Free Bloody Mary by Ricki Thomas Page B

displaying the assistance button, clutching it in her hand. “Look, I think you should be in another ward, let me call the nurses to help you.”
    The truth was all I could think of now, I didn’t want the staff removing me. “Sophie, I know your parents, I mean, I know Beryl.”
    She visibly relaxed, a light smile replacing the frown. “Why didn’t you just say!”
    My heart was thudding, her resemblance to Harry was spectacular, her expressions, her mannerisms, her tone of voice, and that should have made me hate her, but I sort of loved her, if that’s possible. Breathing was becoming a struggle, I felt claustrophobic, sweaty but cold, and I stood, flustered, ready to leave my bags, even though they held the items I’d so cleverly stolen from this woman’s desk. Then it came out. It wasn’t planned, it just tumbled out and there was nothing I could do to stop it. “Sophie, you need to know this. You haven’t lost your baby. It’s still there, I know it is.” Where the hell did that come from! I was the biggest fake tarot reader in the world and now I was believing my own crap!
    Her face paled instantly, the puppy dog eyes welling with tears and I knew I’d achieved what I came in to do, to hurt her, but believe me, it wasn’t planned that way, I really did just feel an overwhelming compulsion to say those words. I was aware of my own eyes watering, the thick lenses of my unflattering glasses hiding my emotion from the world, and I wondered if I was truly evil.
    She confirmed it for me. “For God’s sake, how could you say such a thing, such a cruel thing. Go away! Just go away!”
    I wanted to, really I did, but the words were there and they were coming out, and I couldn’t believe I was uttering such garbage. “You are surrounded by a deep, deep red, which tells me you are nervous, anxious, and that danger and anger surround you. The edges are greying, a dirty, nasty grey, which suggests fear and insecurity. The only saving grace about you at the moment is the child you’re carrying,” Sophie’s tears were tumbling now, unstoppable, “the small flecks of orange show it’s healthy and strong.”
    “You bitch. You vicious bitch. Why are you doing this to me? Just get out of here, get away from me.”
    Something inside made me ignore her, I took a deep breath, and increased the volume of my voice, it seemed so imperative that Sophie heard what I had to say. “You have to get away from the dark forces that surround you, Sophie. If not for your sake, then for your unborn child’s.”
    She was screaming now, hands over her ears, desperately trying to block out the words that were breaking her heart. “Get out! Get out of here!”
    I grabbed my bags and hurried to the door, just as a nurse was approaching to see what the noise was about. I had no idea what had just happened, and I was as scared as Sophie, as angry as Sophie, because for once I had lost control. Something weird had just happened and I didn’t want to be part of it, I had to get away from her.
     
    The words wouldn’t leave her head, no matter how much she tried to block them out. Such cruelty. And who was that awful woman, she said she knew her mum, but she never gave a name, so Sophie couldn’t even ask the question. Tossing and turning in the stuffy heat of the hospital room, the night seemed to last for weeks.
    If only the woman was right about the baby.
    Tears began to flow, so many, pooling onto the pillow, the thoughts of her lost child unbearable. What if it was true, though? Could it be true? Sophie chastised herself, certain that the consultant would never lie about something as grave as miscarriage, and, anyway, the scan had confirmed it. Eventually, in the early hours, Sophie drifted into a fitful sleep, but when the birds began singing and the sun crept over the horizon, she woke, instantly remembering the dreadful woman. And her words. It was ridiculous, but she had to know the truth. She pressed the assistance-button to