me," he suggested as he rounded the bed to sit next to her.
She shook her head and buried her face in her hands.
"Trissa, listen. I lied to these people here, and I'm sorry. I couldn't think of what else to do. You needed help and I was afraid they wouldn't help you without consent. I didn't even know your name, so I..."
She jerked her face up sharply. "But you did! You did know my name! I heard you calling me. On the tracks. You called my name! Who are--"
"Mrs. Brewer?" a woman's voice inquired from across the room.
Trissa had no reason to respond to that name that everyone insisted on calling her but she turned toward the doorway. Nicholas feared she was now recalling just why he frightened her. He reached for her wrist and held it firmly for a moment, his eyes burning into hers as he whispered, "I had to lie, Trissa. I had to. Trust me." He released her and dropped his hands to his sides. Trissa trembled.
"Mrs. Brewer, I'm Georgia Pulasky. Dr. Edmonds asked me to stop by. Mr. Brewer." The woman was a robust blond with pale freckles crowding her face and the backs of her hands. She nodded and smiled a greeting at Nicholas then fixed her eyes steadily Trissa's face.
Trissa raked the money off the bed and, clutching it in one fist, she pushed it at Nicholas. "I think Dr. Edmonds wants me to talk to Mrs. Pulasky alone, Nicholas," she said steadily, her voice a register higher than before.
His shoulders slumped as he nodded, shoved the money in his jacket pocket and turned toward the door. "I'll wait -- outside. Uh, will you want to talk to me also, Mrs. Pulasky?"
"I don't expect so, Mr. Brewer," the woman answered and dismissed him.
Chapter Seven
Georgia Pulasky invited Trissa to make herself comfortable. "If you would feel better sitting in the chair than the bed, it's all right with me. I just have a few questions. Nothing to be frightened about."
"I'm not frightened," Trissa said, "...of you," she added hastily. She remained standing, and folded her arms across her chest.
"Of someone else then? Anything you share with me will be held in confidence." With a glance over her shoulder at the comatose roommate, Mrs. Pulasky tugged at the curtain.
Trissa smiled at her caution. "You don't have to worry about Patty, Mrs. Pulasky. She and I have sort of an understanding. I tell her all my troubles, and she keeps them to herself."
The social worker frowned and pulled a chair into a position that would put Patty out of her line of vision. "It doesn't make you uncomfortable to share a room with someone as bad off as that?"
"I suppose it depends on your definition of bad off,'" Trissa shrugged. "Blissful might be a synonym some would use."
Georgia sat and smoothed her skirt, composing a flicker of alarm out of her face before she looked up. "You would use that synonym?"
"I might. But I'm afraid she dreams sometimes. That would ruin her peace. I guess nothing's perfect in this world." Trissa blinked a few times and tilted her face toward the window.
"Mrs... May I call you Trissa? You seem so young to be Mrs. Brewer."
"Yes."
"Trissa, Dr. Edmonds expressed some concern that you may be troubled by something deeper than the accident you described. We thought you might feel more relaxed talking to a woman."
"Dr. Edmonds told me you would be coming. I promised I would be truthful. As much as I could be." She squeezed her eyes against a sudden mist of tears.
"I came only to help you. There is nothing about me you should worry about. Ask me whatever you want. Tell me anything that I could do."
"I don't know what to ask or tell you."
"You could start by describing the accident to me. From the beginning."
Trissa swiped at her eyes with the baggy sleeve of her hospital robe and sighed. She would not look directly at Georgia but perched on the edge of the bed, her gaze fixed out the window. "I was walking. It was dark and I was stumbling along, thinking and not paying attention to where I was going. I was being stupid and careless, and Nicholas -- Nicholas came looking for me, I think."
"Looking for you?"
Trissa glanced at Georgia then quickly away again. "Yes, yes, I'm sure he was looking for me. He saw the train and yelled my name..."
"The train?"
The echoed words startled Trissa. She wished she hadn't said