I don’t know if that’s true, but I suppose it can’t do any harm. I have heard some stories myself, working here these many years. You should see some of the people who have had skiing accidents. I used to ski a lot, but now it’s tennis whenever I get a chance. But working here . . . Well, the hours aren’t terrible, but sometimes the shifts are not conducive to outdoor activity.” Jeanne had become more animated, which made her look like a worn-out talking baseball glove.
Alexis gave Isabelle a slight kick, knowing they were both thinking the same thing. Batter up!
Trying to get the situation moving forward, Isabelle politely said, “Thank you very much, Jeanne. Can you direct us to her room, please?”
“Oh, of course. I tend to ramble a lot. All the way down at the end of the hall.” She pointed in the direction of the room.
Isabelle and Alexis tried to maintain their composure. They took deep breaths and slowly moved toward Marjorie Brewster’s room.
“This feels a little creepy,” Alexis confessed. “It’s like we’re intruding.”
“I know it feels that way, but we need to do this so we can report back to Myra and Annie.”
“What about the sister? Should someone contact her?” Alexis queried.
“Once we get the info from the hospital, and depending on what we find at the end of this hallway, we’ll send everything to Myra and Annie. There is a lot of information for them to evaluate, with more coming. I know they’ll have a plan as soon as they have the whole picture.”
“Okay. Here’s her room.” Alexis pointed at the name plaque next to the door.
Both women took a deep breath and squeezed each other’s hand for reassurance. Despite all the missions they had gone on in the past, they always felt a sense of dread when a new one came along, since each one brought its own kind of horror, shock, and anger. And, they hoped, with the help of the sisters, justice.
A woman in her sixties lay perfectly still. Wires and tubes entered and exited various parts of her body. Beeps and blinks emanated from the machines that recorded her vital signs.
Isabelle approached the woman first. She reached for the hand that was free of needles and whispered softly, “Hello, Marjorie. You don’t really know us, but we come as friends.” Isabelle flashed a look at Alexis. She thought she saw Marjorie’s eyes flutter. She shrugged and continued. “We are going to try to help you come back to this side, but if we can’t, we are going to go after the people responsible for this and see to it that they pay dearly for what they have done to you.” She patted the woman’s hand. Again, a slight flutter of the eyes.
Isabelle pointed to Marjorie’s face and mouthed the words, “Look at her eyes.” Alexis nodded, and then Isabelle continued. “We know you were taking special vitamins from Dr. Steinwood.” Marjorie’s hand started to twitch, setting off an alarm. Three nurses rushed in.
“What did you do?” one asked accusingly as the two others tended to Marjorie.
“Nothing. We were talking to her. Reminiscing about her art classes,” Alexis replied.
Isabelle tried to deflect the tension with a joke. “I guess we were crummy students?”
A brutish-looking nurse did not think it was funny and cleared her throat. “This is not a laughing matter, miss. Mrs. Brewster is very fragile.”
“I didn’t mean any disrespect. And yes, she looks very frail. I am so sorry if we did anything to upset her.”
Alexis added, “Truly. We thought maybe hearing familiar voices might help. They say that some people do come out of comas after they have had stimulation from things in their life.”
“My dear young lady. We don’t need you to tell us what can and cannot happen. We are professionals and have far more experience than you do,” the brute admonished them.
“Sorry. We were trying to be optimistic.” Isabelle apologized and gave Alexis a hint to do the same.
“Yes, we apologize. All we wanted was to let her know what a great teacher she was and how much she inspired us.” Alexis was pouring it on thick.
“If it weren’t for Mrs. Brewster, we wouldn’t be working artists today!” Even thicker from Isabelle.
The two other nurses had already left the room, after noting that Mrs. Brewster’s vitals were stable. Brute motioned toward the door. “I think Mrs. Brewster needs to rest now. Thank you for visiting.”
Isabelle and Alexis scurried through the door and walked quickly