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Alistair had been hoping that Raina might find an excuse not to attend. Conferences had a way of throwing people together, and he wasn’t quite comfortable with being thrown together with Raina yet. But he’d worry about t
hat when the time came.
‘Good. Gabriel’s prescribed a myolectric prosthesis for Anya. Do you have any questions about that?’
‘No, but...’ Raina pressed her lips together. ‘A myolectric prosthesis would give her the ability to move the fingers and take on more complex manual tasks, but it takes a bit of perseverance in learning how to use the muscles of the arm to control it.’
Alistair sat down behind his desk, putting the bun down next to the phone and waving Raina to a seat. This all seemed sufficiently businesslike. Raina had taken a rag doll from her bag, giving it to Anya, and the little girl had meandered over to the easy chairs that stood at the other end of the office and climbed into one, sitting the doll in her lap and whispering to it. Alistair couldn’t hear what she was saying, but presumably Raina could and was happy to let her play alone for a while.
‘And you have a concern about that?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe. A fixed or semi-flexible prosthesis is less expensive to produce and more durable, so it may be a more practical option to start with. Particularly if we’re not sure what Anya’s reaction is going to be yet.’
Alistair nodded. ‘We agreed that this was all about presenting Anya with choices. This project is about dreams and possibilities, so tell me which ones you want her to have...’
Raina’s wry smile told Alistair that she didn’t deal much in the currency of dreams. The last few years had forced her to deal with harsh reality.
‘The myolectric hand.’ She had one dream left, at least.
‘Then that’s what we’ll work towards. Let us worry about the expense and the difficulty, your job is to support your daughter.’
That would be a challenge for Raina. It had never been all that easy for her to let go and allow someone else to deal with a problem. But this was what she’d signed up to do when she’d accepted a place on the project, and Alistair couldn’t imagine that Gabriel hadn’t made that crystal clear to her.
Her gaze searched his face, and he wondered what she saw. Then suddenly she nodded. ‘Yes. Thank you.’
That was the hard part over. Now Alistair could get on with what he had planned for the day.
‘In that case, let’s give her an idea first of how we can make the things she imagines into a reality. I thought we’d spend some time with our development team for starters—we call them the Dream Team.’
Raina smiled, looking round at her daughter. ‘That sounds like a great idea.’
The little girl was still deep in conversation with her doll. Every time Alistair looked at Anya, a special kind of pain tugged at his heart. But it would fade in time, and until then he’d have to ignore it.
He rose, picking up the box that contained his hearing aid and stuffing it into his pocket. Raina called Anya, telling her that they had to go now, then paused suddenly.
‘Is that your new hearing aid?’
‘Yes. I only got it a few days ago, and I have to wear it for two hours a day for starters.’
‘I seem to remember from my time in audiology that it’s at least two hours a day.’ Raina had done a turn in the hospital’s audiology department when she’d been training, and it was typical of her that she forgot nothing. Everyone else in the office, Gabriel included, just took his word for it.
‘Yes. Now you mention it...’ Alistair took the box from his pocket, taking out the hearing aid, aware that Anya was regarding him solemnly.
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s...um...’ He shot Raina a questioning look. Alistair wasn’t at all sure how to explain a hearing aid to a three-year-old. Or why a child with presumably perfect hearing would even want to know.
‘That’s Alistair’s hearing aid, sweetie.’ Raina came to his rescue. ‘Alistair’s ear has stopped working, and his hearing aid helps him to hear everything we say to him.’
She said the words as if she was describing a miracle. That had been Alistair’s first thought, until the odd sounds that the hearing aid produced had set in, and it had felt more like an instrument of torture. Nothing sounded quite the way he remembered it. But Anya believed in the miracle, and her eyes were as round as saucers.
He put the earpiece into his ear, adjusting the back to sit neatly behind it. Suddenly the muted sounds around him sprang into sharp, almost agonising focus, but Alistair smiled all the same.
‘Did you make it?’ Anya had obviously been told a little about what she was here for.
‘No, I didn’t make it. But we make lots of other things. Would you like to come and see them?’ Today was all about showing Anya that science could help people, and maybe he should take heed of the lesson too.
* * *
