Since You've Been Gone Read Free Page A

save him, too …
    Slowly Rebecca’s vision faded. The thoughts of the little boy were drowned out by the sound of rain pounding on her windshield. The hood of the car pointed toward somethinglarge and looming. Rebecca blinked, aware that she’d returned tô her own reality but unfortunately too late. She jerked the steering wheel to the right, but the car plunged at a giant tree trunk. The noise of screeching metal seemed far away as the hood of her car crumpled. Rebecca had worn her seat belt, holding her body in place, but her head snapped violently forward. Her last sensations were of blood running down her face and her vision dimming into darkness.

C HAPTER T WO
    FRIDAY, 9:45 P.M.
    â€œShe’s waking up.”
    Rebecca felt her eyelids fluttering. Then they opened. She was certain they were open. But she couldn’t see anything. Her hands flew to her eyes, delicately touching the open lids as panic surged through her.
    â€œI’m blind,” she whispered. Her voice rose. “I’m blind!”
    â€œCalm down,” a woman said in an expressionless voice.
    â€œBut I’m
blind.
”
    â€œMa’am, calm down.”
    Someone pulled her hands away from her eyes and Rebecca felt herself being lifted and placed prone on the lightly padded surface of a gurney. “How bad is it?” Rebecca asked in the direction of one of the disembodied voices above her.
    â€œWe’re going to take care of you.”
    â€œWhat other injuries do I have?”
    â€œYou just calm down and enjoy the ride. We’ll be at the hospital in a few minutes.”
    â€œI want to know how bad it is! Where is my dog? Is he dead?”
    No one answered and fear for herself and Sean struck her mute. She’d been in another car wreck, she thought. The last one had killed her father when she was nine.
    Rebecca sank into unconsciousness.
    â€œOpen your eyes.”
    Open them to what? Rebecca wondered. Open them to perpetual darkness?
    â€œOpen your
eyes
”
    She automatically responded to the authority in the voice. Her eyelids snapped open. She blinked against thelight, then slowly focused on a man’s blue-gray eyes. He grinned. “Is that better?”
    â€œI can see,” Rebecca gasped. “I thought I was blind.”
    â€œYou crashed into a perfectly innocent tree, shattered your windshield with a limb, knocked yourself senseless, and got two nice cuts on your forehead. Some of the blood ran under your contact lenses. We took them out, rinsed with saline solution, and now those beautiful green eyes seem to be working just fine again.”
    Rebecca took a minute to absorb the information, then breathed, “Thank God.”
    â€œGave you quite a scare, didn’t it?”
    â€œThat’s putting it mildly. What other damage is there?”
    â€œSo far all we’ve found are contusions and lacerations. We’ll need to suture your forehead. The cuts are near the hairline and four or five stitches for each should do the trick.”
    â€œMy dog. Where is my dog?”
    The doctor frowned. “I don’t know anything about a dog. If the paramedics who brought you in are still around, I can have someone ask if they saw a dog at the scene.”
    â€œYes, please,” Rebecca said urgently. “He was in the front seat. He’s afraid of most people—a case of abuse when he was younger. I took him in as a stray. He means so much to me—”
    The doctor placed a hand on her shoulder and she realized she’d been rising. “You lie still.” He turned to a slender young man in hospital scrubs with stooped shoulders and gigantic brown eyes behind thick glasses. “Alvin, will you go out and see if the paramedics know anything about the dog?”
    The young man stared at Rebecca for a moment and she realized she must have sounded hysterical, babbling on about the dog being an abused stray. “Alvin?” the doctor