Secrets and Lies (Sequel to Your Lying Eyes)

Secrets and Lies Chapter 3

"Come on then, get a move on," Jason called to Anna as he swung the lid of the boot closed.  "We were meant to be leaving half an hour ago.  We need to set out now to avoid the worst of the traffic."

"I'm here now, I'm ready to go.  Maisie just wanted to give me this to take with us," she told him, holding up a piece of paper with message scribbled on it.  "She says it says 'Have a good time'!" She handed it over to him and he smiled as he read the message.  

"If she says it says that, then I'll not argue," he laughed as he got into the car and clicked the belt into position.

"Don't laugh, it's not that bad for a child her age," grinned Anna as she sat beside him.

"Right come on let's go," he told her as he pulled off the drive into the main stream of traffic.  "Don't want to be the last ones there.  But that's usually Howard isn't it, being the last there?"

Anna smiled but made no reply.

Jason glanced at her as he changed gear.

"You are going to be ok with seeing him again aren't you?" he asked her, trying not to sound too anxious.

"Of course I am!  What do you think I'm going to do?" she asked him.  "Jump on him or something?"

"No of course not, it's just that you haven't really said much about seeing him again."

"What do you want me to say Jason?" she sighed.  "That I'm going to hate the sight of him?  That I don't want to be in the same room as him ever again?  Because you know that's not going to happen.  To be honest, I thought that you would be the one that would have problems with seeing him again.  After all, he did try to take me away from you didn't he?"

"Yeah, but you didn't go did you?  I won in the end, you stayed with me.  You didn't go with him."

"Yes, that's right I did, didn't I?" she answered coolly, not looking at him as they drove smoothly down the motorway.

It was a bright sunny day, the sky blue without a cloud in the sky.  Anna gazed out at the fields as they whizzed by.  Both of them were lost in their own thoughts.  It was just like this the day that she had had her accident.  Even now, all these months later, she still couldn't remember all of the details of what had happened.  Why she had been in that part of the city was still a mystery to her.  Maybe one day it would come back to her.

Anna was driving down the road alone in the car.  She was in a part of Manchester that she wasn't familiar with.  Her back was aching from straining forward in the seat, trying to read the names of the streets.  Suddenly she became distracted from the road and looked back over her shoulder at someone on the other side, craning her neck to see them properly.

She turned back just too late to avoid the lorry that was in front of her as she entered the roundabout.  There was a screeching of brakes, followed by the sound of metal crunching as it went under the side of the lorry.  She must have lost consciousness for few seconds then.  The next thing she knew was pain reaching from her back, circling her body to her stomach.  She blinked and heard voices calling out to her, telling her to hang on.  A face appeared above her, talking to her gently and holding a mask to help her to breathe.

"Take a good deep breath, luv," the man said as he held her head to it.  "We'll soon have you out of here.  What's your name?"

Anna managed to whisper her name to him, feeling as if she were about to fall asleep.  She couldn't keep her eyes open as she drifted in and out of consciousness.  The pain in her body coming and going.