“I’m sorry, honey, no. Did he put those scratches on your arms?”
“They. There were three of them.”
Horrified, the nurse whispered, “Blacks?”
“No, they’re white.”
She appeared relieved. “I’ll call the sheriff’s office. The doctor will be here in a jiffy.”
The nurse went through the curtain, leaving Jade alone. Slowly, painfully, she removed her clothing. She piled her soggy, tattered blouse, skirt, and bra in a heap on the floor. Her underpants and pantyhose were gone, as were her shoes.
In the revealing light, she gazed down at her body, cramming her fist against her lips to keep from screaming. She was filthy. From the knees down, her legs were caked with mud. There were long, bleeding scratches on her arms. Her knees and the heels of her hands were raw and bloody beneath several layers of dirt.
Worst of all, her belly and the skin between her thighs was smeared with a sticky substance, tinged pink by her own blood. She felt nastier than a spittoon. Hastily reaching for a stainless steel basin on the counter, she retched.
“Miss, uh, Sperry?”
The male voice came from just beyond the curtain. He cast a silhouette against the thin fabric. Jade choked on bile, coughed, and cleared her burning throat.
“I need to examine you now, Ms. Sperry.”
“Just… just a minute.” She fumbled with the gown and was finally able to pull it over her head. Its hem barely skimmed her upper thighs. She climbed onto the examination table and draped the cloth around her hips, covering as much of herself as she could. “Okay.”
Her system received another unpleasant shock. The doctor was very young. He had a fresh face that looked like it rarely needed a shave. His eyes were bright and quizzical. She had hoped for someone who resembled the kindly, family physician in the famous Norman Rockwell paintings—a gray-haired, older gentleman with an endearing paunch and spectacles.
The doctor must have sensed her aversion to him. He did his best to look and sound compassionate, probably because he didn’t want a hysterical girl on his hands. “The next few minutes are going to be uncomfortable, Ms. Sperry. I’m going to examine you, take some Polaroid pictures, ask you some questions. Some of the questions will be embarrassing, I’m afraid. Let’s get them over with first, okay?”
Getting down to business, he opened the metal cover of a medical chart and whipped out a ballpoint pen from the breast pocket of his white lab coat.
“Full name?”
“Jade Elizabeth Sperry.”
“Age?”
“Eighteen.”
“Date of birth?”
He wrote the pertinent information in the spaces provided on the official form; then, as he had warned, the questions got more embarrassing. “Date of your last period?”
“I don’t remember.”
“I need to know. An approximation anyway.”
Rubbing her temples, Jade thought back. She gave him a date that seemed feasible. He wrote it down.
“Any venereal diseases?”
The questions stunned her. “Pardon me?”
“Have you ever had a venereal disease or sexual contact with someone who has?”
Something inside her snapped and she lashed out in anger. “Until tonight I was a virgin!” In that instant, Jade knew that she had lost her innocence this night in more ways than one.
“I see. Okay.” The doctor made a note of that on the chart. “Did the man—”
“Men. I already told the nurse that there were three of them. Didn’t she tell you?”