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“I didn’t know... this is what I find so terrifying. I don’t recognise you or anything around me! As far as I’m concerned I live in Highgate, alone. I sit on the board of Ameeba and I oversee design for Ameeba. I am an independent woman, not some, some child!”
Doctor Blake reached out and covered Penny’s hand. “Calm down, Penny. I realise this is frightening, but it’s going to be okay. I’ll prescribe you some tablets to help with stress. I want you to keep taking them until I next see you. I’ll send off a referral for a scan as soon as possible, and we’ll go from there. I don’t want you to worry over much. It is important that you don’t feel alone in this. Have you spoken to Allison yet?”
Penny grimaced. “You seem to know so much about me and yet you’re a stranger to me. I rang Allie, but I think she thought I was simply pulling her leg.”
“Would you like me to explain all of this to her?”
“You know my sister?” Penny asked, astonished.
“Yes, of course I do, she’s my partner.”
Penny gasped. “Allie is a doctor?”
“No, she is my sexual partner.”
“Allie is...” She stopped, flummoxed.
“My sexual partner, yes. I can see from your reaction you genuinely don’t remember any of this. She and I have lived together for the past four years.”
“What about Jack, Lucy, and Tom?”
“Jack and who?”
“Her husband and two children.”
“Penny, Allie is a lesbian. She’s my lover, and sometime soon I hope she will agree to become my wife. There is no husband or children. Allie has never been attracted to men. You of all people should know that,” the doctor explained gently.
Overwhelmed by things that made no sense to her, Penny’s insides started to roil and tremble. Her hands shook. Aching behind her eyes made her head feel as though it was about to explode. Reeling to her feet, the attempt to stand proved too much. Her head swam, her vision receded.
“I...” But there was no time to say more, the world turned black.
* * *
“Darling, wake up! Penny?”
Foggily, she heard a man calling to her and opened her eyes. She jolted at the sight of David smiling down at her, an anxious expression on his face. It all came rushing back: the plane, the airport, the police station, her passport, and her sister. This was not a bad dream, this was real.
“I brought you a tray, breakfast in bed for my little girl. Do you remember anything more today?”
She dragged herself upright. Her face heated at finding herself alone in a bedroom with a man she didn’t know. Then she registered his words.
“Today?” she queried.
“Yes. You slept all through yesterday.”
“How long?” she asked, picking up the Disney princess mug and taking a sip. She noted the fact that she was in the girly bedroom, snuggled under the unicorn duvet. Why did that make her both uncomfortable and yet feel safer?
“You’ve slept for sixteen hours straight. Clare and I got you to bed. She gave you a shot to help you sleep. We both hoped you’d wake up with full recall.”
“Sixteen hours?” she mumbled, incredulous.
“Yeah. Clare’s worried that the news about Allie sent you over the edge. Is she right?” He sat on the end of the bed watching her.
“It’s not homophobia if that’s what she implied.”
“No?”
“No! I am staggered by the difference between what I know is real and here, because in my world Allie is happily married with two children, and yet now she has a different sexuality. I seem to have stepped into a place where everything is topsy-turvy!”
