Chapter 3 – Waiting
It rained rarely in San Pueblo but when it did, it rained heavily and tonight was one of those nights. Keith Partridge was driving back from the airport after a long tour, heading towards his Mom's home on Sycamore Lane. It was a family tradition that once a month all the family would get together and he had missed the last six meals.
It was as he reached the driveway of 698 Sycamore Lane that it happened. He saw the single headlight of a motorbike rounding the corner in the road in his rear-view mirror just as a large sedan came careening out of control from the opposite direction. The motorbike was hit hard, sending it spiralling in front of his just stopped car and through the white picket fence, the motorbike only ending its devastating path by slamming hard into the side of the multi-coloured school bus; the rider being thrown high in the air to land hard on the front lawn.
Keith bent down and shook the young woman softly but she did not stir. He touched her hand and was surprised at how cold her skin felt. Fearing for her life, he pressed his hand against her neck, searching for a pulse. When he did eventually find one, it was weak and erratic. He took his leather coat off and placed it carefully over her too still body, trying to keep her warm. Keith leant forward and whispered through the rain, "Hold tight, you're going to be fine. I'll just be gone a minute, I'm going to phone for an ambulance and then I'll be back. Okay?"
He had not really expected an answer but a little part of him had hoped. He bolted inside, the rain streaming off him as he panted, "There's been an accident; a young woman's been knocked off her motorbike. Call an ambulance and tell them to hurry. Her pulse is hardly there."
The occupants of the house were stunned for a moment before all rushed into action. Shirley followed her son out into the rain. Laurie picked up the phone and dialled 911. Chris grabbed his medical bag and followed his mother and brother out into the dark night. Tracy and Danny stood unsure of how best to help eventually decided to follow the others to the front lawn, each taking with them an umbrella.
Keith again returned to the pale and bruised but beautiful woman. He brushed the hair lightly from her face as he whispered, "See I told you that I'd be back in a moment and I was. We're ringing for an ambulance." Looking up he saw Chris rush out the front door, holding the woman's hand, he added, "Any my younger brother's a doctor, he's going to take care of you until it comes."
Chris crouched down beside his brother and the woman and said, "Keith, find her pulse and hold it. Tell me if you lose it, if you do then we'll have to start CPR. Otherwise we'll keep her still until the ambulance arrives."
Shirley trusted her youngest son to the care of the woman, she looked at the mess that had once been her picket fence, following the trail of debris, she saw the wreckage of what was a motorbike smashed into the side of the old school bus that still held so many memories. A shudder ran through her, as she offered up a silent prayer for the hurt and unconscious woman that lay on her lawn.
Keith suddenly gripped Chris' arm hard, panic in his voice as he nearly screamed, "There's no pulse!"
Chris went into immediate action, throwing Keith's leather coat to the side and pulling her own jacket open. Finding her breastbone, Chris linked his hands and pushed down on the still chest, counting to five before he looked to Keith, who puffed a lung full of air into the cold, blue lips.
Five minutes had passed and the ambulance was still nowhere to be seen and the unconscious woman was still not breathing for herself. Shirley could see that her two sons were growing weak however they continued on, both determined to do all they could to keep this stranger alive. Shirley turned to Laurie and asked, "How long did they say that the ambulance would be?"
"Within ten minutes," Laurie replied.
Shirley nodded and hoped that her sons could continue to push life into the silent woman.
A minute before the ambulance could be heard coming down Sycamore Lane, Keith felt a slight thud against his cold fingers pressed against her neck. "Chris, I think I felt a pulse."
Chris sat back and waited as he watched for the rise of the woman's chest. Eventually her chest rose by itself, he checked the pulse and found it, still weak but definitely there. He covered her again with Keith's jacket and the group turned at the sound of the ambulance as it pulled hard up in front of Keith's parked car.
