Starting Over by Robin Pilcher

Author:Robin Pilcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2011-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

The ambulance took fifteen minutes to reach them, but once the two paramedics had given Arthur a pain-killing injection and had carefully placed him onto the stretcher and loaded him into the back of the vehicle, it took only a further seven to get to the hospital. Liz sat beside him on the way, holding hard on to his hand as the ambulance sped through the crowded streets, its siren wailing like a banshee. Her concern now was not only for him, but also because even she could tell that the direction in which they were travelling was taking her farther away from the hotel.

Swinging off the road into a narrow service lane, the ambulance came to an abrupt halt under the brick-pillared entrance of the hospital. Quickly opening up the back doors, the two paramedics wheeled Arthur out, and having been given no indication as to what she should do, Liz followed on as they pushed the trolley through the frosted-glass swing-doors, above which was written the word URGENCIAS in dark red letters. There was a turmoil of activity inside, the long hallway crammed with doctors in green fatigues trying to organize and administer to the hordes of patients in need of attention. Young children with pallid faces sat quietly in oversized wheelchairs, whilst mothers monopolized the showing of grief, stroking fiercely at their child’s head and dabbing theatrically at their own tear-filled eyes with the edge of a handkerchief. An old woman, dressed in a black shapeless dress, moaned in pain as she was helped slowly to her feet. She clutched fiercely at her rosary beads and struggled to cross herself as her arms were clamped in support by medical staff who, emitting quiet words of sympathy, began to move her off at a snail’s pace along the corridor. There were others who appeared to be there for no reason apart from the show, leaning unconcernedly against walls with their hands in their pockets, and murmuring to each other every time another trolley was wheeled in through the entrance doors.

Liz was threading her way through the melée in pursuit of Arthur when one of the paramedics turned around and noticed that she was following. He waved a finger at her.

“¡No aquí, señora!”

“Could I perhaps come with you?” Liz asked.

He came back towards her, and taking her by the arm, guided her back to the double doors. He opened one and pointed at the words NO PASAR that were written across the frosted glass. Liz held out her hands, signifying to the man that she didn’t know what she was meant to do. He pointed at a plate-glass window behind which was the reception desk, and beyond that, a stark waiting room with lines of green chairs anchored together on long metal tubes. He walked out of the door and pointed to one that was adjacent. “La entrada está allí.”

Folding Arthur’s jacket over her arm, she went into the waiting room as directed and sat down, and watched through the plate-glass window as the paramedics wheeled Arthur away down the corridor.

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