Page 14 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
‘Well, it’s good to move on,’ Madeline said, not sure what else to say.
‘Yes,’ Janine said. ‘It is. And it’s interesting that we’ve bumped into each other. It gives me a chance to tell you that I forgive you.’
Madeline started. ‘Forgive me for what? I never bullied you. I don’t remember really ever speaking to you.’
‘No,’ Janine said, narrowing her eyes, the forced beauty in her face sinister. ‘You, like most of our classmates, didn’t care to give the time of day to a bucktoothed girl sitting alone in the corner.’
‘You didn’t sit in the corner. You were on the third row back, by the wall, as I remember,’ Madeline said.
‘The metaphorical corner!’ Janine suddenly roared, causing Madeline to make a step back. ‘When you’re bullied, you’re in the corner every single step you take!’
‘Well, like I say, I didn’t bully you.’
‘There are two types of bully,’ Janine said. ‘Active and passive. There were those who did the taunting, and those who sat back and let it happen.’
‘I’m sorry I never stopped anyone from bullying you,’ Madeline said.
‘Quite the apologist today, aren’t you?’ Janine said. ‘It sounds to me like you have issues.’
‘I—I—I don’t have issues.’
Janine reached into her pocket and pulled out her purse. She withdrew a card and laid it down on the countertop.
‘My card. If you need help—and I think you do—call me.’
‘The coffee?’
Janine lifted a hand. ‘I’ll pass.’
Without another word she was gone, out through the door and away, her inappropriately tall heels clacking on the ground. Madeline just stared, wondering if the altercation had actually happened, or whether she was still dreaming from last night.
The card still lay on the countertop. Madeline picked it up and read it over.
Dr Janine Woodfield
Personal therapist
“Are you broken?”
Yes:: “But I can fix you”
Underneath was an address on Cloverdale Street, just a five-minute walk from Sycamore Park, along with a phone number.
It seemed that Janine had channelled her rough schooldays into a better life. Good for her. Had there been some truth in Janine’s words, though? Did Madeline actually have issues that she hadn’t really noticed before? Life on the road tended to be about living in the moment, and she had enjoyed the hell out of herself. But these long eight years of moving from place to place, was she actually running away from something, or even looking for something new?
An identity?
‘You stupid woman,’ she muttered, wondering whether she was talking to Janine or herself.
Outside, the rain had stopped. A couple of old people with a little Jack Russell on a lead were making a beeline for the café. Not wanting to dwell on her possible issues, nor the fact that the class weirdo was now an elegant—if stern—doctor of something or other, she began to root through cupboards, trying to figure out whether she had any honey or cashew nuts in stock, just in case.
9
The Patient
Brentwell General Hospitallooked more like an office building than a place for sick people, a modern redbrick building with bright red doors, offering an ironic reminder of the colour of the substance many of those being rushed through the doors were likely to spill a little of, but it had some nice water features outside and a couple of pretty patios where family and well-wishers could drink coffee while waiting for their loved ones to either get better or die. As Madeline made her way up the steps to the main entrance, she caught sight of an elderly couple carrying a tray laden with large chunks of chocolate cake, and considered aborting her mission all together. As she stepped aside to let an ambulance crew with a stretcher push through the doors, the box she had brought nudged her in the ribs, reminding herself of why she had come.
Adam Wright. She had got the bike rider’s name from the police, and the ward he was in from stalking him on social media. Apparently in addition to a sprained ankle, he had cracked a couple of ribs, meaning the hospital had kept him in for a while to keep him under observation. Madeline, wondering if she was doing the right thing, asked at a reception desk, and followed the directions to Adam’s ward.
