by Amy Briggs
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back tomorrow before my shift. I have to work tomorrow night, so I’ll come up and see you whenever I can through the night, but I’ll read to you before work. I am going to go home and take care of some research. I have an idea that might get you home and awake soon,” he said enthusiastically.
No, please don’t go, please stay. I tried to call out to him. I felt his large hand cover mine and squeeze.
“Get some rest, Snow White, because soon, you’re going to wake up, and I’m going to be there, waiting for you.”
Chapter 17
Jacob
She heard me, and she reacted to what I said. “She wants to wake up. She’s a fighter,” I murmured to myself. After I took her hand in mine and said good-bye, I practically ran all the way home to get on the computer. I had some new ideas about what could be keeping her asleep, and since she hadn’t developed any new symptoms that anyone could see, I wanted to do some research on my suspicions so I could talk to her doctors the next day.
I made myself some coffee and got to work. I’d been thinking about how Snow White ended up in the emergency room to begin with. She’d passed out and been brought in, that was all we really knew, but after going to see her flower shop, I thought that maybe she was having an allergic reaction to something in the fruit. If I could narrow down some possibilities, then perhaps there was an antibody we could give her that would counteract the effects she was experiencing.
I started with the usual fruit you’d find in a basket, all generally thick-skinned and lasting a while, like oranges, pears, kiwis, and of course, apples. It was ironic and not lost on me that we’d named her Snow White and it could possibly have been an apple that did this to her. If that were the case, man, would that be a story to tell the grandkids. As I researched more specific allergies, including an allergy to pectin, I tried to remember if there were nuts in the fruit basket. Lots of people are allergic to nuts and don’t know it until they have a reaction, and while her symptoms weren’t typical of an allergic reaction, that didn’t mean that it was out of the question.
I couldn’t remember, so I grabbed a flashlight and went downstairs to look in the window again. It was quite late and probably very suspicious that I was about to shine a light into a storefront from the street, but I was on a mission. As I walked out front, I noticed a light on in the back. I didn’t recall it being on before. I shined my light into the front window looking for the fruit basket again, but it was gone. How could it be gone? I scanned my light around the store, looking for it, when a young woman came out of the back and let out a little scream.
“Oh no!” I shouted. “I’m just trying to help!”
“Who are you and what do you want?” she shouted back at me, looking terrified.
“I live upstairs. I’m just trying to find out what happened to the girl who works here. I’m a doctor.” It was sort of true. It was way easier in that moment to diffuse the situation.
She came closer to the window. “Do you know what happened to Jackie?” she asked me.
Jackie! Her name is Jackie! “I think she is my patient. She was brought in a couple of days ago, unconscious, but nobody knows her name. Can we talk?” I pointed to the front door, hoping she would let me in. I was a pretty clean-cut guy, and I didn’t think I looked like a criminal, so hopefully, those boyish looks would help me now.
“Ok, just a minute.” She set down the mop in her hand and walked over to the door, unlatching the locks, but only opening the door a bit. “If you’re a robber, there’s no cash here,” she said.
I chuckled at the thought. “I promise I’m not a robber. I live upstairs. My name is Jacob McIntyre. I work at the hospital, in the emergency room. I think that Jackie… you said that’s her name? Jackie was brought in a few days ago, unconscious and with no ID, and we’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong with her.”
“She’s in the hospital? Oh, my God, what happened?” she shrieked.
“We don’t know what happened. That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
“How can I help?” she asked, looking nervous.
“What’s your name?” I asked. I was trying to calm her down.
“Oh, I’m sorry, my name is Ella. I work for Jackie two days a week, just cleaning at night. She’s usually upstairs in bed by the time I get here, so I don’t see her much, but the place wasn’t left like it usually is. There was a bunch of stuff out that she wouldn’t normally leave sitting, and a fruit basket was sitting on the counter that I put in the cooler to keep fresh,” she replied.
“Ella, it’s nice to meet you. I think you may have helped Jackie out more than you know. Can you show me the fruit basket?”
“Sure, follow me,” she said as she turned around to walk toward the back of the shop. As we turned the corner, I saw that there was a massive cooler and all kinds of decorations, vases, and other baubles she must use to make arrangements. I stared at it all in wonder. “I know, it’s a lot of glass and stuff, right? I’m always really careful when I clean. I’m so afraid to break things.” She giggled at me.
“It sure is. I had no idea how big this place was,” I replied.
“Yea, it’s pretty big. She’s a busy florist. Anyway, here you go.” She opened the cooler door and grabbed the fruit basket from a shelf. “What are you looking for?” she asked me.
“I’m trying to figure out if there’s something here that she’s allergic to,” I replied methodically while inspecting the contents of the basket.
“Well, the only thing she ate from it was an apple. Well, a piece of an apple,” Ella said.
Looking up at her in shock, I asked, “What makes you think that?”
“Because when I was cleaning tonight, I found the apple on the floor up front. It must have rolled away from her or something. It only had one bite out of it, but it was the only thing she took out of this basket. You can tell from the way she opened it. Everything else is still shrink wrapped in place.” She pointed to the basket in my hands, and as I turned my attention back to it, I realized what might be going on.
