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‘I’ve noticed something...about Mercy.’ She seemed almost reticent to tell him.
‘Right. What have you seen?’
‘It may be nothing...’
‘What have you seen, Charlotte?’
She took a breath and seemed to loosen up slightly. ‘We were talking together, getting on fine, and then all of a sudden she seemed to zone out. It only lasted for a little over ten seconds.’
He nodded, turning the various possibilities over in his mind. ‘The nurses have said that she seems very withdrawn sometimes. Do you think it could just be her mental state?’
‘Maybe.’ She clasped her hands together—a small, nervous gesture. ‘It do
esn’t feel like that to me.’
‘Okay. What does it feel like?’ This wasn’t his normal method of diagnosis, but he was willing to give Charlotte the space to prove him wrong.
‘I think she may be having Absence Seizures.’
‘Epilepsy?’
Charlotte nodded. ‘Her eyes rolled back, very briefly, and her eyelids fluttered a little. I leant forward and put my hand on her arm and she didn’t react. Afterwards she didn’t seem to have any recollection of what had happened.’
‘That was quick thinking. Well done.’ Most people would have attributed a short period of absence to being the daydream of a teenager, far from home and trying to block out what was happening around her.
‘I could be wrong. I looked on her notes and no one else has reported anything like this.’
Edward shrugged. ‘Which just means you’re a bit more observant than the rest of us.’
It wasn’t only that. Charlotte had a habit of looking at people when she talked to them, giving them her full attention. Until he’d met her he hadn’t realised just how few people really did that.
She flushed pink with pleasure. ‘So you’ll take a look at her? Ask her about it?’
‘Nope.’ He turned towards Mercy’s door, twisting the handle. ‘You’re going to do that. I’ll watch and learn.’
She was cheerful and relaxed with Mercy, as if nothing had happened, sitting down by her bed and motioning Edward to do the same. Charlotte worked her way round to the subject of the seizure quickly, but deftly, as if it was just another routine set of questions which had to be asked.
‘When we were talking together just now you seemed to lose me for a moment. Dr Edward and I would like to ask you about that, if it’s all right with you?’
‘There is...nothing.’ The sudden look of hostility in Mercy’s eyes spoke far louder than her words.
‘I’m sure there isn’t. But can we ask, all the same?’
Charlotte leaned towards Mercy, a look of gentle encouragement on her face, and Mercy shrugged.
‘Okay, then. Well, you seemed not to hear or see me for a little while. Has that happened to you before?’
Mercy’s gaze flipped sullenly from Charlotte to Edward, then back again.
‘It doesn’t make you a bad person, Mercy. A little boy in my son’s class at school has the same thing.’
‘He does?’
‘Mmm-hmm. The doctors can stop it, though. Dr Edward could stop it.’
‘Can you?’ Mercy’s gaze fixed on Edward.
‘Yes.’ He wondered whether he should say more and decided not to. Charlotte would fill in any of the details that she thought were necessary.
