaintance. "He will be fine. His muscles are just upset, I think he sprained his abdominal muscles. Do you know what happened prior to his injury?"

"We were at a creek," Helena paused looking for the right words, "...for a swim and when we were about to go back he... just fell. I did not see anything until he was on the ground," Helena retold the story to the nurse making it sound like a romantic tour rather than the awkward walk it was.

"He probably sprained his muscle, if not the mother body, on the dive. We will run a few tests when we get to the hospital, I'm sure he will be fine by the break of tomorrow's dawn."

Helena nodded feeling horrible and not even in the mood to say something. Alfonso had not dived into the pull, he had gently eased himself into it.

"You're British right? Strong descendant of unmixed blood, aren't you?" Helena looked at her incredulously and shook her head before nodding. She just felt confused and did not want to talk to anyone about her racial status now. It was just bad timing.

"I guess that this is not the time to talk about that... But I noticed your accent was deep," The female paramedic said.

The one hour journey to St Peters seemed to last forever, the nurse kept on injecting Alfonso some blue liquid and checking his pulse and temperature. She tried to make petty conversations but Helena did not respond. When they got to St Peters hospital, a few paramedics ran out of the hospital with a stretcher to meet the newly arrived patient.

They systematically placed Alfonso on the stretcher taking particular care of the cords and tubes on his body, already prepared by the female nurse who seemed intrigued by Helena's physical appearance, her eyes and her, and her accent. The paramedics ran with him to the emergency room while Helena followed behind.