Dusk cast its ominous shadows over the Collins estate as Julia and I went to see Ned Stuart and, presumably, Sabrina.
We knocked on the door of their room. Ned opened it a crack, peeked through, then closed it to release the chain. He opened it again and I followed Julia into the room. He told me he was expecting me to come alone. I told him he hadn’t told me that. He wanted to know why I brought a doctor with me. Julia told him she wasn’t there as a doctor, but as my friend.
Ned asked what was the matter with me, that I knew this wasn’t a social reunion. I told him I didn’t know what it was. Up to then he didn’t tell me anything. Was there anything wrong with bringing a friend. Is there any reason I can’t see Sabrina with a friend around? He paused, then said he guessed not. I asked where she was and he said he’d get her. He left the room.
I told Julia I didn’t think I’d be able to go through with it. She told me it was too late to turn back now. Ned opened the door and stood in the doorway for a moment before bringing Sabrina… in a wheelchair. She sat frozen, a woman with a complete head of gray hair. I could barely speak. My God, Sabrina… what happened? Julia said that she couldn’t answer me; she was in a state of shock.
Ned said that was right. He said she couldn’t hear and she couldn’t speak. Julia asked how long she had been that way. He replied, for nearly two years. Julia asked if he knew what caused. He snipped back that if he knew what caused it, he wouldn’t be there. I asked what he meant.
He said he found her like that one morning after she came back from my place. She had been there to put up decorations for a party that she was going to give for me. I was supposed to out of town. But Ned didn’t think I was and that I was there when she arrived and that I knew what happened to her.
I would never… I would never have done anything to hurt her, and he knows it. He said if I wasn’t there, somebody was. Julia asked how he knew. He said because he went there the next morning with the police and the room was a shambles. It was a complete wreck… as if there had been some kind of violent struggle. One of the radiators had been torn off the wall.
I asked if Sabrina was physically hurt. Ned said no, every doctor that examined her could find nothing physically wrong with her. But they all agreed… if she could see me again… I interrupted. If she could see me? That’s right, she can see. Did I say she couldn’t hear? She could hear every word we said. And if I was the one that was in that room, it’s just possible that seeing me again might snap her out of it.
Julia spoke sternly, telling Ned that the fact they found evidence of a struggle… He interrupted, saying if she wasn’t there as a doctor, she wasn’t there as a lawyer, either. He knelt beside Sabrina, obviously caring for her a great deal, telling her that I was here now and she could see me… try… try to remember.
She barley blinked, then as I stared at her, her eyelids opened and closed faster. She raised her right hand. Ned noticed and got excited. He asked her, what is it? She leaned forward, reaching out to me with her arm. She stood, walked toward me, then fell flat on the floor.
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