Printer-friendly version

Eve

 By Topsy

Edited by Stanman63

Previously:

Simon Jones had just discovered that his birth name was Eve and, following a collapse at school, he was admitted to hospital as Eve Jones. The hospital has assumed he is TG and his mother has not yet corrected them..

Now the story continues.

Eve Chapter 2

I was not happy about talking to a shrink, but Dr. Fox was kind, and she took me slowly through my dreams, at least those I could recall. My mum was sat next to my hospital bed and had just been told much the same but Dr Fox went over each dream several times, trying to tease more memories from me each time. In the end, I was very relaxed, but this may have been down to the sedative I was on.

Dr Fox thanked me, "Eve, I'm so glad we could have this chat. I can see you're a bit tired, so I'll be back in the morning, don't go anywhere will you?"

She left the room before I could think of something witty. A nurse arrived and told me she would change my dressings and check my blood pressure. As the nurse left, mum kissed me and suggested I took a nap.

I woke to see an orderly pushing a wheelchair into the room, "Time for your MRI" he said.

Two nurses helped me into the wheelchair after putting a gown on me. That's when I noticed the catheter bag. Ughh!. They moved my IV onto a hook above the chair, "Off we go Eve," he said and we headed for the lift, then down two floors, along a long bright corridor, to the Diagnostic Imaging Suite (at least that's what the sign said).

The orderly handed a form to a guy in a lab coat, "Right Eve, you've been here once before but I don't reckon you remember too much of it. I'm Craig, by the way." My chair was pushed over to the drum with a table running through it. I didn't like the idea of the head wear.

I was carefully laid on the table and my head locked into the restraint, as were my hands and legs. Already I didn't like this one little bit. A pair of headphones was put over my ears, they were odd as they had tubes not wires.

"Eve, you have to stay perfectly still. It will get very noisy but if you move we'll have to repeat the scan."

They played some classical music, I think it was Spring from the Four Seasons. I'd heard it a few times as 'music on hold'.

He wasn't kidding about the noise. A robotic voice told me to 'keep still'. Even if I had really wanted to hear some Vivaldi, I couldn't have heard it over the noise. I was so glad ten minutes later when it was over, except Craig told me they'd repeat the scan 'just to be sure'. Thanks.

I was back in my bed nearly an hour later. The orderly who had taken me for the MRI couldn't be found for 45 minutes until one of the technicians looked in the staff canteen along the corridor. As it was now lunchtime I was given a potato and leak soup (at least that is what they said) and a crusty bread roll with instructions 'not to get any crumbs on the bed'. As the roll was passed its best, I gave it a miss. Sleep came easy to me.

I smelt fresh coffee as I woke up. Someone must have heard my silent pleas. I was helped to sit up by mum and held the cardboard cup. She just smiled as I drank it. The door swung open and Mr. Bishop, the surgeon walked in, followed by a gaggle of people in white lab coats.

"Good morning Eve, I hope you don't mind but these are medical students. I've asked them not to ask you any questions. Are you OK with them here?"

I nodded and he continued, "I've had a look at the MRI scans and it looks like we got all of the tumour. Also, there is no obvious damage where your head hit the table, only bruising. You did however suffer substantial concussion. You'll stay overnight for observations and I'll check you in the morning, you could go home by lunchtime."

I thanked him and he left, followed by the gaggle.

So far today, four different different people had called me 'Eve' and I hadn't corrected them. My name is Simon I told myself. Mum was still sat there and offered me a glass of water, which I took.

"Simon, I know you're confused. When we get out of the hospital we'll straighten everything up. I've asked our solicitor to prepare a statutory declaration to change your name, if that's what you want. I'm sorry how this started."

She started crying. I held her hand and started crying myself, I never did that.

After a cardboard meal I fell asleep again. I woke at 7 in the morning and pushed the call button. A nurse appeared and I asked her for a coffee. She returned with a coffee and some toast. The crumbs warning was repeated. The coffee was warm and tasteless, the toast was cold. No marmalade either. Did I get a choice for my food and was there any decent food anyway?

I must have dozed some more until I smelt coffee again. This time it was hot and tasted wonderful. I figured mum was getting her supply from elsewhere. A nurse arrived and took some blood, she then went to the IV and adjusted the valve. Finally she changed my dressings. Dr. Fox arrived just then. We talked some more and she asked me how I felt being called Eve. I tried to explain that this was very new to me but most of the time I didn't notice if I was called Eve or Simon.

"It's strange, until last week I was Simon, now I'm Eve as well," I said.

Dr. Fox latched onto that last comment and asked me to explain it. Of course I couldn't. Dr. Fox told mum she'd see me as an out-patient next week. She also asked me to keep a diary of my dreams and to take it to the appointment. I asked if it would mean a day off school and she just smiled before she turned and left.

"Mum, what just happened?"

"Simon, they are keeping you off school for the next week until they're sure there's no damage, physical or mental."

"Great, now I'm waiting for the men in white coats. Oh damn, I've already seen them."

Mr. Bishop arrived a while later and asked how I felt.

"That's a strange question, I've been knocked unconscious, been treated as transgendered, been operated on for a tumour and I'm now seeing a shrink."

"I can see you are recovering well by that statement. I had the sedative discontinued his morning but we left the IV there just in case. I'll have a nurse remove the canula before you leave. You will be home in a few hours, but now I need to speak to your mother briefly."

He signalled for mum to follow him and they walked out of the room together. I fell back off to sleep.

This time I dreamt I was playing netball, and I was dressed just like the other girls.