Page 7 of Nobody's Girl

Chapter Three

Ivo sat with his head in his hands and didn’t see Desiree walking down the hospital corridor. The police had just left, and now Ivo felt hollow. He felt his friend put her hand on his back and looked up.

“I hit a girl, with my car,” was all he said and Desiree looked distressed.

“Oh, Ivo. Is she okay?”

Ivo shook his head. “I don’t know, they haven’t come to find me yet. The police were in there with her but they won’t let me in to see her.”

Desiree nodded and looked around for a nurse. “Let me see what I can find out, darling. They might be more responsive to a woman. Go get yourself some coffee, and splash some water on your face.”

When he got back, Desiree was talking to the doctor. After a few minutes, she came back to him. “They say the injuries from the accident are not serious. She hit her head, but there’s no sign of brain damage. What’s concerning them is that she’s sick. They think it might be meningitis.”

“Oh, god, poor kid. I can’t believe this. Listen, I actually met her, last night at the swimming pool. We swam together. I mean, we didn’t talk or anything, but it felt like we…I sound crazy. When I saw it was her that I had hit…Jesus.”

Desi rubbed his back. “From what the doctor’s told me, you couldn’t have hit her at speed.”

He shook his head. “No, I was crawling along, Paris traffic. She was having some kind of physical fight and then she fell onto the hood of my car.” He rubbed his eyes. “And you say she’s sick?”

Desiree nodded. “In a bad way, apparently. She’s conscious, but rambling. They don’t know who she is and she won’t tell them her name. It worries me, because without insurance…”

“She doesn’t need to worry about that,” Ivo said immediately, and got up. “Doctor, can I have a word? About the patient…please, I want to cover all the costs.”

The doctor peered at him over his glasses. “You realize it could run into hundreds of thousands of Euros, Mr.…?”

“Zacca. Ivo Zacca. And it doesn’t matter. All costs are to be billed to me. If the patient doesn’t want to say who she is, I’m sure she has a good reason.”

The doctor sighed. “It would help if we knew her medical history but…okay.”

“Can I see her?”

“She’s sedated at the moment, but…as she doesn’t have anyone else, I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you sat with her. I will need her permission though.”

“Of course.”

The doctor stepped into the girl’s room and a few moments later, he waved them in. Ivo felt irrationally nervous as he walked into the room. The girl’s skin was wan, almost yellow and she looked doped up to the eyeballs. Ivo smiled at her and pulled the chair up to her bed. Desiree stood back a little. Ivo took the girl’s hand hesitantly. The girl turned to look at him with deepest brown eyes he’d ever seen. Warm. Intelligent. Her hair, so black it was almost blue, fell in soft waves except for the places where it was matted with blood.

“Hey there…how are you feeling?”

She murmured something and Ivo frowned. “I didn’t get that, sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

“Merman,” Sofia said a little louder and Ivo laughed softly.

“That’s right…that’s where we met. I’m Ivo Zacca.”

“Sofia,” she said softly, opening her eyes fully now and looking at him. “I’m sorry I fell on your car. I didn’t mean to. He had my bag, he was stealing my bag…” Her eyes opened a little wider, alarmed. “Where is my bag? Where…” She gave a sigh of relief when Ivo held it up.

“Don’t worry about anything, Sofia, your bag is here. I haven’t looked inside, everything is as you left it.”

Desiree walked slowly to Sofia’s other side. “God, she’s so young.”

Sofia turned her head, fading fast now. “So pretty.” She said, staring up at Desiree who smiled at her.