Page 1 of Pyg

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FUCKING FRAN

W hat is that? A cow? Alice climbed out of her car and peered into the darkness. A large black lump lay in the middle of the road, barely illuminated by the one functioning headlight of her Ford Fiesta. She squinted through the claggy mascara caking her lashes, courtesy of the deluge of tears that had flowed through them earlier. Courtesy of Fran.

“Fuck you, Fran,” Alice muttered through chattering teeth and took a tentative step closer to the lump. Mist rose from the ground in the low glow of her headlight. The yellow beam sliced through the darkness; not enough for her to make out the full form of the lump in the road, but enough for her to make out the rise and fall of breath. It’s alive.

“Hello… cow? Are you okay? Can you moo or something?”

Alice shivered and hugged her arms around herself, regretting the decision to wear barely anything under her thin trench coat. But then again, she wasn’t meant to be in the middle of fucking nowhere, about to be trampled by a fucking cow. She was meant to be fucking Fran in the cosy hotel room they’d booked for the weekend. But fucking Fran did not deserve her, and Alice did not deserve this. She just wanted to go home, curl up in her bed and forget this evening had ever happened. Forget the last few months and all the hopes Fran had raised and subsequently dashed.

A low groan sounded from the lump, and as Alice teetered closer in her heels, the groaning grew louder… and very un-cowlike. Realisation unfurled and Alice darted over to what was clearly not a cow, but a large man swaddled in a furry black coat, lying in a foetal position on the cold tarmac. Alice knelt by his side, tiny stones tearing into her stockings and cutting her knees.

“Oh my God! Have you been run over?”

The man groaned.

“Okay.” Alice stood and pulled her phone from her pocket. She squinted against the bright screen, then held it aloft. No signal. Fuck.

“Why me?” Alice muttered, her heels clacking along the tarmac as she paced back to her Fiesta and folded her legs into the vehicle. For a fleeting moment, it crossed her mind to edge the car around the groaning mass of a man and drive on by. Drive home, make a strong cuppa, and take it to bed. Forget about this evening, forget about this stranger. And more importantly, forget about Fran, once and for all this time.

But Alice wasn’t that person. She could no sooner leave that poor man in the road than she could forget about Fran, so she pulled her car up as close as possible and lined up the rear doors with the man. The engine ticked over as Alice crouched next to him again.

“I can’t just leave you in the road, so I’m going to have to get you into my car. Do you think you can stand?” Alice enunciated each word of the question, as if speaking loud and clear would somehow power the man to his feet.

It didn’t, but the man groaned.

“I’ll take that as a no.” She sighed and tugged at the man’s shoulder until he rolled from his side and onto his back. The interior light of the car cast an eerie shadow across his face, and his droopy eyelids fluttered.

“Look, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to drag you.” Alice bent and tucked her hands under the man’s armpits, handfuls of his furry, damp coat gathered in her fists. She strained with the effort, panting as she dragged the dead weight as far as she could, stopping just shy of the car. “No offence, but you weigh a ton. I think you might have given me a hernia.”

Alice clambered into the rear passenger-side door. She leaned out, grabbed the man’s coat by the shoulders and tugged with all her might. After pulling his torso halfway into the car, Alice stopped to gather her strength. Whilst sucking in a few deep breaths, she adjusted her grip then heaved, but the coat pulled up and off the man’s arms and his limp body lolled to the side. The man released an anguished cry as his head hit the doorframe.

“Oh, fuck.” Alice winced and gawped at the empty coat in her hands. She stuffed it into the footwell and scrambled out of the car and around to the man, kneeling in front of him to survey the fresh gash on his forehead which was trickling blood into his right eye. “Shit, I’m so sorry about that. Okay, let’s try this instead.” Alice once again latched her hands under his armpits. She cried out as she hauled him up. Then, with an unsteady sway, she pressed her weight into him, and they both flopped into the car.

The man groaned.

Depleted by her exertions, Alice lay panting on top of him.

“This is not how I expected my evening to pan out. And I’m fairly certain I’ve never spent so much time with my fingers in a man’s armpits before.” Alice laughed and patted the man’s broad chest. “But it’s been nice getting to know you.”

The man didn’t groan.

After a beat, Alice lifted her head, panic soaring as she remembered that nasty gash. “Oh my God, you’re not?—”

The man’s chest heaved again, and Alice puffed out the breath she’d been holding. “You scared me for a moment there.”

* * *

The sliding doors swished open and exhaled a gush of hot air.

“Help, please,” Alice panted in the doorway. “He’s injured.”

Heads swivelled in her direction and Alice pointed to her car parked out the front of the hospital. A split second later, two men in blue scrubs lunged into action and rushed past her. They heaved the man from her car and into a wheelchair, seemingly conjured from thin air. In a trance-like state, Alice followed as the duo pushed through double doors and into a strip-lit room.

“Bay Five is free,” said the bearded one. They came to a halt and the fresh-faced man pulled the papery curtain around the bay. Alice fidgeted with her coat’s torn sleeve strap as they hoisted the man’s dead weight onto a white-sheeted trolley.

Why did I follow them in here? I’m bloody well stuck here now.

“I’ll fetch Doctor K.,” Beardy called over his shoulder as he disappeared through the curtain.