“Do you still have that apple here, or is it gone?” I asked hopefully.
“It’s in the trash, but I can grab it for you and put it in a baggie or something if you think it will help?” she offered.
“That would be great, thank you,” I replied.
“Sure, just give me a few minutes to get it.” She went back to the trash bags to find it, while I made my way back out to the front of the store to look around. As I ran my hand along the front counter by the cash register, I saw the little stack of business cards. Jacqueline White, that was her name. Enchanted Flowers was the name of the shop; I’d never even noticed it until now. I slid one of her business cards into my pocket just as Ella returned with the apple in a plastic bag for me.
“Thank you for your help, Ella. I really appreciate it. I think the key to waking her up has something to do with this apple.”
“I sure hope so. If she wakes up, will you tell her I am thinking about her? I work a lot of jobs, so I’m not sure I’ll make it to the hospital to see her before you wake her up,” she said.
“Of course. Oh, do you know if she has any family? We haven’t been able to find anyone.”
“Just her aunt who left her the flower shop, and she’s usually travelling out of the country most of the time. That’s why she gave Jackie the flower shop when she retired, so she could see the world,” she replied thoughtfully.
“Well, that sounds lovely. Let me know if there’s a way to reach her, so we can let her know how Jackie is doing, ok?”
“I sure will.”
After she locked the door behind me, I took the plastic bag with the apple back up to my apartment to finish my research. Since she wasn’t technically my patient, I was going to have to bring my evidence and my ideas to the neurologist who wasn’t exactly the coolest guy at the hospital. I needed to make sure I had all my data and possible diagnoses ready.
Chapter 18
Even though it was boring and lonely without Jacob to talk to me, I reveled in the fact that he’d come to see me twice the day before. I had his visit to look forward to, and that made all the annoying sounds and inability to speak tolerable.
That morning, they’d taken me for another CT scan of my brain, which had the most annoying humming sound and seemed to go on forever. Then, later, when they brought me to my room, they poked at me with sharp things to see if my body would flinch, which it did. First, they used a cold piece of metal and ran it up my feet, which caused me to jerk a bit but still didn’t wake me up, and then they tapped on me with what I was pretty sure had to be a little hammer. In a few places, it downright hurt, and in others, it was annoying to say the least. The funny bone isn’t funny at all, and I really wished Jacob would come and make them all go away.
At least they did explain what they were doing, but not to me. There must have been a student in the room or something, because whoever was tapping away at my body was telling someone else what he was doing and asking them questions about what type of responses I should have to different stimuli. After that torture finally ended, I started to drift off to sleep when I heard what sounded like arguing in the hallway outside my door.
If only I could sit up and lean closer, I could hear what they were saying. Then I recognized one of the voices; it was Jacob. He was angry about something.
“I know she isn’t my patient, but I’m telling you I figured out who she is, and I think I know what’s wrong with her,” he shouted.
“It’s not your problem, and I’m going to make you leave if you don’t go on your own, McIntyre,” the grumpy doctor replied. I recognized his voice, too.
“Somers, I’m telling you. This is an allergy. To pectin or to some chemical in this apple. Please take a look. I know it. You’ve already looked into everything else textbook in the last three days. Just humor me and run the tests. There’s some kind of bacterial thing going on here, and it comes from this apple,” he said.
“Where did you get this?” Grumpy asked.
“From her flower shop. Her name is Jacqueline White, and she is a florist. I got this from her shop last night. It looks like she was eating it when she passed out or whatever happened, but she was brought in then, and this apple is the last thing she ate.” Jacob sounded like he was pleading with Grumpy and wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“All right, all right. I’ll look into it. Come back in a little bit, and we’ll see if any results are back. I consider this a personal favor, McIntyre. You owe me one,” Grumpy said in his usual grumpy way. Ugh, I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.
“Thanks, Dr. Somers. I am sure this is going to lead us somewhere with her. I just know it,” he replied.
“Why are you so concerned with a Jane Doe anyway?”
“She’s not a Jane Doe anymore, doc. She’s Jackie, and she needs to wake up and go home. That’s all,” he replied.
“Okay, well, I’ll have this sent down to the lab for analysis, and I’ll hit you up tonight. You working the ER?”
“I sure am. I’ll be up before my shift begins to see her,” he told Grumpy. Yay for me!
“All right, now, get out of my hair until then, would you?”
“You got it. Thanks again,” he replied, and then I heard the sound of his footsteps come into my room.
“Hey, princess,” he whispered. “I know who you are. You’re Jackie White. And you’re going to wake up soon, I promise. I’ll be back before my shift. I have to run home to get ready for work. I won’t be long.” He squeezed my hand gently then left in a hurry.
I wondered how he figured out who I was, but it didn’t matter. I felt one step closer to freedom, and I had him to thank for it. I couldn’t wait to express my gratitude to him. I was a rather quiet person to begin with, but nobody wanted to be that quiet for that long.
