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I’ve barely even spoken to Dad about all of this. All he’s said is that he’ll look into finding Mum a lawyer.
How many times have I done this? Mopped up her tears as she waits for him?
We lie again in silence, waiting. Not knowing if he’ll ever come. She has such beautiful hands – long, tapered fingers; clear, oval nails.
I have to go to the bathroom again, and this time, when I come back, Mum is standing, rattling the window.
‘They don’t open any further, Mum,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry. It’s rubbish.’
She lets out what sounds like a laugh and it makes me smile.
Rani comes in. ‘Well, this does look like progress,’ she says.
One of the nurses sticks her head through the door. ‘Georgia? Your dad’s at reception, downstairs.’
‘Finally!’
‘It’s just, visiting hours are over and your mum needs rest, but he’s asking if you want to come home.’
‘I’m here. Can’t he come up?’
Dr Rani gives me a sad, scrunchy-faced look. I know they’ve made special dispensations for me. They can’t have more people breaking the rules.
I shake my head. ‘I’m not leaving my mum.’
But mum rests a hand on my shoulder and gives me a look.
‘Your mum will be okay,’ says the nurse. ‘And it might be a good idea for you to get some real sleep.’
I shrug. ‘No, sorry. I’m not going.’
My mum’s eyes glisten as she lies back down.
They take out her catheter, do more tests. I don’t tell anyone that she can speak, and she pretends she can’t, but the policeman starts giving us dirty looks, like he knows. Eventually, another policeman comes to relieve him.
‘Mum,’ I whisper. ‘What happened? That day, when you offered me a lift, I was going to meet Frances. But Tristan was waiting instead. Tristan… he tried to… I think he tried to do to me what he did to you.’
She takes a sharp breath and squeezes my hand hard.
‘Mum?’
The policeman pokes his head round the door and I scowl at him till he goes away.
‘Mum?’ I whisper again.
But she closes her eyes and fixes her mouth in a picture of sadness.
I wait and wait but she doesn’t move.
Hospitals are noisy places. There are the beeps of the machines and the wail of sirens and the endless bustle of nurses and doctors. I’m thinking about how they say rest is the best medicine but then they wake you up to take your temperature, your blood pressure, give you pills in little paper cups, and then I fall asleep.
58
BEFORE
An alarm is going off. Someone is shouting and I open my eyes. Mum’s bed is empty. I sit up and twist round and see Dr Rani running past the door.
My heart thunders. I stumble out of bed and see Dr Rani reaching the disabled toilet. The policeman is standing outside, pounding on the door.