Fresh-face Scrubs gave Alice a closed-lipped smile. “Doctor should be here in just a moment, okay?” he said before swooshing out and leaving her alone with the man.

Not a groan from him now, just the rhythmic wheeze of air in and out of his hairy nostrils. At least he’s still breathing.

Alice stepped closer and examined the man’s crease-laden face in the harsh lighting. Unkempt salt-and-pepper hair, bushy eyebrows, and under his eyes, purple bags that drooped so heavily they looked all set for a backpacking trip around Europe.

“What’s your story, hey?” whispered Alice.

The man breathed.

Alice looked down at her scuffed heels and tutted. They had sunk her into the depths of her overdraft, but Fran adored her calves in heels and insisted Alice wear them to bed. So these beauties had been worth every penny; at least she’d thought so at the time. Now they’re ruined, but then so’s everything else. Suddenly aware of the stinging scratch on her forearm, Alice pulled up her sleeve and rubbed the claw marks etched into her skin.

A woman’s voice with a Northern lilt came from the other side of the curtain, snatching Alice from her spiralling thoughts. “Er, why aren’t there any details for Bay Five? Seriously, guys…” She released a frustrated groan, and the curtain clattered open.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t expect… you. I mean, there isn’t any information for Bay Five, so I assumed they were alone.” The woman’s dark eyes flicked between her clipboard and Alice. She cleared her throat and extended her hand. “Sorry, let me start that again. I’m Doctor Khurana, and you are?”

“Alice French.” She shook the doctor’s hand, which was warm and soft. And not smeared with blood and dirt like her own which, once released, she buried in her coat pocket.

The doctor moved around the bedside. She lifted the man’s eyelids with her thumb and shone a light into each unresponsive eye. The torchlight flashed over the bloodied gash on the man’s forehead and Alice winced.

“So, Alice French. Who do we have here?”

“I have literally no idea. I found him in the road as I was driving.”

“Where?”

“Just home after a disastrous evening with?—”

“No, I meant which road?” The doctor gave a short laugh.

“Oh, sorry. I’m not sure of the road. I’m not the best with directions. Somewhere between Clopton and Snitterfield, I think. He was curled up in a ball and groaning. I couldn’t phone for help as I had no signal, so I somehow bundled him into my car and brought him here.”

The doctor paused over the man. She craned her neck around to look at Alice, turning her attention to the scuffed shoes. Her eyes trailed up to Alice’s ripped-stocking-covered knees, skimmed over Alice’s coat and eventually arrived at her face.

I must look a fright… like some cheap tart… or a hooker. God, she thinks I’m a hooker. Alice shifted her weight and cursed the pinch of her toes in her ridiculous heels.

“Right. So you’ve no idea who he is or how he came to be in the middle of the road near Snitterfield?” The doctor frowned. Her eyes, the colour of dark chocolate, fixed Alice with a hard stare.

Alice shook her head and wondered whether now would be a good time to mention how the man came to get that nasty gash on his head. And that he’d probably have bruised ribs from her falling on top of him too.

“He had nothing else with him?” asked the doctor.

“Er… I haven’t been through his pockets, so I don’t know if he has a wallet or anything.”

The doctor checked the pockets of the man’s muddy trousers and shook her head.

Alice folded her arms over her chest, conscious of the scant attire underneath her coat.

The doctor massaged the heel of her hand into her forehead and sighed.“Okay. Well, thank you for your help, Ms French. It was kind of you to bring him in and wait, most people don’t bother.”

“So, I’m free to go?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s late and you look like you’ve had a rough evening yourself.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

The warmth in the doctor’s eyes betrayed her lips, which she held in a tight, professional smile. “Maybe if I could grab your number?”

Alice grinned. “Oh, er… sorry, I’m seeing someone. Well, at least I was until tonight, but…”

The doctor’s neat eyebrows drew together. “I mean, in case we need to get in touch. We’ll contact the police and see if anyone has filed a missing person report. They may have some questions for you.”

Heat rose in Alice’s cheeks. “Oh, sorry. Yeah. Sure. Whatever you need.” Alice took the proffered pen and scribbled her number onto the clipboard. “I’m not sure about talking to the police. I mean, I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?”

The doctor narrowed her eyes. “You tell me.”

Alice swallowed but failed to suppress the surge of panic unleashed by the doctor’s suspicious eyes. “I, er… I don’t think?—”

“Look, it’s fine.” The doctor reached out. “You’ve done the right thing bringing him here. You’ve clearly had a difficult evening. Go home, get yourself… together and have some rest. Someone will be in touch if they need to speak to you.”

Something about the warm and reassuring weight of Doctor Khurana’s hand on Alice’s arm made her want to cry.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her eyes searching Alice’s.

For a moment, Alice contemplated telling this kind doctor that she wasn’t okay, she really wasn’t. She was tired and heartbroken. And aching from dragging the man into her car. She didn’t want a phone call from the police; she wanted a hug. And a cup of tea brought to her whilst she lay in a hot bath?—

The man groaned.

Alice and the doctor looked at each other and then at the man. His eyelids fluttered, and he opened his mouth.

“He’s trying to say something.” The doctor rushed to his side and leaned her ear over his chapped lips.

Alice stepped back to the edge of the bed. “What? What is it?”

“It sounds like he’s saying… pig .”