Chapter Twenty-One
Hoping desperately that Felicity was still registered at DrGreene’s surgery, Lisa carried Fred over to the reception desk. The woman, whom Lisa didn’t recognise, continued to write without even the courtesy of a glance to acknowledge their presence. While Lisa was happy that Fred was now calmer than he had been on the journey, she couldn’t help but thinkthey might get more attention if he was still hollering as he had been in the van.
Waiting bought back memories of standing at the reception desk with Felicity when they were teenagers; back then they’d had to endure the disapproving look of her elderly neighbour, MrsBates – as if checking into the family planning clinic wasn’t embarrassing enough when you were seventeen, without yourneighbour judging you with the knowledge that planning a family was the antithesis of what was on your mind.
‘Don’t worry, Fred, thenicelady will soon take your name.’ Lisa spoke loud enough to ensure the disdain in her voice was heard, while Fred took comfort in rediscovering and chewing the strings on her hoody.
Finally, the woman looked above the rim of her glasses. ‘You cancheck in on the screen there.’ She pointed at the wall to Lisa’s left, offering a half smile that Lisa decided not to interpret as patronising.
Lisa looked at the large touchscreen asking her to check in. ‘Oh, we don’t have an appointment.’
‘No appointment?’ The tone and accompanying look removed any ambiguity as to whether the smile had been intended as patronising.
‘ButFred here is hurt, he fell off the slide and—’
‘We’re not an Accident and Emergency service,’ the woman scoffed.
‘I’m aware of that, but you are roughly fifteen miles closer than the nearest Accident and Emergency, and this little boy is hurt.’ Lisa looked at Fred, whose eyes were still red from crying, his face stained from tears.
‘But—’
‘Is there anybody who canjust take a look at him?’ Lisa tried not to sound exasperated, but it seemed that the medical assistance Fred might need was in grasping distance and the dragon of a receptionist, who obviously saw herself as the gatekeeper to that assistance, stood in her way.
‘You should have called.’
‘Yes, yes, I should have, or I should have called his mum or an ambulance or anybody who mightbe able to help me, but all of that, you see, all of that was not possible because my,’ Lisa paused, and held back the expletives she knew wouldn’t help her cause, ‘phone is dead!’
‘So you’re not the boy’s mother?’
Lisa took a breath. ‘No, no, I am not, but Fred here was entrusted to me, and he has fallen and hurt himself, and I would very much like to have him checked over, soif I could please see someone.’ She felt tears welling in her eyes as her desperation increased.
‘Peeeeees,’ Fred added, with no idea what the general conversation was about, but recognising the word his mummy often asked him to repeat.
Finally the woman softened. ‘Well, you could have a long wait as we don’t have a doctor available, but we have a paramedic in clinic today whomay see you—’
‘YES! Yes, please.’ Relief flooded through Lisa. Returning Fred with an injury was bad enough, but returning him with an unchecked injury might be unforgivable and she couldn’t risk that. The repairs to her friendship with Flick were still too fragile to take any chances.
While Fred, who it seemed was quite the dragon slayer, charmed the receptionist with his smiles,Lisa answered her questions. Luckily, she now knew Fred’s surname and date of birth – otherwise she would have been stuck. She held her breath anxiously as the woman searched for his details.
‘Fred Willis, there you are. Take a seat, but, as I said, it could be some time.’
Relieved that she was right in her assumption that Fred was registered at the surgery, Lisa thanked the woman,whom she was increasingly warming to, and headed through the double doors to the waiting room. Scanning the rows of blue-plastic, slightly-too-close-to-each-other chairs Lisa chose to sit within eyesight of the reception desk. That way she could monitor who came in and out, and ensure Fred’s wait was not prolonged by queue jumpers.
Settling into her seat and ensuring Fred was comfortableon her lap, Lisa stroked her hand over his back, cringing as she felt the lump. While she was relieved it wasn’t getting any bigger she really wished it would just disappear. How could she possibly explain it to Felicity? She had only had Fred in her charge for a short while and she had…broken him!
