Page 37 of The Flowers of Bay C
‘Sorry to hear that,’ Kat says. ‘That must be hard.’
Violet nods, and I’m surprised to see tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes, then track a slow crawl down her cheeks. Kat goes over, takes her hand. ‘It’s okay to cry.’
Barbara is rigid in her chair, listening avidly. ‘I cried, when Bill died.’
Violet gazes at her. ‘Was that your husband?’
Barbara nods. ‘Sixty years.’
‘That’s amazing,’ Kat says. ‘When did he pass away?’
‘Five years ago.’ Barbara stares into space. ‘That awful corona thing.’
Kat keeps silence for a long moment.
Then, ‘Do you have children?’
Barbara hesitates, the lines around her eyes animated, crawling outwards like ivy creeping up a house in time-lapse motion. ‘No.’
‘Sorry,’ Kat says, ‘I didn’t mean to be intrusive.’
Barbara says nothing. Just stares out of the window opposite her, beyond Jodie’s bed, her faded blue eyes reflecting the grey day.
Poor Barbara. She’s lost the only person she had in the world. I watch each day just in case an errant son or sheepish niece turns up with illegal flowers and apologetic murmurings, but no one ever does. She just lies in her corner bed, wasting away. She doesn’t eat and she doesn’t sleep. She stares at the ceiling and whispers about the rat on the floor.
‘Hey,’ she calls over to me, snapping out of her staring silence, ‘The rat is on your bed! The rat is on your bed now. Get it off. Get it off! Nurse!’
‘Does she think I’m a rat?’ Jake murmurs.
I shake my head. ‘Shh. No, she has a thing about rats and mice. Leave her be.’
‘Nurse!’
Nicki walks in with a pile of sheets under one arm. ‘You calling me, flower?’
‘It’s the rat. There. On her bed.’
Nicki glances over at us and then pats Barbara’s hand with great tenderness. ‘There’s no rat, lovely. Try not to worry. Just a great big lad who shouldn’t be there because visiting is over.’
Jake takes the hint and throws his hands up, dragging himself off the chair. ‘I was going anyway.’
‘I saw it,’ Barbara says, her voice a quavering moan.
Nicki puts the pile of sheets on the bed and kneels down by her chair. She takes both her hands and looks into her eyes. ‘It’s okay, Barbara. The rat’s gone, see? You’re safe, flower. Now, I’ve brought these sheets to sort your bed out while you’re out of it, seeing as what we couldn’t get you up for love nor money this morning. So let’s get your bed all nice and then me and Claire will get you washed and changed and settled back for a nice little nap. Is that okay?’
Barbara pushes out her bottom lip.
‘Now now, Barbara, you’re my good girl, aren’t you? You going to let me help you?’
‘But the rat…’
‘The rat isn’t here, flower. Just you and me.’
Nicki gets up, holding her back and flinching as if she is in pain, then winks at us as she drags the curtains round Barbara and shuts her off from the scary, rat-filled world outside.
Jodie balances on the edge of my bed, ready to launch herself off when Sister arrives. She looks at me and beckons me closer. Whispers something.
‘What?’ I say, shrinking back from her tobacco heavy fumes.
