Before I Wake Read Online Free PDF Page B

right.” Such a bastard.
    She nodded. I slipped my arm around her back, shifting as she snuggled into me. “How is she?”
    â€œThe doctor came in just after you left, checked her, said that everything was stable. They’ll do some more tests in the morning. Have you had anything to eat?” She gestured at an untouched hospital tray.
    Mary had made me a couple of slices of toast and a poached egg. The smell of the hospital room was making the food congeal in my belly. “I’m fine.”
    â€œThey’ll be bringing a cot up soon, so one of us can sleep here. I don’t want to go home tonight. I don’t want to leave.”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œOne of us has to sleep in the chair, though.” She gestured at the molded plastic furniture and grimaced.
    â€œI’ll take the chair.”
    â€œNo, you take the cot. I probably won’t sleep anyway.”
    In the end, neither of us slept. The cot stayed folded up where the orderly left it. We stood at the bedside all night, not speaking, watching our daughter dying before our eyes, though only one of us knew it.
    HENRY
    I walked downtown from Hillside Centre, through James Bay, then along the water and back into downtown. I needed to keep moving. I kept checking behind me, half-expecting the police or the mother of that little girl to be following me, but no one seemed to notice me. There was no eye contact with anyone, no strange looks.
    But everywhere I went I could feel her with me. I could feel the little girl I had hit in the crosswalk hovering over me. I could almost see her.
    It felt like I was drifting, but I wasn’t surprised when I found myself outside the hospital. It was where I had been heading all along, without even realizing it.
    The little girl’s mother was sitting in the waiting room, a bandage around her head. A man sat on the vinyl bench next to her. They each held a coffee cup, and they both looked up when I came into the waiting room. I took a step back, but she had no way of recognizing me.
    They both turned away. I was completely alone, a ghost, a spirit haunting their lives.
    A doctor brushed past me, and the two of them stood up as he came over to them.
    I didn’t hear too much of what he said. Coma. Accident. Their names.
    Simon. Karen. Sherry.
    Sherry was the little girl’s name.
    It was late in the afternoon before I even thought of Arlene and the kids. Would the police have come to the apartment looking for me? Arlene must be worried sick. For a moment I thought about going home, or at least calling to let them know I was all right.
    But I didn’t.
    I wasn’t.
    Â 
    Victoria New Sentinel
Thursday, April 25, 1996
Hit-and-Run
Girl, 3, comatose following accident
Police Seek Driver
~ City Desk ~
    Â 
    The family of three-year-old Sherilyn Barrett waited anxiously last night for a change in their daughter’s condition following a hit-and-run accident on Hillside Avenue yesterday morning. The girl has been in a coma since being struck by a vehicle while crossing at a marked crosswalk near Hillside Centre with her mother, Karen Barrett.
    â€œIt’s really too early to tell,” said a hospital spokesperson yesterday afternoon. “We’re optimistic.”
    Police are requesting that anyone who may have seen the accident please contact their local detachment to assist in the investigation. Police are also seeking Henry Denton, 24, for questioning.
    Â 
    KAREN
    â€œCan I take a look at that file?” Simon asked, gesturing to the folder that Dr. McKinley was holding loosely at his side. The doctor was looking freshly pressed in clean greens. It seemed we were his first stop of the morning.
    He hesitated just a beat before handing it over. “Let me know if there’s anything in there you can’t read, or would like me to explain.”
    â€œSimon does a lot of personal injury work,” I explained. “He’s good with