While Fred continued contentedly chewing the strings of her hoody, Lisa looked at theothers in the waiting room. There were three elderly women – Lisa wondered if they were the same women who had resided in the waiting room when she was younger – curly grey hair, wide trousers, soft shoes, square handbags on their laps; the mainstay of all doctors’ waiting rooms. There was a man with some kind of bite or sting on his leg, and a child of similar age to Fred cuddled up on what Lisapresumed to be her mummy’s lap. Lisa thought how the poor, little love looked hot and sweaty,feverishshe imagined her Granny Blake saying.What if it’s catching?Offering a sympathetic smile Lisa turned Fred in the opposite direction. She couldn’t have him getting germs as well as an injury on her watch;whatever would Flick make of that?
Slipping Fred’s jacket off, Lisa wished she couldremove her own too, but after hearing the power of Fred’s lungs on the drive to the surgery she didn’t want to disturb him while he was happily chewing, even if that did mean she felt herself sweating up in a similar fashion to the flush-faced girl. Wiping her forehead, Lisa wondered why the room needed to be so stiflingly hot. There wasn’t a single open window and the small radiators runningalong the skirting boards were firing out an unnecessary amount of heat. She was sure she could feel the germs breeding around her. One of the elderly ladies coughed and Lisa sent her a glare before she could stop herself. She knew her panic was largely based on the paranoia about germs she had inherited from her mother. But, with Fred to look after, she couldn’t help but fear that the dreaded lurgieswere multiplying in anticipation of making him their next victim. The words ‘a hive of germs’ rampaged through her mind as she realised the older she got the more she was turning into her mother! Before that thought could linger, a woman pacing up and down in the reception area, walked too close to the sensors causing the automatic doors to open. Lisa welcomed the hit of cool air.
Havingchewed Lisa’s hoody strings into a contorted shape from which she felt they might never recover, Fred began to fidget. Realising she had left all his things in the van, she looked round for something to occupy him.Don’t all doctors’ surgeries have toys?If only he were an adult, there would be plenty to keep him busy. It was a case of information overload. There was a large screen scrolling adviceon head lice, diabetes and alcoholism, as well as displaying the BBC News’ headlines in a constant stream across the bottom, in case the former wasn’t depressing enough. Posters galore were housed in wipe-clean display boards all around the walls, and a table smothered in leaflets for all things medical and local stood in the corner. Spotting a shelf with second-hand books for sale, Lisa wonderedif there might be something suitable for Fred. But as a closer look revealed that half the shelf was stocked with pre-loved copies ofFifty Shades of Grey, she decided to look elsewhere.
Rummaging in her bag, Lisa spotted a packet of chocolate animals Flick had given her as a mock ‘thank you’ after she had helped give out party bags with Fred. They’d be a good distraction she was sure– food always worked to take her mind off things. She offered them to him and Fred smiled;success. It was only as she opened them and saw his hand slip in the bag it dawned on her that she had no means to clean him up. Chocolate, a toddler and a warm room were not a good mix. Finding a tissue in her pocket, Lisa remembered how her mum used to spit on a tissue to wipe her clean as a child,hmmm!There was no way she would be doing that. Lisa smiled, relieved that perhaps she wasn’t turning into her mother after all.
As Fred slowly crunched and dribbled his way through the biscuits, the man with the bite or sting on his leg began tapping his foot on the shiny-plastic, fake wooden floor. Lisa tried to ignore it, but, coupled with Fred’s eating, it was doing nothing for her nerves.For about the fiftieth time since leaving the park Lisa wished her phone was charged so she could call Felicity. She didn’t want her to worry where they were, and, despite the fact she wanted to get Fred checked out before returning him, Lisa knew she would feel better if Felicity were there too.Note to self, have a fully charged phone when taking out other people’s children!Not that she imaginedthat would be happening again any time soon.
Finally, Fred’s name was called, stating that he needed to go to ‘the treatment room’. As she did what she could to wipe his face with her tissue, Lisa hoped he wouldn’t need any treatment and felt the weight of being there without Felicity even more keenly. What if he needed something done? She couldn’t OK treatment without Flick’s say so.She wondered why she hadn’t just driven him home before going straight to the doctor’s. And then she knew it was because she wanted to get it right. Overreact rather than not act at all and be the cause of something vital being missed. Some lessons were learnt the hard way.
Lisa knocked tentatively on the treatment room door.
