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‘Dr Anderson?’
Finally she heard her name, and turned to find Mary standing in the doorway. ‘Are you on our planet?’
‘Just thinking.’
‘Dreaming, you mean.’ Mary looked at her curiously and then handed her a set of notes. ‘You’ve got one extra. The little Jarrett boy has a high temperature. I don’t like the look of him so I squeezed him in.’
‘That’s fine, Mary.’ She took the notes. ‘Thanks.’
She pulled herself together, saw Tom Jarrett and then walked through to Reception with the notes just as Gio emerged from his consulting room, with his hand on Edith Carne’s shoulder.
He was so tactile, Alice thought to herself, observing the way he guided the woman up the corridor, his head tilted towards her as he listened.
Touching came entirely naturally to him, whereas she—
‘The cardiology referral was a good idea,’ he said to her as he strolled back from reception and saw her watching him. ‘They’re treating Edith and it appears that they’ve found the cause of her falls.’
‘You mean, you found the cause. She never would have—’
A series of loud screams from Reception interrupted her and she exchanged a quick glance with Gio before hurrying to the reception area just as a mother came struggled through the door, carrying a sobbing child. He was screaming and crying and holding his foot.
Alice stepped towards them. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I don’t know. We were on the beach and then suddenly he just started screaming for no reason.’ The mother was breathless from her sprint from the beach and the child continued to howl noisily. ‘His foot is really red and it’s swelling up.’
Gio picked up the foot and examined it. ‘Erythema. Oedema. A sting of some sort?’
Alice tilted her head and looked. ‘Weaver fish,’ she said immediately, and glanced towards Mary. ‘Get me hot water, please. Fast.’
Mary nodded and Gio frowned. ‘What?’
‘If you’re expecting the Italian translation you’re going to be waiting a long time,’ Alice drawled, her fingers gentle as she examined the child’s foot, ‘but basically weaver fish are found in sandy shallows around the beaches down here. It has venomous spines on its dorsal fin and that protrudes out of the sand. If you tread on it, you get stung.’
The mother shook her head. ‘I didn’t see anything on the sand.’
‘It’s a good idea to keep something on your feet when you’re walking in the shallows at low water,’ Alice advised, taking the bucket of water that Mary handed her with a nod of thanks. ‘All right, sweetheart, we’re going to put your foot in this water and that will help the pain.’
She tested the water quickly to check that it wasn’t so hot that it would burn the child and then tried to guide the child’s foot into the water. He jerked his leg away and his screams intensified.
‘We really have to get this into hot water.’ Alice looked at the mother. ‘Heat inactivates the venom. After a few minutes in here, the pain will be better. Trust me.’
‘Alex, please…’ the mother begged, and tried to reason with her son. ‘You need to put your foot in the bucket for Mummy. Please, darling, do it for Mummy.’
Alex continued to yell and bawl and wriggle and Gio rubbed a hand over his roughened jaw and crouched down. ‘We play a game,’ he said firmly, sounding more Italian than ever. He produced a penny from his pocket, held it up and then promptly made it disappear.
Briefly, Alex stopped crying and stared. ‘Where?’
Gio looked baffled. ‘I don’t know. Perhaps if you put your foot in the bucket, it will reappear. Like magic. Let’s try it, shall we?’
Alex sniffed, hesitated and then tentatively dipped his foot in the water. ‘It’s hot.’
‘It has to be hot,’ Alice said quickly, guiding his foot into the water. ‘It will take the pain away.’
She watched gratefully as Gio distracted Alex, producing the coin from behind the child’s ear and then from his own ear.
Alex watched, transfixed, and Gio treated him to ten minutes of magic, during which time the child’s misery lessened along with the pain.
‘Oh, thank goodness,’ the mother said, as Alex finally started smiling. ‘That was awful. And I had no idea. I’ve never even heard of a weaver fish.’
