Free Awake Unto Me by Kathleen Knowles

had. She found Rose, who stared at the suitcase instead of Kerry’s face. Kerry ignored the unshed tears. Rose had given her a place to live, food to eat, and some occasional money for clothes in return for Kerry doing work around the building. But she had never gotten so much as a hug from the woman, and suddenly it just didn’t matter that she would be leaving her behind.
    “Tell Sally I said good-bye.”
    Rose nodded and Kerry hefted the suitcase, put on a cap, and walked the four blocks to the Ferry Building to catch a cable car uptown.

Chapter Eight
     
    An hour or so later, she stood at the reception desk at the City and County Hospital feeling very young and very lost. She’d kept asking conductors which car to take until she got to the one that served the hospital.
    The nurse on duty looked up and peered into her face suspiciously. “Help you, son?”
    Kerry got a nice little stab of satisfaction that her clothes could fool the likes of an old battle-ax like this one. “Ma’am. I’m looking for Dr. Addison Grant.”
    “Do you have an appointment?”
    “Uh, no, ma’am.”
    “Whom shall I say?”
    Kerry gave her name and the nurse instructed her to wait. She sat down on the hard bench near the door and, after a short time, fell asleep on her suitcase.
    She had another abrupt awakening, but this time, she didn’t see Leo or Rose, but a tall man with kind brown eyes and a deep voice.
    “Kerry. Sorry to wake you. This is a surprise. It’s me, Addison.”
    She remembered his voice more than anything else. He’d only had a mustache before, but now he had full sideburns and a beard. His hair was fuller as well. He wore a white coat over his suit and had a stethoscope in his pocket.
    “Addison?” Her memory was working a little. It was the man who’d been around her father for a year or so when she was only eleven and then was gone as suddenly as he arrived.
    “Nurse Brett!” he called sharply.
    A young woman in a white dress and cap came over. “Doctor?”
    “Take this young lady to my office. Make her comfortable, and give her tea or lemon water. Whatever she wishes.” He turned back to Kerry and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be with you presently. I have to finish rounds. Please make yourself comfortable.” His smile was kind and the knot in Kerry’s chest eased a bit. “The fact that you’re here tells me something has happened to Jack.”
    Kerry nodded dumbly and then walked off with Nurse Brett, who gave her curious, sidelong looks. They arrived at a cramped office and Kerry sat down on the straight-back wooden chair. Nurse Brett asked, without a trace of sympathy, “Do you need anything?”
    “No, nothing, I’m fine. Thank you.”
    The last forty-eight hours had been terribly disorienting. She wanted to be alone until the doctor came back. His presence and manner reassured her even if her memory of him was imperfect.
    She fidgeted and looked around. She’d lived her entire life on the Barbary Coast except for her and Teddy’s forays into other areas of the city nearby. She was as unfamiliar with an office as she would be with a king’s palace. In spite of the hard chair, she fell asleep, her dreams tortured by the image of Jack in the morgue.
    Addison shook her shoulder gently. She sat up, blinking and confused.
    “We’ll be going now. Is that all you have with you?” He pointed to the small suitcase.
    Kerry nodded, somehow embarrassed. On the carriage ride home, she told Addison about Jack, leaving out the unnecessary and sordid details of Sally’s involvement. Addison listened without comment.
    Then he put his arm around Kerry and said, “I always feared Jack would come to an untimely end. He asked me if anything ever happened to him if he could send you to me. You will reside with us as long as you like. Even if Jack hadn’t entertained and enriched me, I owe him my life.” He told her about the card game and the ruffian who wanted to murder them both.
    Kerry