Story #3: Dramatic Monologue

Colleen Mundy
Dr. Tony Barnstone
ENGL 302
February 24, 2009

What Happened
The room was white. And when I say white I don’t mean just blank like white, I mean blinding, shield your eyes white. I was in a paper gown in a doctor’s office sitting on one of those padded chairs. A woman in a white (I mean white) coat came over and shined a light in my eyes; as if that room wasn’t bright enough already. I turned my head away and flinched back from her. She came toward me again, but I pushed away from the chair and sidestepped away from her. She looked surprised and then comforting. She told me we were almost done. She eased me back down into the chair and I asked her where I was. The hospital. What happened? You were raped. No I wasn’t. Yes you were. I don't remember.
She put her hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back in the reclining chair. I looked up and the overhead light burned my eyes and flashed my consciousness back. I had been at a party. The room I was in upstairs was white like the hospital room. I woke up flat on my back staring at the ceiling. I was on a bed and it felt like the mattress was sucking me in, pulling me down farther and farther with the plush comforter. I looked down at myself. My blouse was torn, my skirt was around my ankles and the sheet was the only thing covering me. I sat up slowly, my arms straining with the effort. I looked down to see fingerprint bruises covering my upper arms. My head pounded and I pressed the heel of my hand above my right eye. The door opened slowly and I looked up to see a man buttoning his jeans. Good time, babe, he said, flashing his rows of absolutely perfect and, of course, brilliantly white teeth. Great time, he said. But I gotta get to work.
I had never seen him before in my life.
The doctor smoothed the hair back from my head and brought me back to the hospital room. I felt a throbbing pain. He hit me pretty hard, she said. I had a black eye, too. I stared at her. You remember, don’t you? She said there were some police officers outside who wanted to talk to me. I swallowed against the lump in my throat as she pressed gauze to my forehead. I felt the blood as it oozed through the cloth. There was a knock on the door and a man and woman came in saying that they dealt specifically with rape victims. The woman came up and held my hand. The man looked at me and smiled a strangely familiar smile.
They had some questions for me.