The paramedics placed the woman on a stretcher but not before checking her vitals, linking her to a heart monitor and inserting an IV drip. As she was placed in the ambulance, a paramedic turned toward the group of gathered people and said, "Now if one of you would like to come with her there is room."
Keith immediately stepped toward the open doors of the ambulance.
Shirley from behind him said, "No, I think that we'll stay here. She's not family, my son saw the accident and called the ambulance. We'll ring in the morning to see how she's doing."
The sound of the ambulance could be heard long after it had turned out of Sycamore Lane. A scowl crossed Keith's face as he turned from watching the ambulance turn out of sight. He grimaced at Shirley as the rain streamed down his soaked, wet hair and drenched clothes.
Shirley linked arms with him and headed them toward the warm comfort of the house and said, "You couldn't have gone to the hospital soaking wet. Come in, get dry, eat and then you can go to the hospital. You're manager Terry wouldn't be pleased if you caught a cold this close to your next tour."
Keith nodded his reluctant agreement, as he knew that Terry Reign would be furious with him if he caught a cold. He had insisted that Terry post-pone the last week of the tour so that he could return home and spend a week with his family. The family that he had not seen for the last six months, he had seen them individually at a gig when he was in a town close to where they lived. For the five minutes between the end of the concert and his being bundled into the train, coach or taxi to the airport before being sent to yet another town, another concert venue and yet another hotel. He had not even met Tracy's new boyfriend and they had been dating for the last five months.
But now as he sat at the dinner table, warm from the shower and with dry clothes once more about his person. He was warm in his body but not his soul, he should have been happy to be with his family, it was what he had wanted after all. But all he could think of was the beautiful, young blonde haired woman that had suddenly crashed into his life; that he and Chris had fought to save, fought to breathe life into her lifeless body.
He sat and picked at his food, not eating is just moving it about the plate as thoughts of her ran through his mind, 'Had she stopped breathing on the way to the hospital? Had they been unable to restore life to her again? Had she died from her injuries? Was she still unconscious? Or was she sitting awake, wondering who the dark haired stranger had been that had stayed with her, talked to her and helped to breathe life into her?'
Shirley sat and watched the eldest of her brood, knowing that the young woman that had been knocked off her motorbike by a skidding car had clearly affected her son. A sad almost far away expression crossed his tired face as she saw a look of almost longing for a normal life. For the life that the rest of her children had accepted when they had left the music business to their teens and childhood and moved on with their lives. She decided that she would get Reuben to talk with Mr. Reign and insist that he ease up on Keith's tour schedule, let him have some time off, time to be himself not the always on, always perfect Keith Partridge, which was far from the true nature of her son.
The meal was finished and Keith feigned tiredness from his long and busy tour schedule and prepared to leave. At the door Shirley approached him, taking his arm she whispered, "Don't stay too long at the hospital, see how she is, convince yourself that she's going to be okay and then leave. You can return tomorrow, you've only a few days until you're on tour again. Enjoy your time off; don't sit at the hospital worrying over a stranger. Promise me?"
Keith smiled at his mother, leaned in and kissed her cheek. He turned and left the house, quietly shutting the door behind him without promising her anything.
Shirley shook her head as he watched him leave, knowing her son, she knew that he would stay at the hospital until he was forced to leave and would wait with her until the tour started again in the vain hope that she would wake while he was there and he could learn the name of the woman that had affected him so.
As he approached the front counter, Keith shook his head with a rueful smile about his face, thinking back to his mother's statement before he left the house, she knew him far too well, knew that he would come here this night in the hope of seeing the young blonde haired woman again. He leant on the counter, Keith said to the pretty nurse behind it as he flashed his most winning smile, "Hi."
"Hello, can I help you?"
"Yes, I hope so. A young woman was brought into the hospital earlier this evening, she had a motorbike accident. I was wondering if you could tell me how she is doing and if it would be possible for me to see her."
