“One or two snippets. As weird as it may seem, you were right, I’m pretty sure that I’m Rebecca, but I can’t remember my surname yet.” I’d thought about it a lot, and found I liked the name.
“You’ve remembered how to keep fit. I’ve been standing admiring you for a few minutes.”
“The body seems to remember. I do seem to be quite fit.”
“You certainly are. Would you like to get back onto your bed and I’ll examine you?”
I did so and he checked me out.
“You really are in the best of health. It almost seems daft you being here.”
“Can I leave?”
“Almost, I said. Where would you go?” he repeated.
“I’d find somewhere to go.”
“Really?”
I smiled. “I may not know much, but I know that I don’t like hospitals.”
“Few of us do. We’ll wait for the psychiatrist to see you this morning, and then there are the police.”
“Whoopee.”
“I have a theory,” he said.
“Oh yes.”
“This may sound daft, but I don’t think you have a memory because you haven’t got one.”
I felt a cold finger of fear run down my spine.
“Really?”
“You see, you’re too perfect - not a blemish, no tartar on your teeth, no cholesterol, no scars, no tooth decay, no moles, nothing! I almost suspect you are an alien clone, created by an alien race as a near perfect replica of a human.”
I sensed he was joking so I laughed. He smiled, but I could sense he felt that there was a serious side to his statement.
“Okay, I’m joking, but I have to admit, you really are a very strange enigma. It’s as if you were only born ten days ago. I’ve done some tests on the blood sample we took after you were brought in. Your DNA is of a normal female. You are fertile and I cannot see any evidence of you ever having sex, or even a tampon inserted in your vagina. You have absolutely no trace of any impurities in your system, as your liver and kidneys are completely clean. I’d love to know your story.”
Shit! I was in danger. At least my DNA was now female, that was a relief. I wondered about my fingerprints.
“It could just be clean living, doctor,” I said, as lightly as I could.
“Clean living? Bloody hell, girl, to get that clean, you’d have to have been on ice for the last two decades!”
“Look, if I could help, I would. I mean, I don’t like not knowing who I am or how I got here any more than you do. What can I do?”
“I’d like to suggest you should be hypnotised.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps your subconscious remembers something your conscious brain doesn’t want to. It’s a possibility.”
I didn’t want to chuck cold water on his suggestion, as that would turn up his suspicions about me.
“I’ve no problem with that. When?”
“This afternoon, I have a psychologist friend who uses hypnotherapy on a daily basis. I trust her implicitly.”
“If you like.”
“Good. I’ll arrange that while you relax. You never know, the police may come up with something.”
“You never know,” I said, smiling in spite of my fears.
He left me alone so I got dressed again. I’d undergone extensive training in counter-interrogation and torture techniques. I knew that there was no way I could be hypnotised unless they used some drugs to assist the process. Even then, I had trained myself to resist some drugs by a special mind focus technique. I didn’t suspect the NHS would use truth drugs, but they may use mild sedatives to assist in the relaxation process.
I had to get out, of that I was certain. However, I was in the catch-22 situation of having no legal identity and therefore could not obtain lawful employment, access to banking, health and travel documents. With sufficient funds, I could purchase the necessary false documentation, but in the long run, what I wanted was a lawful identity that was not connected in any way to my old one. It was beginning to look as if the colonel was the best possible solution.
I was stuck in this hospital for the time being. I watched a little TV, trying to see if there was anything on the news about my sudden appearance or the facility in Buckinghamshire. There was neither.
“Hello, how are you?”
I looked to the doorway and saw the same WPC that had taken my fingerprints. Karen Healy was her name.
“Hi. Bored, frustrated and feeling lost, but okay, I guess.”
She smiled and came into the room carrying a carrier bag.
“I managed to get you some underwear from Marks and Spencers, as well as some trainers, a pair of jeans and a decent top. I was going to get you some makeup, but thought you would want to buy your own. The social worker is trying to arrange some emergency funds for you.”
Karen passed over the bag and I looked into it.
“Thanks. Where did the money come from for this, as I haven’t any?”
“There’s a fund with social services for needy causes. I think you qualify. If you find out you’re a millionaire, then perhaps you could refund it.”
“Yeah, like that’s likely!”
“Well, you’re attractive enough to be a movie star, so I think you’ll be all right.”
I smiled. “Thanks, but with no past, I’m a bit of a liability. Did my prints come back?”
“Yes, and there’s no trace. Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you. The Detective Inspector will be in later.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure, but I think he wants to ask you some more questions.”
“The doctors are going to try to hypnotise me later. Maybe my subconscious will help with who I am.”
“Thanks, I’ll tell him.”
Opening the bag and removing the underwear from the wrappers, I stripped off and dressed in the clothes. It was so weird with boobs. Strangely, while I didn’t know any different, they were just part of me, but with the memory of who I had been, everything seemed mixed up. I managed pretty well, as I’d had enough practice taking bras off women over the years. The one trait I’d developed in the mob was to be completely unashamed of my body. I had no qualms about taking my clothes off as a man, so why should I as a girl? The policewoman was less open-minded and turned her back to me.
“There’s a hairbrush at the bottom of the bag. I thought you’d appreciate one once your hair grows,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“Why did you have it cut so short?” she asked.
“I haven’t the faintest idea, I only wish I did.”
“Of course,” she said, smiling with embarrassment.
Dressed, I felt much better. I may not have an identity or money, but I felt considerably less vulnerable now.
She asked me various questions, gently testing me. I was able to reply, ‘I don’t know,’ to most of them.
“I can’t believe that no one misses you, I should be very concerned if I suddenly turned up somewhere strange and no one made any report of me being missing,” she said.
“Maybe I was an absolute cow, so no one cares!”
“I wouldn’t think so for a minute. I hope you get sorted out.”
“Thanks for everything.”
Karen smiled and left me alone again, so I went for a little walk. The nurse at the nurses’ station hardly glanced at me, I suppose she saw me in normal clothes and registered me as a visitor, so I walked out of the ward and down the corridor.
It was very strange. I still saw the world in exactly the same way as before. After all, nothing inside my head had changed. It was just my outside had changed beyond all recognition. I was interested to observe the way people reacted to me. I had never imagined that a simple thing as one’s gender would alter the way people looked at me and behaved towards me quite so comprehensively.
Older women smiled at me, women roughly my own age seemed to appraise me in an almost competitive manner, but the way males looked at me was quite disconcerting.
Firstly, they stared at my chest, almost without exception. Then they looked at my face and then their eyes travelled down my body and back to my tits. Some stared at my hair, or lack of it, and frowned. I decided that I would let it grow out as soon as I could.