“Yes, sir.”
I nodded and walked back into the room where Nurse Bethany was attending to Sevyn. I stood back and watched as Sevyn’s eyes rested on me again warily.
“All right, Officer Fullwood. I’m almost finished here,” Nurse Bethany stated.
“Who is he? Is he a volunteer?” Sevyn asked in a voice low enough to be intimately between her and Nurse Bethany, but loud enough for me to hear.
Nurse Bethany turned around and flashed a warm smile at me. “Yes. Mr. Fullwood has been taking out time to sit with you daily since your arrival. He reads to you, tells you funny stories, exercises with you, and I believe that he prays with you.”
“I uhm, . . . the night of your accident . . .” I started, but Nurse Bethany subtly bobbed her head to the door.
“We’ll be right back, Mrs. Shields.”
I glanced at Sevyn briefly before I followed the nurse into the hallway.
“I’m not sure how much the doctors shared, but we don’t want to overshare and overwhelm her too much right now. She’s having a difficult time recalling details and doesn’t recallanything about the accident. If we submerge her in a flood of memories right away, we might risk further damage or trauma. Just take your time. If it comes up, and she asks about it, then proceed with caution.”
I shouldn’t have felt the relief that I did, but it was there. Relief that I wouldn’t have to tell her about the part I played in her accident right off the bat. Relief that I wouldn’t run the risk of further alienating her before I got the chance to know her.
“That’s fine. I can do that.”
“Good. Maybe read to her for another ten or fifteen minutes, and then the doctors want her to rest for a while.”
“Okay.”
I called Waverleigh, but I received her voicemail. I left her a quick message and headed back into the room where Sevyn appeared to be drifting off to sleep. But her eyes immediately flashed open upon seeing me again.
“What’s your name?” she asked with renewed interest.
“Deuce. Naeem Fullwood the second, but I prefer Deuce.”
“What have you been reading to me?”
“Mysteries mostly. Some of the newer releases on Kindle.”
She smiled at me. “I think I used to like listening to audiobooks.” Her smile slowly dropped as she looked at me with sad eyes. But then she perked up again. “Will you read to me?”
“I would be honored to read to you.”
THREE DAYS LATER
I was constantly filledwith frustration at not being able to recall simple things like what my job was, where I lived, and where my family was. The worst thing was that I couldn’t recall why I was in the hospital in the first place.
The only thing that I had been told was that I had been in a car accident. What didn’t make sense was how the man factored into my life. Everyone assured me that he was not related to me. They said he was a volunteer, but he seemed too familiar to me. The only answers I got about him was that he was an officer and volunteer who had come to sit with me every day.
Why would someone do that? What was his interest in me? I didn’t think he meant any harm, or at least I doubted that he did. I didn’t sense any danger coming from him. Actually, whenever he was around, I felt warm and protected. There was something about his presence that spoke of authority and security.
“Do you know him?” I asked Waverleigh when Deuce got up to use the restroom.
“I’ve come to know him since you’ve been in the hospital, but I didn’t know him before then. I’d just seen him around here at the hospital.”
“And yet, you authorized him to be added to my visitors’ list.”
“I did. Other than him being a volunteer, he was one of the officers at the scene of the accident that night. He’s friends with a couple of the doctors and some of the nurses. There have been other volunteers who dropped by to visit, but he just stuck around. I believe you touched his heart. If you ask me, I think it’s romantic,” Waverleigh declared as she unfolded another blanket to place over me.
“You would.” I laughed, and Waverleigh turned and squinted her eyes at me.
“How do you know that?”
