Page 28 of Connie
“Are you feeling better?” I feel awful about not telling Mum about my appointment but it felt like the right thing to do, she doesn’t need any more reason to worry about me.
“Yeah I’m okay I’ve actually been to the hospital, look,” I say passing over my scan picture.
“Oh my God,” Mum gasps as she rips the picture from my hand and stares at it with tears in her eyes. “Oh my first grandchild!” she says all soft and lovingly causing my tears to start up again. Fucking hormones.
Once she’s over the shock, or excitement, the questions start. “Why did you have to got to the hospital, is everything okay, why didn’t you ask me to go with you, you had better not have gone alone?” There are more but I stop listening!
“Everything is fine, I was getting a bit of pain so the doctor thought it best to check it out but everything is okay,” I say again to reassure her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I didn’t want to worry you, I was pretty sure everything was okay. I did go alone but at the last minute Ruben turned up, because Emma told him about the appointment, with Fin in tow.”
“Oh well that’s…good?” she says as a question when she sees the look on my face.
“No, it wasn’t good,” I say then go on to explain all of what happened.
Both Mum and I decide that Fin should have had long enough by the time we close up the coffee shop that evening, plus he should be home from work by now, that’s if he went after all that.
I jump in my car, that Ruben had delivered as promised, and head towards his house.
I haven’t been here for years, Fin always comes to us and makes excuses as to why we shouldn’t come here. I have vague memories of the place. It’s a big manor house looking building with loads of windows and huge grounds. I’m not sure how they ended up in such a big place because Fin’s family have never really had money. I can only presume it was handed down.
Standing here on the gravel driveway I understand maybe why Fin hasn’t wanted us to come, the place is a complete mess. Everything is overgrown, the house has crumbling render everywhere and is in serious need of a lick of paint. The front door is peeling its former royal blue paint and looks really drab. The whole place just looks unkempt and unloved, which surprises me because that isn’t how I would imagine Fin to live.
His van is here so I swallow down my nerves and walk up to the front door. I can’t see a doorbell, just an old fashioned knocker so I reach up and knock it a couple of times. After a few seconds I hear movement inside but no one answers the door. I stand there longer, waiting and hoping, well that is until I hear an almighty crash and a loud shout. Without thinking I reach for the handle and let myself in. The entryway is huge, with amazing chunky oak sideboards and large mirrors on the walls. The once stunning, I would imagine, parquet flooring is dark and drab and the walls and ceilings are in need of some serious freshening up.
Another moan sounds out and it reminds me of what I’m doing. I walk forward, through one of the many doorways and into a huge farmhouse style kitchen. At first I don’t see him but something moving behind the island catches my eye. I quickly walk around to see what’s going on.
There, laid out on the floor with smashed crockery and glasses all around him is Fin’s dad, Fred. I hardly recognise him mind you, gone is the stocky muscular man I remember from my childhood, instead the man in front of me looks like a frail old man. I know him and May had Fin later in life but he must look at least ten years older than he actually is. His skin is grey and a little translucent looking, his eyes are dark and sullen, his cheeks hollow and lips thin. He is so skinny that I can see from here how much his trousers are bunched up with a belt to hold them up.
I bend down to assess the damage. He’s cut his eyebrow, I can see a little pool of blood appearing on the limestone tile below him. His hands both have cuts all over them but most worryingly he seems to be out cold.
“Fred,” I say gently. “Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
I try again and am just about to grab my phone to call an ambulance when I hear him groan. It takes a few seconds but eventually he opens his eyes and after a few moments they focus and I see life enter them when he looks at me.
“May? Oh, May, darlin’, it’s so good to see you, it’s been so long. I new you’d come back to me.”
Eh?
“No, Fred, it’s Connie. Elizabeth and Nigel’s daughter. Are you okay to sit up?”
He stares at me like I’ve just tried to convince him I’m am alien from another planet. I put that to one side in favour of making sure he’s okay first. I manage to get him up off the floor and on to the window seat that over looks the forest of a garden. When I’m confident he’s relatively stable, I ask him where I might find a first aid box. But when he starts asking me what I’m cooking for dinner I give up and go hunting myself.
I eventually find some stuff I can use in a bathroom cabinet. It doesn’t look like it’s been touched for decades but it’s all I’ve got so it will have to do. My hunt revealed old and dirty room after room. I saw two bedrooms that look lived in along with the living room, everything else looks like a dusty shrine to the 1980’s.
I begin cleaning him up and try to ensure all the glass is out of the cuts on his hands while he chats about where we should go on our summer holiday this year.
“I enjoyed that caravan in Paignton last year but I think we should splash out and stay in a hotel this year. Finley and William will love it.”
I think I’m beginning to understand what Fin has been hiding all these years. My heart bleeds for him, dealing with this all alone.
“DAD,” I hear him shout in panic.
“In the kitchen,” I shout back as he comes running into the room looking harassed and panicked. “He’s okay, just cut his eyebrow and hands, I think I’ve got all the glass out,” I say in what I hope is a calm and soothing voice.
“Dad, are you okay?”
“Yes, Stevie, I’m fine. My May looked after me,” Fred says and grabs my hand for emphasis.
