Page 28 of Your Carriage Awaits in Crumbleton
‘Scuse me, sorry,’ he muttered, swerving around a couple of orderlies pushing a bed into a lift. He ground to a halt and turned back to them. ‘Actually, can you tell me where Purple Zone is?’
‘Cardiac? Left, right, carry on a bit… then left, take the lift to level three and follow the signs.’
‘Erm… thanks?’ said Danny as they disappeared behind the sliding doors. Not a single word of the directions had sunk in. The only word he’d heard—the one still echoing around his head—wascardiac.
Danny sucked in a breath, leaning heavily against the wall. He really needed to get his head back on straight. Surely if there had been a real emergency, one of the nurses would have called him?
Yanking his phone out of his pocket, Danny checked the screen. Nope, there hadn’t been any missed calls since his dad’s message. He quickly pulled it up and swore under his breath.
SOS. Moved to ward in Purple Zone. Come ASAP. Dad.
Danny felt like a bucket of ice water had just been emptied over his head.
Was his dad having a heart attack?
God… was he here just to say goodbye?
Would he even make it in time?
Glaring at the signs overhead, he located the arrow for Purple Zone and headed off again, this time at a trot.
Danny barely registered the surprised looks he was getting as he pelted along the corridors, taking corners at dangerous speeds and earning disapproving looks from staff. By the time he skidded to a halt at the Cardiac Unit’s reception desk, he was breathing hard and probably looked half-mad.
‘Keith Dalton,’ he gasped at the startled receptionist. ‘Room number?’
‘Twelve, but?—’
Danny was already gone, sprinting down the corridor before she could finish whatever she’d been about to say.
Room eight, ten, eleven... there. Room twelve.
Danny didn’t bother to knock, he just shoved the door open hard enough to make it bang against the wall.
‘Dad!’ he burst out, bracing himself for monitors and wires and medical drama.
Instead, he came to such an abrupt halt that he nearly tripped over his own feet. Danny blinked. Then blinked again.
No oxygen mask. No heart monitors beeping ominously. No emergency resuscitation equipment or frantic nurses or any ofthe terrifying scenes his imagination had conjured during his mad dash through the corridors.
‘Oh, there you are,’ said Keith, glancing up calmly from a glossy magazine. ‘Took you long enough.’
Danny gulped, trying to catch his breath. His dad was sitting fully dressed on a chair next to the bed. He had his shoes on, and there was a cup of tea sitting next to him on the nightstand.
Keith narrowed his eyes. ‘Why do you look like someone’s died?’
‘Because I thought youwere!’said Danny, clutching his chest and willing his heaving lungs and racing heart to get the memo and calm the eff down. ‘Just as well we’re in a heart attack ward, because I think you’ve nearly given me one!’
‘Don’t be such a drama queen,’ tutted Keith, tossing the magazine aside and reaching for his cup of tea.
‘You don’t get to callmea drama queen when you sent me that SOS text message!’ said Danny. ‘Considering you look healthy and happy as a pig in poop, I’m guessing I’m here under false pretences?’
‘Healthy? Yes. Happy? No!’ huffed Keith, putting his cup back down with a clatter. ‘And thereisan emergency. I want to go home. Anyway… good. You’re here. Let’s go.’
He got creakily to his feet and reached for his bag, then frowned down at the cast on his wrist before swapping hands.
‘Oh no you don’t!’ Danny muttered darkly, still rubbing his chest as he slumped down onto a second vinyl-clad chair on the other side of the bed. ‘First things first. Why are you in Cardiology?’
‘They moved me here,’ said Keith, unzipping his bag awkwardly so that he could shove his magazine inside. The simple action clearly sapped him of all his strength because he slumped back down and twisted around to glare at Danny.
