Keri Lock CRACKED (Excerpt 10)

I opened my eyes, images of Rob burned in my head, my cheeks flushed with shame. I’d acted so thoughtlessly with him. Neither of us had said a thing to Michele about that night. She’d broken up with him a few months later.
I could tell by the quiet that it was either late in the night or very early in the morning. Someone had dimmed the lights in my room and the soft beeping of some machine softly sounded from beside my bed. A brighter light came from the hall and the body of some medical staffer sometimes walked by.
Laying there alone, I searched my brain for any clue to how I had gotten there. The medical staff either didn’t know or wouldn’t tell me. I couldn’t remember, but my aching body told me much more than I wanted to know.
I gazed into the dark, recognizing the outline of a white tipped hat leaning in a chair close to me. Bertha.
I called to her, “Bertha. Bertha!”
I saw her thick figure slowly moving in the dark and then she was beside me, turning on the reading lamp over my head.
“Hello, dear. Are you all right? What can I do for you?”
“My face is pounding. Is it time for more drugs, yet?”
She smirked at me.
“Let me just go ask the nurse about that. I’ll be right back with you.”
A few minutes later, she returned with a night nurse who took my temperature and administered the meds. With the room fully lit, I saw that Bertha was no longer dressed in her candy striper uniform. Instead, she was wearing a violet velour track-suit and white running shoes. What I’d thought was her cap was actually a shiny, white net, intended to keep her hair styled while she slept.
I eyed her suspiciously. “Why are you here?” I asked her.
She looked at me, surprised. “It’s my job, Miss Becker.”
“Don’t call me that. My name’s Missy.”
“Okay, Missy.”
“Bertha, what time is it?” I asked her.
“Oh, clock says four-thirty am” she answered me.
“Don’t they let you go home?” I asked, forgetting, again, how much to hurt to smile.
“I told you I was going to wait with you until your kin showed up. Dr. Cohen called them. They said they were coming.”
I thought about that.
“They won’t come,” I said.
Bertha reached out and covered my hand with her big, soft one.
“Then I will stay.”