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Aids was the newest disease to hit the streets. Mostly among gay men, but everyone was worried. No one really knew where it came from and how it spread.
“I don’t know, Patty.” I really wanted to offer some form of comfort but couldn’t. I also released her hand, wanting to rub my palms on my jeans to clean them.
Thankfully, she hadn’t noticed.
“Is there anything that you need?” I asked.
“Would you tell my mum? I’m sure she’d want to know.”
I nodded. I knew her mum, of course, I’d met her many times when I’d stayed with the family over breaks. I grabbed a pen from my bag and tore the end of an envelope off so I could write the number. There was a pay phone in the hospital. I could call her from there.
“I’ll do that now. I think they want me to leave,” I said, eyeing a nurse who was staring at me.
Patty nodded her head, turned it away, and then closed her eyes again.
“Try not to worry, Patty. And think about telling the police, please?”
She didn’t respond.
The first thing I did was to wash my hands in the bathroom. I scrubbed them until they were red. I highly doubted she would have contracted anything that could be passed to me, but this disease was new and scary. The government were sending leaflets to every home and there were endless adverts on the television about it.
I then headed to the pay phone to call Marilyn. She informed me she would head straight to the hospital, whether or not it was visiting time, and she’d let me know any further updates. She thanked me for helping her daughter. I wondered if she would have still thanked me had she known how I wanted to scrub my skin in case I caught Aids from her. For the second time, I felt awful.
I had been home for a couple of hours when Marilyn called. Patty needed some surgery to repair some internal damage, and the police informed. I was glad that had happened. Whoever had raped my friend needed to be punished. Although, I was more than aware of the hell Patty would go through at the hands of the police and the courts should it get that far. It saddened me greatly that the country was in such a mess where dealing with women was concerned.
Once Patty could leave the hospital, Marilyn was taking her back home. I told her to keep me up to date and I’d visit as soon as she’d settled.
* * *
Later that day,as I settled on the sofa with a cup of tea, I heard a knock on my door. I smiled as I looked through the spy hole and smoothed down my hair. I pinched my cheeks to give them some colour, then opened the door.
“I wanted to see if you’d received the new shoes?” Andrew said.
“I did, and since you didn’t leave any contact details, I had no way of thanking you. Perhaps you’d like a cup of coffee?”
He nodded, and I opened the door so he could enter.
“I like what you’ve done here,” he said, looking around.
“It’s small, but it’s mine.”
I walked to the kitchenette and pointed him to the sofa. The bedsit was small, just the one main room and a separate bathroom, but I’d tried to section of areas. I’d placed a tall shelving unit at the bottom of the bed to give the illusion of a wall, then a sofa facing the kitchenette. I had a television that I rarely watched and shelves of books. And plants. I had plants everywhere, and I loved them.
I made two coffees and perched on the footstool opposite the sofa.
“Thank you for the shoes and stockings. But you really didn’t need to,” I said, raising my cup to him.
“I wanted to. I’ll have my chum reimburse me, of course,” he said, his posh clipped tone hid any humour in his words. Then he laughed.
“Well, thank yourchum,” I replied.
We chatted about his job in the city and my plans for the future. I told him I wanted to travel before deciding on what career to settle into. He was engaging and fun, we had a second, and then a third cup of coffee.
I then told him about Patty. He was sympathetic, moving to sit beside me and place his arm around my shoulder.
He wanted to know all the details, sighing and shaking his head as I spoke. He seemed so concerned for her, and me. He told me he wanted me to keep a rape alarm in my handbag, and to have his telephone number should I ever need it. I wrote it down on a piece of paper and placed it in my purse. His concern for me was warming. I hadn’t had that before.
“I best be going. I’m sure you’ve got tons of things to do,” he said, slapping his thighs and standing.
