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Carolyn was looking around and not making eye contact. “Jason was sleeping during the day. Then I had to get dinner ready. I decided to come after he left.”
“Carolyn,” she said. “Did you fall down the stairs?”
“I did,” Carolyn said. “I tripped.”
Thankfully there were a series of questions that were asked now and she went through them all. The last was, “Do you feel safe at home?”
There was just enough hesitation for Liz to know she could push more. “Yeah,” Carolyn said, then put her head down again.
“Listen, Carolyn,” she said. “This is a safe zone. If someone did this to you.”
“I fell down the stairs.”
“If someone caused you to fall down the stairs. Maybe you were trying to get away and in your haste you tripped. We can get you help. You don’t have to stay and take it.”
“It’s not like that,” Carolyn said.
“Okay,” Liz said. There was no reason to push more now. Carolyn would be here for a bit and she’d come back and work on her. She had other patients to deal with. “Let me just examine you and finish up with these questions and a doctor will be in to see you. I want to say soon, but it’s the ER and that isn’t always the case. You’ll need X-rays for sure. I might be able to get you in for them quickly. When I’m done, just lie back and relax some if you can.”
She left Carolyn ten minutes later and returned to her other patients.
Three hours later, the doctor on shift came over to her. “I just read the X-rays on Carolyn Smith. She’s got a broken wrist. I think you’re right about the abuse, but the break is consistent with a fall. There isn’t anything we can do unless she asks for help.”
“I know,” she said.
“I’m going to go in and let her know. If you can get the splint she’ll need and then refer her to an orthopedist to get a cast put on it, that would be great. You can discharge her after.”
“Will do,” she said and went about getting the splint and making her way in after the doctor’s notes were updated.
She went back into the room with Carolyn and decided to give it one more chance. “I can leave soon?” Carolyn asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Let me just put the splint on you and go over your discharge papers. You’re not working right now, correct?”
Carolyn had said she was a teacher. “No,” Carolyn said. “I guess it’s a good thing. Hopefully by the time school starts up again I’ll have this off.”
“It will be close,” she said. “Listen. I’ve been in your shoes. Where you think it’s normal for things like this to happen. But it’s not. Or one day it’s kind of normal and the next, you’re in the ER. You can tell people things to brush it off, but what you don’t realize is that most people know.”
Carolyn looked at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She’d never told anyone other than Abby what happened with Tanner. Never admitted it. Even with Donna she didn’t have to admit anything when her mother-in-law saw it with her own eyes.
“I was married for four years,” she said quietly. “He was such a nice sweet guy. I’d moved to another state. I didn’t have any family around. Just some friends through work, but no one close. My ex made me feel like he was my world and I could go to him for anything.”
She had Carolyn’s attention. “My family doesn’t live around here.”
“It’s easier when those that know you the best aren’t around to notice changes that you’re hoping no one sees. In my job, though, people saw it. I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.”
“What happened?” Carolyn asked.
“I put up with it for years. It was slow and gradual. I went from feeling five feet four inches tall to just four inches tall. I worked so hard to make him love me and be the person he wanted and in the process lost who I was.”
“It’s not easy,” Carolyn said. Still not admitting anything but listening at least.
If she could get through to Carolyn, maybe she’d realize and notice signs of abuse in her students and help too.
“No,” she admitted. “It wasn’t. But one night he’d snapped more than normal. I went to walk away from him like I always did and he hit me. Right in the face. On the cheek. A backhand that was more of an insult if that makes sense.”
Carolyn’s eyes filled with tears while she nodded her head. “It is.”
