Tim and Nurse Capri

Anna was fond of Crystal but she did not approve of her careless attitude to life and to men. Crystal tended to give the impression that she looked upon nursing as a stopgap until she found a husband. But that would be a very long time, as there was a man in her life every few weeks. Anna did not envy her friends success with the opposite sex but she did marvel at Crystal’s skill in juggling her affairs.

“Sorry you found the apartment in such a mess,” Crystal said as she took the cup of tea from Anna’s hand.

“You’ll never guess who came into Emergency two nights ago!”

“I won’t even try, I’m hopeless at guessing games,” Anna replied. I’m talking about a famous personality, Crystal said excitedly.

Anna was tired. She shrugged a slender shoulder. “I haven’t got a clue and I don’t think I know any famous people.”

“You know Tim Carey, don’t you?” Crystal demanded, a little impatiently. “Oh, I don’t mean in the flesh but you know of him right?”

“I’ve read his books and I’ve seen some of his plays and I admire him tremendously. What was he doing in Emergency anyway, signing copies of his new book?” Anna was a little upset that Tim Carey should visit Good Samaritans when she happened to be on holidays.

“If you must really know, he was bleeding all over my jacket,” Crystal returned. “Aren’t there such things as newspapers in Newport Beach?”

Anna’s eyes widened. “He was a patient,” she said foolishly.

“No-just a friend dropping in for a quiet heart operation to pass a dull evening,” Crystal said, grinning with affection.

“Was he badly hurt?”

“He crashed his car into a parked Palm Tree while talking on his cell. Phone. It happened on Beverly Blvd. And Fairfax Avenue.” He put his head through the windshield, apparently. He was badly cut up and lapsed into a coma. He was still in a coma when I came off duty

He broke three ribs and cut his face and head a little, but not enough to spoil his good looks, though. “ I even forgave him for ruining my jacket!” her impish grin flashed once more. He had a passenger by the way, Becky Rathwell.

She escaped without a scratch but she made so much fuss in Emergency that I’d preferred her to be stretched out unconscious!  “He’s in a private room, of course with all his money one wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“Any brain damage?” Anna asked anxiously.

Crystal shook her head. “Nothing showed on the x-rays. But no one knows until he comes out of the coma and he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to wakeup.” She yawned widely.

“Look, we can talk later, I must get some sleep now Anna.”

Anna would be on duty in the ward where Tim was staying the next morning, and would be granted all the opportunities to attend to Tim Carey’s needs.

Tim awoke slowly, reluctantly, aware of a lot of stiffness and a pain that vaguely surprised him, of the cool harshness of unfamiliar sheets. He kept his eyes closed, struggling to assure himself that he knew perfectly well where he was and what he was doing there. The room was quiet but beyond the closed door there was sound of movement, the murmur of indistinguishable voices, the scuffle of hurrying footsteps and the squeak of rubber wheels on a freshly polished floor.

He did not want to wakeup. He wanted to return to the comfortable, cloudy depths of a strange oblivion. His head was aching terribly. A hangover, he wondered, and struggled to remember how he had spent the evening before waking up in this bed. But the effort to remember was too painful, and he decided it did not matter for the moment.

He forced his eyes to open, partly because he was curious to know more of his surroundings, partly because sunlight was crossing the bed and was too bright for comfort. He decided that he was dreaming. Dreams could be amazingly vivid but not quite real-and so did he at the moment. Later he would wake to the familiar comfort of his own bed, his own