In A Dark Dark Wood

This chapter switches back to the present time, when Nora is in the hospital. The unknown events distress Nora, and she wonders about her part in the accident: “The doctors ask me questions I can’t answer, tell me things I can’t remember” (46). After many tests, the hospital staff leave Nora in her room alone, though Nora can see a police officer stationed outside. Concerned, she wonders why the officer is guarding her.

Nora sleeps, dreaming of blood pooling around her and spreading across the floor. She wakes up and realizes that she has dressings, cuts, and scratches all over her body. She also finds a huge bruise on the front of her shoulder, running down her arm. She struggles to identify the cause of her injuries: “I remember … I remember a car … I remember stumbling across broken glass … one of my shoes had come off…” (48). As she begins to fall asleep again, she suddenly has a mental image of a gun hanging on a wall. She recalls now that the bruise resulted from the recoil of having fired a gun.