Page 77 of Light Up
“He’s been awake. He’s out of danger. That’s all I can tell you.”
Corey sighed. “Thank you.”
After the doctor’s visit the next morning, Corey was told he was well enough to be discharged.Shit!
“That’s good news, isn’t it? Home for Christmas,” said a smiling nurse.
The only good news was that a charger had been found for his phone. “I don’t have a home.”
“But…” She checked through Corey’s notes and sighed. “That was missed. You put down your uncle as next of kin and his address.”
“He and his partner are in Spain until the middle of January and I’m not welcome at their house.”
“You’ve no friend you can stay with?”
Corey shook his head. That was his own fault. After what had happened to his two best friends, Raj and Gabe, he’d not wanted friends anymore. But that was his secret. One he could never talk about.
“Contact your uncle and ask him.”
It was a waste of time but he called on WhatsApp. When Jim didn’t answer he messaged him.I’ve been in a car accident. Car is written off. I’m just about to be discharged from hospital. Can I please stay at your place until you get back?
The answer came fast and was as he’d expected.The car! Bloody hell, Corey. Debra’s not comfortable with you being there when we’re not. Stay with a friend.
Corey wasn’t upset because he’d already known the response. He showed the nurse the message. She looked as impressed with his uncle as he was.
“We’ll find you somewhere. Don’t worry.”
His belongings were brought to him, but they also delivered Tal’s suitcase. Corey told them where to take it, then looked through his stuff. At least his guitar was in one piece, along with his bag and a plastic carrier of things that had once been in the cardboard box in the boot. He found his charger at the bottom of his bag.
His collection of polar bears had partly survived. Three had broken too badly to be mended, which upset him. He put them in the pile of stuff to throw away. One unscathed bear had been modelled lying down, just like the ones he and Tal had carved, except it had a cub on its back. Would it help Tal remember?
There had been other stuff in the boot that hadn’t made it to the hospital. Kettle, toaster, plate, mugs, knife and fork and the rest of his kitchen stuff, nor his duvet and pillow and… Nor the presents for Debra and Jim. He sighed. His third-party insurance didn’t cover personal possessions in the car. He supposed he was lucky they’d towed the car to be scrapped.
He changed into his own clothes, relieved he had a pair of jogging bottoms that would fit over the boot, then sat by the side of his bed with his crutches. Bits of him hurt and he was still tired, but he was taking up a bed unnecessarily. He wasn’t going to pretend to be worse than he was.
It had taken him a while to pluck up enough courage to check, but there was no photo of him and Tal on his phone. Of course there wasn’t. Although sometimes Corey had thought he’d taken a photo only to find out later that he hadn’t, so despite his disappointment, it didn’t have to mean anything.
Where did the sayingclutching at strawscome from? Maybe because straw was the least likely substance to be of any help.Hello, little pig!
Now he had the paperwork for his car-that-was-no-more, he filled in an online form to tell the DVLA, the licensing authority.
When he tried to visit Tal to take the bear to him, no visitors were yet allowed. Corey brought it back and snoozed in the chair. It was alarming how quickly he could fall asleep.
It was early afternoon when someone came to see him. She looked like a social worker. He was good at recognising them.
“Corey? I’m Matty Clarke from social services.” Broad smile. “I’ve found you a place to stay temporarily. It’s the YMCA in Deaton. You’re just young enough for them to accept, though your birthday is soon, isn’t it? But you’ve been in hospital through no fault of your own and they want to help.” Anotherbroad smile. “Usually, you’d require a connection to Deaton in order to be offered a place, but under the circumstances, that’s been waived and you’ll have a room over Christmas, breakfast and dinner included. Which is lovely!” Yet another smile. “It’s forty pounds a night. If you need help to sort out benefits, I can do that.”
“I can afford it for a while. I’ll sign on. I had a job until a few days ago.” He really hoped she didn’t ask him why he no longer had a job.
“And a place to live, I assume.”
“Yes. I lost my job. And my bedsit. I was going to sneak into my uncle’s house until he and his girlfriend came back from Spain in a couple of weeks, but… Then there was the crash.”
“The nurse said your uncle told you that you couldn’t stay with him.”
Corey nodded.
“Is there a reason? Do you take drugs? Have you stolen from him? Do you drink too much? You can be honest. I’m not judging you but I need to know.”
