Page 36 of One December Morning
She was still pondering the absurdities of Sofia’s statement when Adam appeared at the door.
‘Your turn, Peg,’ he said, smiling.
Peg got reluctantly to her feet. ‘How is he?’ she asked. ‘I don’t want to tire him out.’
‘Pretty confused…you’ll see what I mean, but I guess that’s understandable. It’s probably the anaesthetic. He’s asking for you, though.’
Peg nodded. ‘I won’t be long then, he’ll need to rest.’
Letting the door close softly behind her, Peg took a deep breath, trying to expel the memories of the last time she had been on this ward – when it had been Julian lying in a bed. She scanned the small unit for Henry, hating the feeling that she was intruding on the other patients’ privacy just by looking at them, but as her gaze moved on from one to the next, she realised she was looking for Henry’s bright orange scarf. For heaven’s sake, he wouldn’t still be wearing the navy blue jumper she’d firstseen him in, the one he had been wearing inside out. It was a ridiculous notion, but then, of course, it was the only frame of reference for him she had. So what did that tell you?
And, suddenly, there he was, his face turned towards her, and while his expression was not exactly animated, there was a certain light of welcome there. She hurried towards him, trying to make herself invisible as she walked past the other beds.
‘Hello, Henry,’ she said, hovering beside the chair which had been thoughtfully placed there for visitors. And she realised that Sofia was right – all things considered, Henry did look surprisingly well. A small dressing had been fixed to his head, the area surrounding it having been shaved first, and it looked odd among the dark curls on the rest of his scalp. It made him look like a small boy, vulnerable and easily damaged. Other than that, his cheeks were pink and he was sitting up in bed. Still trailing wires attached to a monitor, but…Peg smiled. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Like I’ve been hit by a very large truck down a very dark alley.’ The corners of Henry’s mouth twitched upward in what might have been a smile if he’d had more energy.
‘I bet…you gave us all quite a scare.’
‘So I gather.’ He shifted slightly, wincing as he did so. ‘And I’m so sorry I rushed out on you…I…’ He frowned. ‘I really don’t know what happened.’
Peg sat down and leaned forward. ‘Don’t worry about the details now,’ she said gently. ‘You had an accident, in your car.’
‘Which must be true because otherwise I wouldn’t be here, would I? But I can’t see how.’ His eyes flickered away from her face as if he was trying to revisit his memories.
‘There weren’t any other cars involved, just a rather large tree…’ Peg trailed off. ‘But you don’t need to think about that. I imagine the police will work out what happened. Maybe you swerved, or…You don’t remember anything?’
Henry shook his head, a small movement. ‘I wasn’t even driving.’
Peg gave him a perplexed look. ‘You’ve had a bad shake-up and it’s not surprising it’s all a little vague. It’ll come back to you, in time.’ He obviously couldn’t recall the horrible argument he’d had with Adam, or the fact that he’d rushed out of their house yesterday morning. But that had to be for the best right now. It wouldn’t do him any good to fret about it.
Henry stretched out a hand towards her. ‘But that’s just it. It’s not that I can’t remember, because I can. I can remember everything in exact detail. And I wasn’t driving, I’d just settled down to read –Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson. You told me how good it was. And you were reading too. We’d not long finished dinner and I said perhaps I ought to be getting back…’ Henry lifted his hand and then let it fall again. ‘And you said I should at least let my dinner go down, so I sat and…your cat climbed on my lap. I might have fallen asleep, but I was in your chair, sitting beside the fire…’
Peg smiled patiently. ‘It’s okay, Henry. You don’t have to worry about that now, just?—’
‘No, I do worry about it, because we’d had such a lovely day. The best Christmas I’ve had for a long time and—’ He frowned. ‘Don’tyouremember?’
Peg looked around for one of the nurses. Henry was beginning to get agitated and that couldn’t be good.
‘I’ve had everyone round at mine for dinner today,’ she said, trying to change the subject. ‘Did Sofia tell you? And Blanche…she came to stay yesterday when…when things weren’t looking so good. She’s hysterical once you get to know her, such a cracking sense of humour – she and Mim have been getting on like a house on fire.’
‘Mim…?’ Henry put a hand to his head as if it was hurting. ‘I don’t understand…’
Peg backed off. It was evidently far too much for Henry to take in yet. She smiled. ‘So you just concentrate on getting better,’ she said. ‘Because once you’re properly back on your feet, I said we should do it again – have dinner, only properly, with everyone there.’ She pressed her lips together. She had said that, hadn’t she? Why on earth had she done that? ‘I know it won’t be Christmas, but…’
Henry nodded, but his attention had gone. He was lost inside his head. She patted his hand awkwardly.
‘I’ll let you see Adam again for a bit now, and then you must get some rest. I’ll see you soon.’
She got to her feet, relieved to be leaving. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was beginning to feel quite panicked. Whether that was down to the current situation with Henry or memories of the last time she’d been in this unit she wasn’t sure, but whichever it was, the effect was still the same. She reached the sanctuary of the corridor outside and pressed her back against the wall for a few moments, breathing deeply. Then she plastered on a smile and went to find Adam and Sofia.
‘He might be out in a few days, can you believe that?’
They were on their way back to Peg’s house and so far Adam had talked non-stop. ‘He has a chest drain in at the moment to make sure his lung stays where it should. He’ll have another X-ray in the morning to check everything is still okay, and provided it is, the drain can come out in a day or two. He’s got to rest as much as possible, although gentle exercise to keep things moving, and he’s not to do any lifting – both because of his ribs and also the brain thing, where he had the bleed. Other than that, he’ll need to have his dressings checked and changed, but the main thing is that everything is working as it should. He doesn’t seem to have any lasting damage to his brain at all,although we have to keep an eye on that; there’s a small chance it may deteriorate. He might get headaches to start with, that kind of thing…’
Peg nodded, trying to absorb everything that Adam was saying when really her thoughts were spinning forward into the uncertainty of the future. Because where was Henry going to be while all this was happening? And who was going to look after him?
‘Did they say how long it would be before he’s properly better?’ said Sofia. Peg couldn’t see her expression from the back seat of the car, but she had a horrible suspicion she knew what it looked like.
