The Value Of Valor - KJ3 Read Online Free PDF

child. You’ll injure yourself further.”
    “What happened to me?”

    Lynn Ames

    “You were in a very bad car accident.” Terri considered carefully what she wanted to say. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
    The woman seemed to consider. “I…” Her jaw worked for a minute in silence and a lone tear leaked out of her right eye. “I don’t know.”
    “Do you remember who else was in the car with you?”
    “What?”
    “It’s okay. No need to worry about that now. How about your name, can you tell me that?”
    The woman tried to shake her head, the agony of the motion causing her to cry out sharply.
    “Shh. It’s all right. Everything’s going to be fine.” Terri sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped comforting arms around the woman.
    “I’m scared.”
    “I know. Shh. It will be fine; you have to trust me. You’re safe here.
    Nothing will hurt you.”
    “H-hurt me?” She wondered at what she considered an odd choice of words. “Why can’t I remember anything?”
    “Sometimes after the brain is injured, it takes time to regain memory.
    You took a very nasty blow to the head, and your body needs time to heal itself.”
    “What if I never remember?”
    “When the time is right, you’ll remember. I know it.” Terri thought about the ring in her pocket but decided she had pushed the woman hard enough for the moment. “I’ll tell you what.”
    The eyes the injured woman turned to her were full of sadness and fear.
    “We have to call you something. Pick a name you think is pretty.”
    After a second’s hesitation, the woman said, “How about Alexa?”
    Terri smiled. “Alexa is a beautiful name. I think it suits you.” Before she had finished her sentence, the woman had fallen asleep.

    Terri turned Alexa’s ring over in her hand, staring at it. She was still debating whether or not to show it to Alexa in the hope that it would trigger her memory. She didn’t feel qualified to make that judgment.
    Terri wished she’d taken a rotation in psychology while in medical school, but she’d been more interested in infectious diseases, deciding it would be of more practical help to her people.
    She thought about the one person outside of the reservation she trusted to help her with Alexa’s care. She glanced at the bedside clock: 6:33 a.m. Andrea always was an early riser. She dialed the familiar phone number of one of her best friends from medical school and one of the finest psychologists she knew.
    “Andrea Marsden.”

    The Value of Valor

    “Hello, old friend.”
    “Terri!” The voice on the other end was warm, like liquid honey. “It’s awfully early in the day, even for you.”
    “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
    The woman laughed. “You know better than that. At this hour, though, I doubt you’re calling me just to catch up.”
    “Perceptive, as always, Andy. I have a difficult problem, and I need some advice.”
    “I’m listening.”
    When Terri had filled Andrea in on the few details there were to Alexa’s story, she got down to the heart of the problem. “Should I ask her about the dead woman, the passenger?”
    “No. It could be very traumatic.”
    “Okay, here’s the second question. When she came to me, she was wearing a diamond wedding band. She was unconscious and her hands had cuts, bruises, and swelling. In cleaning her up, I removed the ring.
    I’ve had it ever since.”
    “She doesn’t know about it?”
    “No. I haven’t shown it to her yet. I guess the question is, should I?
    Will it help her regain her memory?”
    There was silence on the line for several moments as the psychologist considered the question. “It’s possible. But, Terri, I think it’s more likely that it would serve to frustrate her. It could set her back.”
    “How so?”
    “She’s suffered traumatic amnesia, as you know. She’s in a dissociative fugue. Usually in a case like this, memory recovery would be triggered by contact with something, or someone, from the past. In