Page 32 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘He’s okay,’ Ryan told him. ‘I’ve had a text from him saying that he slept for a while overnight. I’ll take grandad for visiting this afternoon. They’re hoping Dad’ll be home later this week; if not, after the weekend.’

Ethan blew out a sigh down the line. ‘That’s good. Thank God he’s okay.’

‘He’s going to stay with grandad for a while,’ added Ryan.

‘Really?’ Ethan sounded surprised.

‘He’s not going to be able to manage the stairs up to the apartment,’ Ryan explained. ‘He’ll have one crutch and maybe one of those boot things, so I’ve been told. It’ll be too much.’

‘Okay. And Grandad has the stairlift, I suppose.’

‘Exactly,’ replied Ryan.

‘Listen, I’m going to try to get back for dad’s birthday in a few weeks’ time for a flying visit,’ Ethan told him. ‘Well, literally, as I’ll be coming on the red eye from Vancouver on Friday morning and leaving first thing on Monday morning.’

‘Okay,’ said Ryan. ‘As he should be home and recovering, we can hopefully squeeze in a small celebration as well.’

‘Good, good,’ said Ethan, sounding distracted. ‘Listen, I need to tell you something.’

Ryan had a feeling of dread.’ What?’ he asked.

‘I talked to Mum last night,’ Ethan told him.

For a moment, Ryan held on to a tiny ray of hope. Had she heard about his dad’s accident and remembered how much she loved him and was rushing back to be by his side? He found that he was automatically crossing his fingers.

‘She wants some stuff sent out to Spain,’ carried on Ethan. ‘After all, she only left with a couple of suitcases of clothes.’

Ryan’s glimmer of hope rapidly disintegrated. ‘Right,’ he said in a dull tone.

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Ethan, picking up on the vibes down the phone. ‘I was hoping for a different outcome as well, especially when I told her about Dad’s broken foot. Anyway, she’s given me a list. We can go through it when I'm home.’

‘Great.’ Ryan couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

‘I can’t make Mum come back, can I?’ said Ethan, sounding frustrated. ‘Anyway, onto more positive things. What about Mary Poppins? How’s she getting along with her spoonful of sugar?’

‘Katy’s okay,’ Ryan told him, feeling a little defensive. ‘She was really upset over Dad getting hurt. I’ve managed to persuade her to stay on for a while longer. The place is in such a mess downstairs that it’ll take ages to go through it all.’

‘Well, good luck with that,’ said Ethan. ‘I can’t see Dad getting rid of anything, can you?’

Ryan shook his head. No, he couldn’t.

‘What did you agree income-wise with Katy?’ asked Ethan.

‘She insists that she doesn’t want paying,’ Ryan told his brother, still surprised at how she was doing it all for free. ‘And thank goodness, because we’ve also got to do something to try to get the mortgage paid off over here, so that even if the station is sold, Dad isn’t bankrupt or left without anything.’

Ethan had been just as shocked as Ryan when his brother had told him about the letter from the bank a few days ago.

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,’ said Ethan in a grim tone.

‘Yeah. Let’s hope.’

‘What about work?’ asked Ethan.

Ryan managed to lie again about being on sabbatical. He had told Katy that there was no longer any job for him but at some point he was going to have to tell his family the truth, as well as work out what on earth he was going to do for an income whilst he was in Cranfield. But the thought of cooking still gave him no joy and he had no idea how to move forward with his life and career.

* * *

Ryan was still feeling blue when he took his grandad to visit Bob later that afternoon. Thankfully, his dad seemed optimistic, almost back to his old self, thought Ryan.