The Ripple Effect: Book One (A time travel romance) (The Ripple Effect Series 1) by Cally Jackson

Author:Cally Jackson [Jackson, Cally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

Or maybe my letter hasn’t even arrived yet. I’m certainly not going to ask.

***

Finally, Toby pulls up out the front of the ED at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. “Are you okay to walk in by yourself? I need to park the car. Or we could walk in from the car park together?” His concern is touching, especially given the circumstances.

“I’m okay to walk in on my own.”

“Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I try to smile at him but can’t. I’m in too much pain. I grab the bucket, get out of the car and walk inside slowly. The ED’s pretty busy, with several people seated on the rows of chairs in the waiting area. My hand is radiating pain and my head’s absolutely pounding as I join the queue in front of the admissions desk. I’m one person from the front of the line when Toby joins me. “You doing okay?” he asks me.

“I’m feeling woozy,” I say faintly. Without saying anything, he wraps his arm around me, helping me to stay standing.

The person in front of me moves, and I’m finally at the desk. “Want me to do most of the talking?” Toby asks quietly.

I nod.

Toby tells the lady at the admissions desk my name and puts his hand underneath mine to hold it out to her. “She’s been bitten by a redback spider.”

“Oh dear,” she says. “That looks nasty. What’s your date of birth, love?”

“The seventh of the sixth, two thousand and one,” I say. The lady and Toby both stare at me with confused expressions. It takes me a moment to realise why.

Fuck.

I close my eyes for a second. “Sorry. Spider venom’s obviously gone to my brain. It’s the seventh of the sixth… um…. nineteen um… sixty-two.”

The lady lets out a sympathetic laugh. “That makes more sense. Do you have a DSS card?

DSS? I’m confused, and not just from the spider bite. Toby looks at me uncertainly. “Department of Social Security?”

It clicks. That must be what Centrelink is called in the 80s. No Medicare yet.

“Um, I don’t have it on me.”

“Okay. Unfortunately that means we’ll have to invoice you for the cost of your treatment.”

“I don’t have any money on me either.”

“It’s okay. I’ll cover it,” Toby says. I’m in too much pain to protest. Plus I don’t really have another option.

“Take a seat and a doctor will be with you as soon as possible,” the admissions lady says.

Toby and I are only sitting down in the waiting area for a couple of minutes before an Emergency Doctor calls me through to a bed. I guess I’ve been triaged as high priority. Hopefully that doesn’t mean I’m taking someone else’s place. Toby follows me through the ED and sits on the chair beside the bed. I appreciate him being here so much. It definitely makes me feel less scared and alone.

“Are you certain it was a redback spider that bit you?” the doctor asks, examining my hand.

“Yes. It was small, black and had a red stripe on its bum.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.