‘You know, I’ve read about this.’
‘Recovery after a hip fracture and replacement?’ This was looking hopeful.
‘No, about people my age going about their business one minute, happy, not a care in the world, and then one fall, one accident, one illness, and it’s all downhill.’
It wasn’t quite the positive approach Harvey was hoping for. ‘I’m going to help you recuperate, I’m there for you. Please don’t think this is the end.’ Barney didn’t say anything. ‘And you love putting on the Wedding Dress Ball, to hear you talk of cancelling is a shock. Wait until you’re back in Heritage Cove, make a decision then.’
‘I’ve made up my mind. The ball has had its time and if someone else wants to do it then let them be my guest. It’s a lot of hassle I don’t really need.’ Barney had never referred to the ball as a hassle. Even the year he’d had an out-of-the-blue summer cold and felt rotten, Barney had still given the organising his all and the event had gone ahead as planned. ‘Best to give everyone their money back.’
Harvey sat, arms outstretched along his thighs. He looked up at the corner of the ceiling in the ward where a cobweb hung, detached at one end and dangling down, perhaps too scared to float to the floor and become a part of the hopelessness surrounding Barney’s bed. His gaze flicked over to the window, the dullness of the sky, the scaffolding on a building over the bypass that ran between the hospital on one side and a shopping centre on the other. He watched Barney turn his head away from him yet again, this time to look at the pale blue curtain that separated his own section of the ward from the rest, where in one bed there was an old lady who’d been in here a fortnight, in another a cantankerous old man who moaned at everyone who set foot in the ward day and night, visitors and staff.
Perhaps what he was about to say could shock Barney into the present moment. ‘I got in touch with Melissa.’
It worked, Barney finally met his gaze. ‘Now there’s something I thought I’d never hear from you.’
‘I haven’t heard back from her yet, but she knows about the fall, she knows you’re in hospital.’
They hadn’t spoken about Melissa in a long time. Barney tried now and then but knew what response he’d get. Harvey didn’t much enjoy talking about the woman who’d broken his heart. She’d moved on, left him behind, and there wasn’t a lot he could do to change it. Perhaps it was his own fault – he hadn’t stopped her; in fact, as far as she knew, he’d just changed his mind and hadn’t wanted to go to London with her. He’d never told her the real reasons why because he didn’t want her to feel guilty, to stay in Heritage Cove just because he couldn’t leave. Any fool could see she needed to get away, but it was her never looking back that had hurt him so deeply.
Melissa hadn’t come back to the Cove after she left. She hadn’t even come to see Barney in all this time, and for that Harvey wasn’t sure he could ever forgive her. But he’d had to let her know about the fall. As Barney lay there on the floor that day, Harvey’s heart was squeezed with a ten-tonne weight and it was a moment of clarity. Nothing in life was for certain. Barney had always been there for them both, but he was getting older, he wouldn’t be around forever, and the thought terrified Harvey. Waiting for the ambulance to turn up, Harvey had thought about Melissa and how she’d feel if Barney didn’t pull through. It had been enough to tell him he had to get in touch with her. Part of him didn’t want to, part of him wanted to punish her for her lack of interest, but he didn’t have it in him to do it. And so once he was at the hospital he’d got in touch with her best friend Tracy, who still lived in Heritage Cove and had Melissa’s email address – he’d deleted it a long time ago - and he’d sent the brief message to tell her about the accident.
‘I guess I need to thank you for telling her.’ Barney brightened for a moment. ‘Maybe she’ll call. I hope you didn’t worry her too much.’
Harvey hoped he had. ‘I just told her the facts.’
‘We haven’t talked about her in a while.’
‘No, we haven’t.’ Because she hadn’t looked back, so why should he?
Daniel had done the same thing – upped and left, just like Melissa. You’d think he would be used to it somehow.
Barney winced, trying to lever himself up in the bed, and Harvey went to him. ‘Let me help you.’ He adjusted the pillow so Barney could settle himself back down again. ‘Any better?’
‘A bit…where’s that doctor? He should be here by now, letting me go home.’
‘I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can.’
‘I know I’m not the best patient,’ said Barney.
‘Really?’ Harvey laughed. ‘Never would’ve known.’
Barney managed a smile but tiredness was sweeping over him like the winds that came off the sea in Heritage Cove on a blustery day, the gusts that stopped you from making your way down to the beautiful spot where the wine-glass-shaped cove spread out before your eyes. It was inaccessible except to pedestrians, something Harvey appreciated because it kept it quiet, a local hideout more or less. Tourists still came to the village, but plenty couldn’t be bothered to make the trip down to the water’s edge on foot and heeded the warning signs about exercising caution on the climb down to the golden sands below. Instead, they drove on further, to just outside Heritage Cove, where there was a far more accessible beach with a car park and an easy trip down to the sea.
‘I’ll let you rest,’ Harvey told Barney. ‘I’ll go for a wander and hopefully by the time I get back the doctor will have been to see you.’
Barney made some sort of grunt, clearly in pain with his hip reminding him of what had happened. But he’d brightened at the mention of Melissa; perhaps she’d at least call. She owed it to Barney, they both did.
*
The doctor took his own sweet time to get around to see Barney but at last he’d been discharged and they were in Harvey’s pickup making their way home to Heritage Cove before midday.
The windscreen wipers swished away the drizzle as Harvey turned off the main road and, driving more carefully than usual, not wanting to cause Barney any discomfort, he pulled into the village. At least Barney wouldn’t have the tatty walls of the hospital and greying skies outside to focus on, he could be home in his own place and look out to the trees beyond, the barn that showed off its fine walnut-coloured top when the sun caressed its roof on a fine day.
‘Almost there,’ he told Barney, who opened his eyes at last. There may even have been a glimmer of a smile there somewhere.
‘Good, I need to be home. I’m surprised anyone survives hospital stays, I had a fear I’d never come out again.’
As Harvey made his way along The Street, the main road through the village, he expected Barney to be looking this way and that to see who he could spot. He was waiting for a request to pull over so Barney could chat, but Barney sat quietly in the passenger seat, strangely detached from the beauty of the Cove that he always said was impressive no matter the season. Barney claimed this village had a way of drawing you in, whether it was the appeal of the tea rooms when the fog lay like a blanket across the tops of the buildings and gardens, the lights at Christmas adorning lamp-posts and shop fronts, a waft of spring flowers as winter went away for another year or the salty scent of the sea in summer, drifting up from the Cove. Harvey had always shared those opinions, even after the darker times he’d faced, and he hoped that Heritage Cove would be the tonic to draw Barney out of his current dispiritedness. But sneaking a glance across at him now, he realised it might not be quite so simple.