The nurse nodded, flattered that the famous and attractive Keith Partridge was smiling seductively at her replying, "I'll page Dr. Blaine for you, he's assigned to her case. If you'd like to take a seat over there, I'm sure that he won't be long and if there's anything that you need don't hesitate to come to me."
Within ten minutes as the nurse had promised a tall dark doctor was approaching him, with a questioning look upon his face and the man said, "Hello, I'm Dr. Blaine."
Keith stood and extended his hand and asked, "Hello, I'd like to know the condition of the young woman that was brought in here earlier, she was in an accident; she'd been knocked off her motorbike by a car."
"Are you family?"
Keith with a winning smile in place once more replied, "I'm the closest thing that she has got, Dr. Blaine, I'm her fiancée."
"Does she not have any blood relatives?"
Keith lost the smile and gained an expression of complete sadness and replied, "No, I'm afraid that she doesn't, Doctor. I'm all that she's got."
Relenting Dr. Blaine replied, "You seem very concerned for her well-being. I mean you must be, to blatantly lie to me like that. I know that you're Keith Partridge and I'm certain that if you had become engaged every newspaper and magazine in the country would be working overtime on the story."
Keith smiled sheepishly and said, "I'm sorry. Will you please tell me how she is? I was the one that found her."
Nodding, the doctor sat down in the plastic seats as Keith did the same. Blaine sighed, took a deep breath and prepared himself to begin, it had been a long night and the last thing that he needed was to see such a beautiful young woman's life hanging precariously in the balance through a silly accident, he began by saying, "We've managed to stitch up the gash down her side but I'm afraid that she will always have a slight scar. Her sprained ankle has been bandaged. At the moment, though we are most concerned about checking for internal bleeding, replacing the blood that she lost and ensuring that her heart doesn't stop again. I understand that it is due to you and your brother that she's still alive now."
Keith nodded and took a shaky breath, before he asked, "Has she regained consciousness?"
"No, she may wake in a few minutes or it may take a few days or…"
Keith finished his thought, "Or she may not wake at all."
Dr. Blaine nodded sadly and replied, "I'm sorry. We are just unable to tell. She must choose to wake herself."
Keith with misty eyes asked, "Can I go in and see her?"
"Only for a few minutes, she's still very weak."
The young woman was laid upon the bed, the covers pulled up to around her waist. She had been put into a hospital gown; a drip in her arm was pumping blood back into her. She looked paler then she did when she was lying on the front lawn.
Keith again took her hand and sat on the chair next to the bed. Minutes passed as Keith gazed upon her, eventually sleep claimed him and his head slipped forward on the bed to rest on their combined hands.
It was an hour before the nurse on nights came around to check on the youngest of her patients, only in there due to an accident and the kindness of a stranger. She was surprised to see a man who appeared to be sound asleep; as she approached the bed in the half-dark she thought for a moment that the dark mane haired man was Keith Partridge but immediately dismissed the idea, shaking his shoulder, she whispered, "What are you doing in here?"
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he rubbed his hand across his face as he croaked, "Dr. Blaine said that I could sit with her for a few minutes."
Huffing, the nurse replied, "Yes, well I'm sure that he did. However, visiting time have been over for hours, I'm afraid that you will have to leave."
Not prepared or ready to leave, Keith's grip on the young silent woman's hand increased as he pouted at the nurse and pleaded, "Can't I stay, just a little longer?"
A smile played about the nurse's lips, "I'm sorry you can't, she needs her rest. Why don't you come and see her tomorrow, during proper visiting hours?"
Keith blinked owlishly at the nurse as a smile broke across his face, nodding, he said, "I will." Standing, he placed her hand gently back at her side before he leant forward so his face was merely inches from hers and whispered, "I will be back to see you tomorrow. I promise." He brushed his lips gently over her forehead, hoping that this young woman would wake in the next three days before his tour started again.
But alas she did not wake before the beginning of Keith's tour and he was forced to board the plane without yet knowing the name of the strange, intoxicating woman that haunted his very dreams.
