Ivory Read Online Free Page A

you?” He suddenly wore a fixed
smile. “You have shown your concern by staying around. I am sure
it’s been noted.”
    In the fantasy world that he only dared to play out in his
head he punched the cynical nurse to the floor. “Seriously, I just
want to see that she’s okay.”
    “ So would we, but considering she would only let us clean her
up a little, even we don’t know how she is. And once her next of
kin collects her I doubt we will be seeing her for a follow up
exam.”
    That idea made him want to see her even more. Martin
sighed. “I just want to apologise to her. She deserves that at
least. I want to let her know that I care that this has happened
and that I didn’t just leave her.” The nurse gave an exaggerated
nod, Martin was sure the nurse wanted to accompany the gesture with
a roll of his eyes as he readied himself to reject Martin’s
request. “Look if you’re worried I might put pressure on her to
corroborate my story or that I might bribe her in some way then stand in the cubicle
with me. I am not ashamed of someone seeing my guilt. If I did want to bribe her or intimidate
her then I could sneak back later. Hospitals aren’t known for their
security, you know.” Martin huffed a half-laugh, trying to make
himself sound reasonable. “Besides it looks like she earns more in
a night than I earn in a week. I don’t think that what I could
offer her would sway her when she can probably quite rightly sue my
arse off.” He hadn’t thought of that until he had said it and hoped
it wouldn’t come to that.
    The nurse did roll his eyes now as he motioned Martin towards
the cubicle, as if Martin was going to give him cause for regret.
The nurse made a triangular parting in the curtain and poked a
thumb over his shoulder. “In you go then.”
    Martin
jogged the few paces to the curtain, but was stopped by the nurse
holding up a cautioning hand. “You’re good at making a reasoned
point but you might want to remember that she might forgive you in
there, but I sincerely doubt her ‘next of kin’ will. Personally I
would not hang around for him to arrive.”
    Martin’s
guts chilled and loosened and a sense of urgency overtook him. He
stepped hastily beyond the curtain, he would have to make this
quick – he didn’t relish the idea of that encounter.
    He was
confronted with his victim.
    The bare strip lighting lit her flesh, less than his car
headlights had, but her skin and hair still held a strikingly
brilliant luminescence. Her eyes were closed. Martin approached the
bed with a quietened step and measured pace. He realised there was
a reverence in his step that he hadn’t felt since the days when he
had followed his father up to the altar in church. He had abandoned
his father’s catholic faith in his teens mainly because he was an
atheist but also because it hurt his father. The powerful
architecture of ‘God’s’ houses of stone and coloured glass, and the
magical ritual thrall of the Eucharist had always created awe
within him, and he felt that same awe now. He threw a conscious
look at the nurse who stood watch over him, but found that the
nurse’s attention had been drawn in on the sleeping
girl.
    Martin rested his hands on the raised chrome cot sides in the
same way his father had done with the brass rail around the Holy
Mother to support him as he dipped down to one knee and
genuflected, it was ridiculous that the moment seemed to conjure
the memory of such a gesture. He struggled with a need to laugh at
the connections his mind was making, especially now he had no God,
but all thought of laughter was banished as he realised the blue
and purple bruising on one side of her face and a puckered crimson
break in her skin that ran across half her forehead above one eye.
Martin stole himself against the realisation that he could have
been staring at a corpse – and it would have been his fault. He
clenched his hands against a tremor of guilt, which quickly became
a start as her gently