Oblivious by Jamie Bowers

a brief moment of silence before she decided what question to ask first.
    ‘Is he ill?’ she asked. ‘Can you help him?’ Doctor Gable pulled Joe’s gown back over his stomach and lifted the bed sheet to his chest, tucking it under his arms to make him comfortable. ‘I promise to help you Joe.’ he said as he picked up the clipboard and placed his pen in the top pocket of his jacket. Without any further words said, they started to walk out of the door.
    ‘Don’t.’ Joe said slowly waking from his dream state. Gable and Francis both turned to face Joe trying to open his eyes.
    ‘Don’t?’ asked Francis as they both stepped back to Joe’s bedside.
    ‘Please don’t hurt me.’ said Joe as he reached out both of his hands in a plea.
    Francis placed her hands on Joe’s. ‘We won’t hurt you,’ she said as she pressed his hands down to the bed, ‘it’s Doctor Gable and me, Francis. Do you remember us?’ Joe gave a large exhale of air in relief when he realised he wasn’t in any danger.
    ‘I thought you were someone else.’ he said as he wiped the beads of sweat from his brow.
    Francis picked up the cup from the bedside table. ‘You’ve been asleep for two days now, Joe,’ she said as she passed him the cup, ‘I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up. Tell me, what was the last thing you remember?’
    Joe finished the water and passed the cup back to Francis. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said when he was really thinking what he should say, ‘my leg, it hurt and that’s about it.’
    Gable looked at Joe. ‘Hurt? That’s a bit of an understatement. You’ve broken it severely,’ he said as he pointed to the cast around Joe’s ankle and foot, ‘the bone has broken clean and it ripped your skin to pieces. A nasty accident like that makes me wonder if this was an accident or self-inflicted.’ Joe looked at Gable in amazement.
    ‘You think this was an accident?’ he said, ‘That mother-fucker Bruce did this to me when he came into my room. How the hell is he allowed to come in here and why does nobody know this?’
    Francis looked down at Joe, confused by his recent statement. ‘Do you mean Bruce Glenn, the man who strikes more deals with the guards than he does with the inmates?’
    ‘Yeah, I think that’s his name,’ Joe replied, ‘he was here and he did this to me. He came into my room and….’ Joe paused for a moment, looking around the room to see where the gun was. He couldn’t see it; Bruce must have taken it with him, not wanting to be caught. If the gun would have been found by someone else Joe would have known about it by now and he would be most likely cuffed to the bed, or worse. But maybe someone did find it, maybe it was Francis and she has hidden it to stop him from getting in trouble.
    ‘Don’t worry, Joe.’ said Francis, ‘I’ll help you.’ Joe stared up at her and gave a small smile of gratitude.
    ‘Thank you.’ He said as he reached out and held her hand.
    ‘Why do you think Bruce Glenn did this to you, Joe?’ Gable asked as he interrupted the intimate moment between patient and nurse, ‘There is no way that anyone would be able to get in this infirmary without anyone knowing. There are guards making sure of that, in case anyone thinks this is a route of escape, or easy access to drugs. Hell, we once had a man who cut off his own finger to get up here. He stole medicine but could only do it with one hand. So, in a rush, he didn’t know what he had taken. He just dealt them to the other inmates when he went back. I tell you something, I have never seen so many inmates with a bad case of the shits at the same time. It was funny, but it took a few weeks to get the smell from the cell block.’
    Joe looked at the Doctor and Francis as they showed their concerns. ‘He was here, he broke my leg.’ He said, trying to convince them both.
    Francis looked at Joe with the same caring, concerned look that he had seen before. ‘Joe, there is no way that Bruce could