The Half Life of Joshua Jones by Danny Scheinmann

Author:Danny Scheinmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783521203
Publisher: Unbound

CHAPTER 15

Mikey’s lips scrunched up into a tight, wrinkled hoop like a cat’s anus and his eyes bulged demonically. I tried to get up but he pushed me back to the ground. I was vaguely aware of raised voices further down the ward. Two nurses were running to see what all the commotion was.

‘I caught this man sexually assaulting my girlfriend,’ he said.

‘She’s not your girlfriend. You told me yourself. You said it was over. You don’t own her.’

‘He was forcing himself on a woman in a coma. It’s not right.’

‘I wasn’t forcing myself on her, I was kissing her.’

‘She’s in a fucking coma. She couldn’t exactly say no.’

‘It’s not what you think. We’ve kissed before.’

‘What? When?’ Mikey looked appalled.

‘Before she tried to kill herself. I love her, I’m trying to help.’

‘What do you mean you love her? You said you had only just met her.’

A hefty security guard was ploughing his way through the ward towards us.

‘What’s going on?’ he said.

‘This man was assaulting a patient. He was kissing her and had his hand between her legs,’ Mikey hissed.

I stared at him in disbelief.

‘He’s lying,’ I protested.

The security guard looked from Mikey to me, trying to assess who was guilty before turning to the nurses for guidance.

‘I saw him kissing her,’ one of the nurses said, ‘but I was too far away to see anything else.’

‘I admit I gave her a kiss. Is that a crime? As for the rest, it’s a total fabrication.’

I brought myself up on to my feet. ‘He’s jealous.’

Mikey shook his head angrily. ‘Jealousy has got nothing to do with it. He doesn’t know her, he has no right to even touch her, let alone do what he did. Look, I’ve known Angela for years ... ’ He pulled out his wallet and produced a photograph of the two of them arm in arm on a park bench, ‘ ... and I’ve never seen this man until I met him here.’

This somewhat tenuous documentary evidence seemed to persuade the guard and he cupped my arm in his.

‘I am going to have to ask you to leave the hospital,’ he said, in the kind of officious voice that is the reserve of those with an over-inflated opinion of their limited power.

‘I will not leave,’ I said, pulling away from him. ‘Angela needs me.’

‘Needs?’ Mikey bridled.

‘I’m the only one who talks to her. She communicates to me.’

‘Don’t you see what is happening here?’ Mikey said to the security guard, the nurses and all the other visitors who had gathered round to listen. ‘This man has the misfortune to witness the suicide attempt of an extremely beautiful girl and then fantasises that he is her boyfriend. Somehow he inveigles himself into the ambulance and finds himself at the hospital and now he thinks he can do whatever he wants with her, when in reality he is nothing more than a stalker.’

‘That is your version of the truth,’ I retorted, ‘but you don’t know the half of it. Angela threw herself on me.

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