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“Oh,” the woman’s voice said. “Doctor Overton. My name’s Doctor Jillick. The medical kind.”
I should hope so...
“Glad to have you with us,” she said. “You gave us all a bit of a scare today.”
“Need to sit up. My back hurts,” I said. I tried for the bandage again. “Take this off.”
An unfamiliar hand stopped me this time. Doctor Jillick, I assumed. “Okay, we’ll sit you up first and I’ll ask you some questions before we remove the bandages. How does that sound?”
“As if I have very little choice.”
Tully snorted, though it sounded like he sobbed. “He’s fine.”
The bed began to incline, and I was soon half sitting up. I wasn’t sure if it was better or worse.Better, I think.
“Can you tell me if you have pain?”
“Uh. Yes, though it’s hard to localise. It’s just... all over.”
Tully took my hand again. The left, this time. Doctor Jillick was on my right.
Trying to garner some sense of space helped, and I tried to think about my body.
“My back. Lower back.”
“It could be kidney related. We’re running more blood and urine tests. You had some pigmentation present in your urine, which we’ve counteracted.”
“Alkalisation.”
There was a pause as if she was surprised I’d know this. “Yes.”
“My head hurts,” I said. “A dull headache. No sharp pain. I feel dizzy. My chest hurts—left side. My heart feels skittish. My right knee hurts. My teeth hurt. But I ache all over. My bones ache. Should a skeleton ache? I’m not sure it should.”
Tully lifted my hand to his face. It seemed to hurt him to hear.
“Your brain activity is normal,” Doctor Jillick said. “Your ECG is on the weaker side of normal and there is some atrial fibrillation, but that’s not uncommon with lightning injury. We have you on medication for that, and we’ll continue to monitor you for forty-eight hours. You have an electrical burn entry point on your left side near your ribs, which would explain the pain. You also have exit wounds on the soles of both feet,” she said. “They’re small, approximately five millimetres each, full-thickness burn.”
Wow.
“A dull headache is expected,” she continued, “and may not subside for a while, for weeks even. It’s very common for headaches to persist after a lightning-strike injury. All things considered, you were very lucky.”
A lightning strike.
I don’t know why I was surprised to hear her say it.
There was a moment of silence. “Doctor Overton,” she said, her tone different this time. “Do you remember being struck by lightning? You seemed surprised when I said that just now.”
“I remember,” I began, trying to recall. “I remember Tully’s face... and seeing the sky. Nothing else.”
He pressed my hand to his cheek. “You told me to run,” he said.
I tried to remember more, but I had nothing.
“We were on the island,” I murmured. “Then I was here. I’d like to take this bandage off now.” I pulled at the gauze again, and no one stopped me. I wanted to see whatherelooked like.
I needed to see Tully.
“Let me,” Doctor Jillick said, and then she unwound the bandage from around my head. “Keep your eyes closed for me. And don’t be alarmed if your vision’s not normal. You may need to adjust.”
