Everything means something

Jenny woke up in the hospital, her eyes blinded by the white walls, the fluorescent lamp above her, the white tiles, the two nurses’ white uniforms. She looked at the women, fiddling with something wrapped around her abdomen – she had no idea what – and when she tried to lift her head, a heavy weight in the back of her head pulled it right back down. She closed her eyes again.

“No use trying to do too much,” she heard a thick alto voice from somewhere on her left say, with something of an accent that reminded Jenny of Harlem, but also of the Lower East Side – “you just rest now, ‘cause I’m going to question you in a little while.”

Jenny opened her eyes and looked to the left. It was the police officer, that woman who’d shot at her when Jenny had charged out of the house, aiming the knife for Dina’s back. Before Jenny had done anything, the bullet had hit Dina in the chest and she’d ricocheted backward into Jenny and then to the ground.

“Where’s Dina,” Jenny asked. She thought a moment – she’d have to think before answering this woman’s questions. Everything she said would mean something – something very important, the difference between freedom and prison.

“Dead, lying in the morgue.”

Thank God, Jenny thought – now she had control over the story. She closed her eyes again. A million thoughts went through her head. Bill, lying dead on the floor, no doubt consumed by the fire. Their apartment, ravaged and destroyed. Bill’s blood, Dina’s blood, her blood, all over the place. But would the police be able to put the pieces together, the fire having destroyed everything?

“My home?” she managed to say.

“Isn’t no more, I’m afraid. Everything’s lost, sorry to tell you. You think you could answer a few questions now?”

“I can try, officer.”

“We found a man who died in the fire upstairs, lying in the hallway. Took his body in for autopsy. Did you know him?”

“Bill Perkins,” she said, knowing they’d discover the truth, “my husband. Dina stabbed him before starting the fire.”

“Why’d she do that, ma’am?”

“She was his lover – I believe. That’s what she told me when I found them –“

“Yes?”

She had to think before continuing. “Nurses, I’m getting tired and confused now. Could you ask the officer to come back in a little while?”