Fumbling Toward Ecstasy

Chapter 10 - Uh Oh

Brynne opened her eyes and found herself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. She was lying down in a bed that was not hers, and she had a massive headache. When she turned her head to find out where she was, the room spun, and she closed her eyes to try to get it to stop.

"Oh," she moaned. She wasn't even going to try sitting up.

A woman in a nurse's uniform quickly appeared at the bedside. "Goodevening, Miss," she said. "The doctor said you'd probably be waking about this time."

Time. Time was important, but Brynne couldn't remember what was so important about time.

"What time is it?" she asked. Her throat was sore. Why was her throat sore?

"Oh, it's well after midnight, Miss," the nurse said.

"In the morning?" Brynne asked.

"That's right, Miss. The doctor had expected you to wake up around this time, but I had hoped you would sleep straight through 'til morning. I'll go fetch the doctor, now. He asked to be alerted when you came around."

The nurse left, and Brynne lay on her back, trying to piece together what had happened to her. She assumed that she was in the ship's hospital now, but how had she ended up there? What was the last thing she remembered? She remembered leaving her stateroom to go down the hall …

The door to the room opened and a man entered, followed by Andrews.

"Mr. Andrews," Brynne said.

"Brynne," he said walking over to her bed, "Good Lord, you gave us all a scare."

"What happened?" Brynne asked.

"We found you unconscious on the poop deck," Andrews said. "A stewardess saw you running, and she thought something might be wrong, so she knocked on my door and pointed me in the direction she last saw you headed. She said you were headed aft."

Brynne's memories flooded back to her. "Yes. I remember. I left my room to go down the hall for a moment," she began. "When I returned, there was a man in my room, tearing it apart, looking for something. When he saw me, I ran, but he came after me."

"Why didn't you come to me, or to one of the stewards?" Andrews asked.

"I don't know," Brynne lied. She couldn't have run to him. It hadn't been simply an ordinary thug running after her. He'd been after the notebook, which meant that he hadn't been a native of this time. "I didn't think, I just ran," Brynne continued. "All I could think about was getting away from him. We ended up on the poop deck, and we fought there. I remember his hands around my neck, but I don't remember anything after that."

"That man, whoever he was, nearly strangled you to death," the doctor said. "If he had squeezed much harder or much longer … " He didn't finish the statement, as he didn't want to state the gruesome fact that everyone was already aware of.

"When we got to you, the man was gone," Andrews said, picking up where the doctor had left off. "The Master at Arms thinks he must've jumped overboard. They couldn't find any sign of him anywhere. I left them to investigate, and I brought you down here, to the hospital."

Brynne suddenly looked at Andrews, alarmed. After hearing the whole story recounted to her and having her memories return to her, she remembered the date and the time. "Mr. Andrews – the ship," she said, urgency filling her voice.

"What about it?" Andrews asked.

"The iceberg," Brynne pressed. "Have they started lowering the boats yet?" She didn't understand how he could remain so calm about all this. The ship was sinking out from underneath them.