Berberis' World

“It’s all a little vague,” she said, tiredly. “I remember hearing the siren and the bells but after that it’s all pretty…” she made a gesture with her hands, and shrugged. “Nothing.”

“So you heard the siren?”

She sighed, visibly irritated at the constant repetition. He had been questioning her for almost half an hour, and his habit of echoing everything she told him had begun to annoy her within thirty seconds. “As I said, I heard the sirens and the bells. Then it all went blank.”

“Blank?” he repeated. “Blank or black?”

“Black, blank, pear shaped… what difference does it make? I don’t remember what happened. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“It’s important,” he said quietly. “If it went blank, then it means you lost consciousness. If it went black, it means the lights went out.”

She looked at him, feeling a little embarrassed at her tone.  “Then I’d have to say it went a bit of both. Black and then blank and then black again. I don’t think I lost consciousness, but then I’m not a doctor…” she looked at him pointedly.

“No,” he smiled, “I guess that’s my job. Alright then, if we assume that you didn’t lose consciousness then you can be out of here as soon as we’ve checked you out. You may have inhaled some smoke, and… is your throat sore? Some of the others were complaining about sore throats. You?”

She shook her head. “The fire was on the floor above,” she said, nodding as though to confirm to herself what she had seen and heard, “and, yes I know smoke can fall, I don’t remember seeing anything in the air, or smelling anything.”

“Fair enough.” The doctor made a note on the chart he had been filling out since he started talking to her, then scribbled what she took to be a signature at the bottom. “Someone will be along in a moment to take you down to x-ray, then we can see what’s what. We’ll take some blood, too. Make sure there’s nothing wrong there.”

“Why should there be?” she said defensively. “Are you going to be testing me for drugs or alcohol? I don’t do drugs, you know. And it’s the middle of the bloody day! I don’t drink at lunchtime, it makes me sleepy.”

“We’ll make sure there’s enough oxygen in your blood,” he said with a wry smile. “If there isn’t, we can give you some.”

“Oh,” she said, quietly. She was feeling very tired now. The after-effects of the shock of the fire, and the heat in the cubicle had combined to overwhelm the caffeine which was coursing through her blood. They’d find plenty of that, she thought… enough to keep even a junior doctor going for a while. “Can I get some sleep now? I’m bloody knackered.”

“Of course,” he said, pulling the curtain around the bed. “But like I say, someone will be along in a minute, so don’t get too comfortable.”

“No chance of that on this heap,’ she murmured. “You’d have to be half dead to get a decent night’s sleep on this pile of metal. It’s like a torture device.” She rolled to her side, frowning as the plastic covered mattress squeaked and creaked as she moved. The smell of antiseptic was strong in her nostrils, but she was too weary to stay awake; her eyes were barely closed and she was asleep.