Page 118 of Between Us

Roisin sat bolt upright, sweat forming at the nape of her neck. She grasped for the hair bobble she always kept on the bedside table.

‘ROISIN!’

She leaped out of bed and padded down the corridor, almost letting go of a scream at the sight of her mother, in her silk nightdress, slumped in a heap in the hallway.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m in quite a lot of pain,’ Lorraine said, clutching her abdomen, as Roisin pulled her hair into the band to get it out of her pale, half-slept face. ‘It’s my stomach.’

She took in her mother’s lemon-coloured, damp complexion and, to real fright, what looked like a pile of vomit nearby.

‘I’ll call an ambulance,’ Roisin said.

‘I don’t know if we need to go that far. I’ll be alright … Call the other number where they tell you what to do,’ Lorraine said.

She tried to move and involuntarily made a noise which tipped Roisin from ‘extremely agitated’ to ‘actually very scared’.

‘DON’T – stay there,’ Roisin said, running to her room, grabbing her mobile, yanking it from the charger and tapping the 999 which, at the age of thirty-two, felt surreal to finally use.

Someone else’s daughter had called the ambulance for her dad.

‘Operator. Which emergency service do you require?’

‘Ambulance – it’s for my mum – we’re at The Mallory pub in Webberley, just off the high street …’

She gabbled the address twice and things about stomach pain, confirming that her mum was conscious.

‘The ambulance is coming, stay still,’ Roisin said, running back down the hall.

‘Thank you,’ Lorraine said. That she didn’t object frightened Roisin out of her wits.

‘When did the pain start?’ she said.

A pause.

‘… You’re going to be angry with me.’

‘Angrywith you? Why?’

‘I’ve been having pain in my guts for a while.’

‘How long?’

‘Months. I’ve gobbled ibuprofen like it’s going out offashion and soldiered on. You know me. It’s like Liz Taylor said. “Pour yourself a drink, get your lipstick on and pull yourself together.”’

‘MUM! What?! So you didn’t go to the doctor?’

‘No.’

‘But your biopsy? The breast lump?’

‘I told a few white lies. Iwasfeeling poorly.’

‘None of that happened? You invented a cancer scare?’

‘I knew you’d never come back here if you didn’t think I was ill! I wanted to see you. I told you it was clear; I didn’t worry you!’

Roisin was speechless.

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