Oblivious by Jamie Bowers Read Free Book Online Page A

bandage. ‘I’ve just had a chat with my new friend. I’ve been explaining to him that prison is not what he may have expected.’ He picked up the file from the bedside table and slid it under his arm like a well folded newspaper. He began to walk out of the room as Francis cut the dirty dressing from Joe’s torso, ‘I feel like being a nice guy. I’ll give you one week to get back in your cell. No more hiccups or technicalities to delay things.’
    Tanner pointed at Nurse Francis as she tightened a bandage around Joe’s shoulder. ‘What’s your name, nurse?’
    Francis looked Joe in his damp eyes as he tried to contain his pain. ‘My name, sir, I’m Francis Johnson. I’ve only been here a few months, sir.’ Tanner stepped into the doorway, holding the handle he started to pull it into the frame behind him.
    As the door closed, Francis heard Tanner mutter. ‘Make sure you get him in his cell in one week, Francis.’
    Francis continued to change the dressings on Joe; he flinched with pain each time a wound was exposed.
    ‘They gave you a big beating to get you in here,’ she said as she dabbed his scars, ‘and the Warden came down here personally to give you another. You’ve been in here five minutes and I’ve seen to more wounds on you than I have the other inmates combined since I started.’ Francis balled up the dirty dressings and placed them on the top of the trolley. ‘What have you done to upset him so much?’
    Joe looked at Francis as he drew a breath so he could speak. ‘I don’t know. I don’t know much of anything recently. My file says I’m in here for murder, my wife won’t visit and you say that she doesn’t even live in my apartment anymore.’ Francis pushed the trolley against the wall and sat on the edge of the bed. Plumping Joe’s pillow and helping him to sit up straight she looked him in his face. His eyes were red and swollen, as if he had been crying ever since he came into prison.
    ‘Do you remember coming here, Joe?’ she asked, ‘Why do you think you’re here?’ Joe looked at Francis and took a moment to think. She could tell that he was composing his words before he spoke.
    ‘Everything since I got out of the army is a bit of a blur. All I can remember clearly is coming here.’ Francis gently caressed his cheek as he drew another breath. ‘I keep having these dreams, flashbacks maybe, where I am being attacked by a man. I can’t see his face but I can hear his voice, shouting at me to get out. I know that we are fighting over a gun but I wake up before I can know who he is or where I am. I don’t even know if it’s all real or just some of it and my brain has filled in the blanks itself.’
    ‘I heard Doctor Gable talking about you this morning,’ said Francis as she wiped a single tear from Joe’s face. ‘He says you have these memory losses and there was a file that he got from the military about it. I think that is what he gave to the Warden outside. Maybe that explains why you’re here?’
    ‘It won’t,’ Joe exclaimed, ‘We all know that once you leave the army, that’s it, there won’t be anything in that file that explains anything from the day I left Laos.’
    Francis could see Joe’s eyes were becoming heavy and his speech slowed down. She pulled his blanket up to his chest. ‘Get some sleep, Joe. I will see what I can find out for you.’ she said as she patted him on his shoulder as a sign of support. She walked out of the room, pushing the trolley out the door. Turning the light off as she passed, she looked back at Joe as he drifted off to sleep.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Eight
     
    After several days feeling sorry for himself, Joe didn’t see much of anyone outside of his regular routine. Doctor Gable would visit most days to poke and prod at his wounds and a stubborn nurse came in twice a day to shove pills down his throat and feed him his meals. He had started to become more mobile, able to walk to the window