Karen’s eyelids fluttered, trying to open. Something was hurting her wrist. She caught a brief glimpse of it handcuffed to the side of a hospital bed before her eyes closed again.
“Your name?”
Karen heard the voice, but couldn’t open her eyes at all now. She felt like a dentist had turned the laughing gas up way too high. Obviously sedated. Still, she thought she was speaking aloud when she gave her name.
“Occupation?”
She gave it. Whether aloud or not, she couldn’t tell. Then her mind wandered under the sedation. Occupation… What had her occupation really been in life? Not her job, certainly. Beauty. She’d so wanted to find beauty. She’d found it with Frank. But there was still so much ugliness elsewhere. At first outside of, and then inside, that storage space building she’d at last escaped. Where she’d actually imagined she heard the building itself, telling her of all its secrets, of all the treasures still hidden behind its corrugated metal walls. Where Frank must have killed Martin and she herself had killed Irwin after he’d… When her eyes fluttered open… Had she seen fresh bandages on her old wounds and an intravenous, or was that wishful thinking? How had she ended up handcuffed to a hospital bed? Briefly she remembered…OMG it was Irwin!…telling her to stab that emergency worker in the back.
“So you didn’t kill Irwin after all?”
OMG what had she been babbling about? Her head started to spin, but how could that be when she was already passed out.
“Social security number?”
Karen gave it. Maybe she’d just imagined the previous question.
“Date of birth?”
She gave it.
“Sexual preferences?”
Huh???
