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Chapter 3Kirsten opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. The artificial light of the room was too much for her eyeballs, raw from the smoke, to deal with.
'Mrs Cohen- you've woken up!' She decided not to bother replying to this statement, of which she was perfectly aware herself. She soon began to regret regaining consciousness as various parts of her body began to throb with pain. She tried to move but found her body would not obey her commands and she took a short, panicked gasp of fear.
'Don't worry- you're not paralysed but I wouldn't try moving again. The pain is probably enough whilst you're still.' Kirsten opened her eyes again and saw a young woman hovering above her. A man appeared next to her and Kirsten recognised him as a doctor.
'I'm glad you're awake- it's been over ten hours since you came in. Luckily your wounds weren't deep, although you lost of blood.' He turned to the nurse:
'Now there's space in the Burns Unit so if you could move some of the patients in there. Most of them will probably be panicking- sedate them if necessary- and try and find out about relatives and…you know what to do.'
An image suddenly came back to Kirsten: a huge pane of glass shattering into thousands of tiny sharp pieces that flew towards her unprotected body. Unprotected apart from the hands that shielded her face, the hands of..
'Sandy.' She croaked and the doctor turned back to her.
'Sorry? You're quite heavily sedated- if you're feeling any pain call for me or a nurse.' He bent down to her and inspected something on her shoulder. He then reached for an instrument on the trolley next to her bed and she felt a sharp stab of pain.
'Kirsten! Oh my God, look at you. Doctor, is she going to be ok?' Another face loomed into Kirsten's vision: it was Sarah, one of the many people she had recognised in the restaurant before it was engulfed in fire. Sarah had a huge plaster stuck to the right side of her face and she was being supported by the arm of her fourth husband- Kirsten didn't know this one, she had lost track after the second divorce.
'Where's Sandy?' she whispered and Sarah looked at her blankly, before she seemed to remember something and looked quickly at her husband.
'I….haven't seen him. Kirsten, I'm going to and phone your house- your son…I'll be back.'
'Is Sandy your husband? He was at the restaurant? When did you last see him?' the doctor had straightened up from dissecting her shoulder. She remembered a million sharp stabs of pain in her body and a feeling as though someone had plunged a knife into her stomach. She remembered her mind going blank as she fell backwards but never hit the floor. The doctor had called the nurse over again and was talking to her in a low voice.
'She came in on an ambulance with who?' The nurse replied, gesturing behind her. 'So there wasn't a man in the ambulance? She was just lying on the ground by herself?' The doctor swung round to Kirsten again:
'Mrs Cohen, are you sure your husband was with you at the restaurant? When did you last see him.' Kirsten was confused: Sandy can't have gone. Sandy rescued me. Sandy always rescues me.
'Mrs Cohen, calm down. We'll find him. Breathe slowly.' The doctor bent over her again as her breathing quite fast and shallow. He snapped his fingers at the nurse who reached up above the bed and handed him an oxygen mask which he fixed over her mouth.
'We'll put you back on this, it'll help you breathe. I'm going to find your husband Mrs Cohen so don't worry.' But Kirsten's mind had gone dark again- she couldn't cope with the painful thought of Sandy being gone even with the large amount of sedation she was presently under.
Seth and Ryan were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table, each picking at a bagel.
'So mom and dad still aren't back yet.' Said Seth.
'They could be in bed.' Suggested Ryan without any belief in what he said.
'Ryan. Have you noticed the floor is dry?' Ryan looked quizzically at Seth, wondering what, if anything, this was coming to:
'Therefore, Ryan, there is a severe lack of evidence to prove dad has been surfing which kind of proves he is not present. Also, Ryan..' Seth sniffed the air, 'Do you smell coffee?' Ryan was now sure Seth's Sherlock Holmes impression was severely lacking in a point.
'Because I don't, Ryan, and no coffee in the morning means no mother.' He concluded.
'Seth, their car isn't here.' Ryan pointed out.
'I was coming to that as another valuable piece of evidence…' The phone rang and Seth leapt from his chair and picked it up before it had even rung twice. Ten minutes later the abandoned bagels lay on the abandoned table as they slammed the door behind them.
'Hey mom. Are you…kind of…alive?' Seth looked in his mother who was barely recognisable under the swathes of bandages and the mask that covered most of her face. She reached up to the mask and attempted to pull it off but was too weak to manage so Seth tentatively pulled it off, expecting her to stop breathing straightaway.
'Hey. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so sorry you didn't know till now.'she whispered.
'Mom, it's not as if you could of done anything about it. So is dad ok?' Kirsten dropped her eyes from the boys and felt like she was choking in the smoke all over again. So if Sandy wasn't at home and if Sandy wasn't here, where else could he be.