Dr. Grumpy entered the room shortly after and explained things to me. “It seems that your boyfriend from the emergency room thinks you may have had a strange allergic reaction to something in an apple,” he said. He was so sarcastic; I hoped I’d have the chance to tell him I heard everything he said soon, too. “We’re going to do a standard allergy test on you, and we’re going to run a few tests on this apple as well to make sure it’s just a regular apple and not something else. You never know,” he said a bit softer. It sounded like he might have started believing my Jacob after all.
Later that day, I felt some pin pricks on my arm. No one explained what they were doing, but it felt like they were drawing on my arm and poking me with a needle, and it hurt. I felt a tear forming, and my heart started pounding. The machine above me that monitored my heart and everything started making more noises than usual.
“What are you doing? Can’t you see you’re hurting her!” Oh, thank goodness, it’s Jacob.
“I’m just doing my job,” a haughty female voice replied.
“Well, maybe you could be a bit gentler. You’re making her cry. Look!” he shouted.
“She can’t feel anything; I’m just doing an allergy test,” she said nastily.
“She most certainly can feel that. Look at her vitals. They’re through the roof. And she’s got tears coming from both eyes. Get out. Get. Out. Now,” he demanded.
“Fine, I was mostly done anyway,” she huffed at him.
“I’m so sorry, Jackie,” he sighed at me, caressing my hair gently. I could feel almost everything now, from the room temperature changes to hearing more noises and all the sensations when someone would touch me. “They’re supposed to see if there’s something wrong with that apple you ate. They weren’t supposed to give you the standard pin prick allergy tests. You’re going to have little lumps all over your arm that tell them what you may be allergic to. It’s not a bad test to have done, but clearly no one explained anything to you and started jabbing you with needles. I should have been here sooner. I’m sorry.” He sat down in the chair that was next to my bed and sighed. I could hear it so clearly.
I felt my heart rate slow down, and all I wanted to do then was comfort him. He seemed so upset, and I was all right then; so, he didn’t need to be troubled any longer. This situation had really gotten out of hand, and poor Jacob probably had a normal life before me. I’m quite certain that taking care of an invalid who can’t speak or move wasn’t on his “to do” list that week.
After he’d sat for a bit, I heard him shift his weight and felt him take my hand. “It shouldn’t be much longer, princess. I’m sure that this apple is the key to you waking up. I know it is. Sometime tonight, we should have some answers, and with any luck, you’ll be waking up by tomorrow morning and we can officially meet.”
I’d longed for that moment, and now it could become a reality. All because he fought for me. I’d heard Grumpy; he didn’t want to believe Jacob. I had faith that he was right and that by morning, I could thank him properly. Maybe we would become even more. I knew it was silly to think that after just a few days of him looking after me that was possible; after all, he couldn’t hear me or my thoughts. But something was there, and we both knew it.
“I think in honor of what I believe to be your last night under the sleeping curse, I should read you Snow White before I go to work. What do you say?” he asked with what seemed like a smile in his voice.
As I tried to smile back, he pulled the book from his bag, then I heard the pages flip to where he wanted to read from. He took a deep breath and began the story, “Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven…”
Chapter 19
Jacob
I read her Snow White that evening, all the while thinking about what I would say to her when she woke up in real life. I had hoped I would be there in that moment. I wanted to be the first thing she saw when her eyes opened. In the same vein, I was also insanely nervous to meet her and afraid that I’d come to learn she was married or her heart belonged to someone already. While I knew
I was doing the right thing by helping her either way, I selfishly desired her to awaken and be with me. I couldn’t imagine a day without her, and I’d never even heard her speak.
Snow White had a much less graphic and violent happy ending than Cinderella’s story did, and for that I was grateful. When I finished reading the story, I explained to her again the things that were happening, including what each of the pin pricks from earlier that day on her arm were. For all we knew, she had other allergies, and her arm would swell up or become itchy through the night; and if that happened, I knew she could feel it, and I didn’t want her to be frightened. I instructed the nurse on her floor to page me if there were any significant changes and implied that it was a personal favor, flirting a little bit. Normally, I wouldn’t do that, but for the princess, I’d do just about anything at that point.
We started out relatively busy in the emergency room that night. I had three fall victims come in with a variety of broken bones, one person tested positive for the flu, one little boy had a Lego stuck up his nose, which was always a good time, and we had one elderly woman with some abdominal pain whom I’d spent some time with as well. In between patients, Ruth had asked me what was going on with our Snow White, and I filled her in on everything that had happened.
“So, wait, you went down to the flower shop with a flashlight in the middle of the night like a cat burglar?” She glared at me.
“Well, when you put it like that, I guess, yea, but it was for the greater good, Ruth. Come on, now,” I pleaded with her playfully.
“Good lord, Jacob. It’s a wonder you didn’t scare that poor girl half to death. You’re lucky she let you in at all. If you weren’t so darn handsome, I bet she wouldn’t have.” She laughed.
“I’m telling you, Ruth, tonight’s the night. She’s going to wake up. They’re going to find out what she’s allergic to in that apple, and she’s going to open her eyes.”
