Deleted Hospital Scene (Explanation of above)
Obviously this scene was deleted as it was no longer required. I hope you found all this interesting.
‘One, two, three, clear,’ a loud thwacking sound jerked through my head. What was going on? My body felt numb, in fact I couldn’t feel my body at all.
‘No vitals.’
‘Okay, we go again. One, two, three, clear.’
Thwack.
‘Still nothing.’
‘Don’t stop, please don’t stop.’
‘Stand back and let us do our job.’
‘Again. One, two, three, clear.’
That I felt. A blinding flash of pain in my chest, and my body seemed to almost break in two. My heart gave a little jerk, then faltered. My heart. Something happened to my heart. Something…
‘There was a reaction there! Go again.’
‘One, two, three, clear.’
Thwack.
Another blast of pain. My body seemed to convulse. Oh Jesus Christ and all the apostles that bloody hurt. What’s happening to me? My heart gave a little hiccup, tickling my chest, faltered, gave another little hiccup and started.
I wanted to open my eyes but they felt so heavy. I could hear voices all around me, a sensation of being carried. Someone clinging onto my hand. Then as it all blurred into a confusion of grey and black and nothingness, my last thought was “I still have a heart?”.
‘What can I tell you Miss de Salle other than you’re an incredibly lucky young woman?’ the consultant told me. ‘Can you honestly not remember what happened to you?’
I shook my head. ‘I must have been mugged.’
He gave a sniff. ‘It doesn’t explain your injuries. No, not at all.’
‘My understanding is that I was found in the lane outside my cottage,’ I said knowing I was on fairly safe ground, ‘maybe it was a hit and run.
He shook his head. ‘Apart from a bump on your head, probably from when you hit the kerb, there were no other injuries except to the left side of your chest. At first we thought the bruising to your heart may have been due to some overenthusiastic heart massage during CPR but,’ he gave a sigh, ‘I doubt we’ll ever know.’
I nodded, wishing either he’d go away or my taxi would arrive. I’d been in the hospital for almost seven days and I wanted out. The place was full of spirits, most of them depressed and in denial. They were bad enough but there were a couple who had been hypochondriacs in life and in death were no better. They thrived on it and I doubted would ever pass over. They liked it too much. All those illnesses, all those ailments, they were in their element.
‘Anyway,’ he said pushing himself away from the wall upon which he’d been leaning as he pondered my notes for about the hundredth time, ‘I’ll wish you well and hope that in the nicest possible way we never see you again,’ he paused at the door, ‘though if you should have any chest pains at all you dial 999 and get yourself into A and E pronto.’
‘Thank you doctor.’
He nodded. ‘Good luck,’ and he ducked out of the room.
I gave a heartfelt sigh of relief. Everyone had been so very kind, but they kept hoping they’d find something, anything, to explain the cause of my injuries and it just wasn’t going to happen.
For those of you that have read Marked, and I suspect you may have if you’ve found yourself perusing my website, you can see that these were a completely different and, in retrospect, a pretty unsatisfying couple of scenes. Sometimes it takes someone else saying “nah” for you to see something for what it is. Now when Nicola and Jo come back with their comments it’s like having a virtual brainstorming session. They leave it to me to come up with alternate ideas, but tell me where they think the story is weak or disjointed or just plain wrong! And actually, believe it or not, it is quite good fun!
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