HIDDEN TREASURES

By Tessa Harvey


    Jess is on duty and tasked with sitting next to a young woman who has, it seems, fallen off a high wall.
    Dangerously hypothermic, with a suspected brain bleed from the fall, the patient is now out of Intensive Care and in a small side ward. An old man, coaxing his yapping dog had found her inside.
    Jess remembers Alice in a similar side ward not so long ago, and feels as though her grandmother wanted to share something important - but death had intervened.    
    The girl's head is heavily swathed in white dressings, but Jess feels a kind of empathy towards her. She was not allowed to do anything medical, of course, but asked to be a presence in the room. "Try to read to her," an older doctor had said, "or talk about anything. But keep it light, though."
    "The monitors will warn us if necessary and the night staff will check this patient often. Just keep her company. It may help her back to the surface, to consciousness."
    Remembering her grandmother's words about "treasures in darkness," from the Bible, Jess decided to talk and pray to God for this young lady. Few staff were about and the dim light made a quiet blanket of the darkness.

 


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