Once I was by Mirko Neumann
Once I was…
by Mirko Neumann
I woke up to a piercing and throbbing pain in the side of my left leg and I still had this vision in my head, was it from a dream or did it actually happen I didn’t know, a young blond teenage girl being shot from behind and thrown into the back of a car.
When I looked at my left leg I realized that it must be broken because it had an external fixator on it. A young tall girl in her late twenties with blond hair, brown eyes and a lot of makeup watching me intently was talking to me with a soothing voice and calling me dad: “Dad, can you hear me? You had an accident, a car hit you, you got a broken leg but the doctors said you’ll be jumping around in no time.” A quiet woman in her 50’s stood by her side crying and the girl, “my daughter”, consoling her; “Mom it’s only a broken leg, he’ll be fine”. “My wife” was of medium height, brunette, pretty but not beautiful and well kept.
A tall, masculine looking muscular female nurse with heavy makeup came in, leaned over me and told me in a deep voice that if I felt any pain I should just push that button and that said she handed me a cable with a button at the end of it. She told me her name was Valentine and that she was in charge of that part of the ward. A speaker phone came on: “Dr. Valentine please come to the front desk!”. Valentine was giggling and told me that that was Gina the other nurse of her shift: “She always does that” and she left the room still giggling.
The medication was taking effect, I stopped feeling any pain, the voices of “my daughter” and “my wife” started drifting slowly away and shortly afterwards I “fell asleep”.
When I woke up I was alone in the room, but after a few minutes I heard a knock on the door and a police officer and a man in civilian clothes, what must have been the detective, entered the room. They introduced themselves as Detective Webster and Officer Minelli. When I looked closer the Detective had the same facial features as my wife, in fact I was pretty sure that it was my wife. He was quite feminine looking and when asking me some questions I noticed he had a kind of high pitched voice. Surprisingly Officer Minelli had the facial features of my daughter and also a feminine voice. They wanted to know about the accident and I told them: I saw a young girl being shot and pushed into the back of the car when I was hit by another car and lost consciousness and next thing I knew I was in the hospital. They asked me what the people looked like that shot that girl. I told them that it was raining and they all were wearing raincoats and hats and it was hard to make out their faces but they all were very muscular and I told them that I was able to make out the facial features of one of them, the one looking at me all the while: square face, dark hair, dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, in his forties, strong jaw, golden teeth, kind of Eastern European looking. They asked me, to my surprise, if I had any distant relatives which they could notify because they checked and they couldn’t find anyone. I told them that I didn’t remember. After a few more questions they left. I found a TV remote on my bedside table and turned on the news. There it was: the missing girl. Obviously the girl was a witness to an even bigger crime it seemed; a young Russian prostitute enslaved by the Russian mob and now dead. “…a key suspect of the murder is being treated at the County hospital and remains under police protection. “– that must be me I thought.
And moment later another nurse came in, a young man. Hang on! This was Nurse Valentine but not dressed as a female nurse but as a male nurse and without make up and now with short hair. And the speaker phone came on: “Dr. Valentine, please come to the front desk!” The man was giggling and saying: “she always does that.” and left the room.
After what seemed minutes I felt an excruciating pain in my leg again, I pushed the button for the pain medication and soon after I drifted off into No man’s land.
When I woke up I was strapped to a bed, I couldn’t move my arms or legs. I still felt the effect of heavy sedation and I was drooling onto the pillow case. My leg was fine although it still was hurting a little bit. The external fixator was gone. I didn’t know how much time had passed and why I was strapped to the bed. I felt sweaty and dirty and I was unshaven. My room smelled of a mixture of disinfection, urine and feces and I heard people screaming and moaning from other rooms on the ward – this wasn’t a regular hospital. I felt thirsty and started calling for the nurse. Soon after somebody unlocked the door – a big muscular man came in and without even looking at me injected something into the bottle of my drip, but hey, it was that Russian man who killed that girl. He smiled at me showing me his big golden teeth… but then …. I already started losing consciousness again wondering If I would ever come back: but hey man, …. once I was …. a witness to a crime….
* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Mirko Neumann 2017
