Page 11 (1/2)

"Maybe you’re right, but I still--"

"I aht," he said "There’s no maybe about it Give yourself a break, Dr Tracy"

A woed Dr Hannaport on the hospital’s tinny public address system

"Thank you for your time," Carol said "You’ve been irl if you want I’m sure you’ll find she doesn’t blaaudy lounge, in answer to the page’s call; the tails of his white lab coat fluttered behind him

Carol went to the pay phones and called her office She explained the situation to her secretary, Thel of the patients she had intended to see today Then she dialed hoht ot to drive down to O’Brian’s office and pick up a new set of application papers Ours

were lost in the mess yesterday So far, this has been a day I should have slept through"

"Ditto on this end," she said

"What’s wrong?"

She told him about the accident and briefly summarized her conversation with Dr Hannaport

"It could have been worse," Paul said "At least we can be thankful no one was killed or crippled"

"That’s what everyone keeps telling me: ‘It could have been worse, Carol’ But it seeht?"

"Yeah I told you I wasn’t even scratched"

"I don’t ether emotionally? You sound shaky"

"I am Just a little"

"I’ll come to the hospital," he said

"No, no That’s not necessary"

"Are you sure you should drive?"

"I drove here after the accident without trouble, and I’oing to do is, I’ over to Grace’s house She’s only a e off my clothes, dry them out, and press them I need a shower, too I’ll probably have an early dinner with Grace, if that’s all right by her, and then I’ll co"

"When will you be hoht-thirty"

"I’ll miss you"

"Miss you, too"

"Give my best to Grace," he said "And tell her I think she is the next Nostradamus"

"What’s that supposed to htured in both She was afraid so to happen to you"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah She was e senile or so yesterday?"

"Yeah But she felt so bad"

"And it did"

"Creepy, huh?"

"Decidedly," Carol said She re, silvery object drawing nearer, nearer

"I’m sure Grace’ll tell you all about it," Paul said "And I’ll see you this evening"

"I love you," Carol said

"Love you, too"

She put down the phone and went outside to the parking lot

Gray-black thunderheads churned across the sky, but only a thin rain was falling now The as still cold and sharp; it sang in the power lines overhead, sounding like a swarry wasps

The semiprivate room had two beds, but the second one was not currently in use At the irl was alone

She lay under a crisp white sheet and a crea She had a headache, and she could feel each dully throbbing, burning cut and abrasion on her battered body, but she knew she was not seriously hurt

Fear, not pain, was her worst enehtened by her inability to reued by the inexplicable yet unshakable feeling that it would be foolish and exceedingly dangerous to re why, she suspected that full remembrance would be the death of her--an odd notion that she foundelse

She knew her amnesia wasn’t the result of the accident She had athe street in the rain a minute or two before she had blundered in front of the Volkswagen Even then, she had been disoriented, afraid, unable to ree city in which she found herself and unable to recall how she had gotten there The thread of herprior to the accident

She wondered if it was possible that her a horrible in the past Did forgetfulness somehow equal safety?

Why? Safety fro from? she asked herself

She sensed that recovery of her identity was possible In fact her h the past lay at the bottoh to touch; all she had to do was sue to poke her hand into that lightless place and grope for the truth, without fear of what ht bite her

However, when she tried hard to rerew until it was no longer just ordinary fear; it beca terror Her stoht, and she broke out in a greasy sweat, and she becae of unconsciousness, she saw and heard soment of a dreahtened her nonetheless The vision was coe The iht, a silvery gli back and forth in deep shadows; a gleaed and threatening but not identifiable, a loud ha noise, yet more than that

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

She jerked, quivered, as if so had struck her

Thunk!

She wanted to scream, couldn’t

She realized that her hands were fisted and that they were full of twisted, sweat-soaked sheets

Thunk!

She stopped trying to remember who she was

Maybe it’s better that I don’t know, she thought

Her heartbeat gradually slowed to nor Her sto sound faded

After a while she looked at theA flock of large, black birds reeled across the turbulent sky