Abominations Read Free Page A

confrontational style, since they hadn't called her ugly, just confused her with someone much better looking, which was a first for her. Maybe she had a lot of damage to her face? She couldn't feel anything, no bandages or sore spots... Maybe they just thought that her normal look – the right side of her face swollen and misshapen, the left side slightly concave and lumpy, jutting out at the bottom of her chin suddenly, nose having been broken several times from different attacks – indicated fresh damage?
      “I'm sorry, that's not me. I know I may look funny, but it's just the way I look. I'm Gwen Farris, not, what was the name? Katherine? Though that does remind me... the freak that stabbed me? He called me that. Maybe he has some kind of serial killer obsession with her? Though people like that... don't they usually pick women that remind them of their target, the person they're fixated on?” Being careful not to let her head turn, she tried to give them a small smile, so they wouldn't freak out on her when they realized that she really looked this bad all the time.
      Instead of saying anything, the nurse went to the hall and came back a few moments later, handing the doctor a silver colored hand mirror that looked to be made of real silver, slightly tarnished on the back. Real metal, not plastic.
      He held it in front of her, so Gwen could see herself.
      The woman in the mirror wasn't her.
      She'd love to look like that, but she knew, from thirty-four years of living with it, that her face resembled a lumpy sack of potatoes someone had taken an ugly stick to and not spared effort on, not the plucky sidekick from a television show.
      She moved her face and the woman in the mirror did the same things. She wanted to touch it, but her hands couldn't reach that high, it hurt too much when she tried. She'd have figured it as a dream, except for her chest ached too damn much for that. Trying to reach up to her face anyway sent a wave of pain through her that made her stop. Definitely real pain at least.
      “That's not my face. I mean, I admit the face in the mirror seems to be reflecting my image right now, I'm not stupid or denying that the image is tracking, but I don't look like that. I can't look like that. The doctors told me that they'd already done all the corrective surgeries possible years ago. Besides, even if someone could afford that kind of massive work, which I can't, why make me look like someone else that's that different? Wouldn't it be easier to find someone that looks like her, Katherine, already and start from there?”
      The doctor took the mirror away, handing it to the nurse without even looking at her, the woman taking it away smoothly, like a runner passing a baton in a relay event.
      “I...see. Well, this could be any of a number of things. It could be that you're suffering from shock of course, in which case I'm sure you'll recover your normal self soon. Just in case this is something else, I'd like to bring in a specialist. Nurse Rogers... could you get in touch with Doctor Professor Grainger at Western University? Please ask that he come quickly and bring the full kit. He'll understand what that means, I believe.”
      The nurse left and no one mentioned her odd appearance again after that, they did bring her a few tiny sandwiches and tea after a while. The white bread had a thin spread of very bland cheese inside, with spices Gwen thought, but not enough to make it taste like much. The tea was a basic green, like the Lipton she had at home in her cupboard. Unsweetened.
       The nurse fed her patiently, interspersing tiny sips of the warm liquid when she asked. She decided to give the woman a rare third mental check mark by her name. That level of attention from a nurse was incredible.
      She'd have liked to look in the mirror again, but couldn't move easily enough to get it from the table