She could hear a voice; she opened her eyes and looked towards where the sound of the voice was coming from.
It was a stranger and she was wearing a uniform, she was a nurse, her blue eyes set in her round face had a look of relief in them.
“How are you?” the nurse asked. “We’ve been a little concerned. What is your name?”
“Jenny” Replied the young woman lying in the bed. Then she remembered. She had struck her head when she had slipped somehow. “Jenny Long, how long have I been here?” she asked looking around the small room. She was obviously in some kind of hospital ward. “What has happened to me?” She asked anxiously meeting the nurses eyes with her own.
“We are hoping you can tell us Jenny. I have to ask you a few questions. Do you feel up to it? My name is Sarah. I am a staff nurse and you are in St Thomas’s on the embankment. You’ve had some kind of accident. You’ve been her about two hours. Now can you tell me who you are? Or shall I come back later?”
Jenny started to push herself up on her elbows but Sarah shook her head sideways, and stopped her. “No lie still awhile, you are to be examined by the Doctor.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed, and produced a clipboard.
“Your full name please Jenny?”
“Jennifer Anne Long.”
“Where do you live?”
“180 Southfield Road, Chiswick.”
“Are you married?”
“No, I live alone.”
“Next of kin?”
“My mother I suppose. She lives in Sidcup, Kent.”
“Do you want her to be informed?”
“No not yet.” She felt that would only alarm her mother.
“How old are you Jenny?”
“Twenty two.”
“Do you have a boyfriend or partner?”
“No, not at the moment. Now what is the matter with me?”
Sarah smiled. “That’s what we have to got to find out. Do you have a job?”
“Yes I work for Inter Insurance. Gosh they will think I’ve left my job.” She felt alarm as she realised that she should be at work. “Now don’t worry Jenny, we will get someone to tell them where you are. Do you remember what happened yet?”
Jenny felt relieved that her employers would be informed as to her whereabouts.
“Yes, I slipped on something under the scaffolding by Waterloo underground, then I hit my head on something, that’s all I remember.” She felt an ache in her crotch. “I need the toilet Sarah.”
Sarah reached under the locker by the bedside and produced a paper-mache, hat-like object.
“Use this.”