Page 45 of The Flowers of Bay C
‘I’m coming too,’ Kat says. ‘Could do with some air.’
‘Amina?’ Jodie says.
Amina looks up from her phone. She looks a little grey round the edges today, as if she has a black and white Instagram filter applied to her face. She shakes her head. ‘No. Not today. But thank you very much for asking me. Another day, though, please.’
Amina is always so polite.
Sister Joy trundles back into the bay pushing a blue hospital wheelchair with one hand and pulling a walking frame with the other. ‘There we go. She’ll love this. We’ll get her all wrapped up warm, she’ll love a little sunshine on her face, she’s been stuck in that corner for so long, God bless her. Don’t keep her out long, though, will you? It’s chilly out there.’ She sees Kat sliding her slippers and dressing gown on. ‘Oh, you’re going too?’ Her facecrinkles in consternation. ‘Just keep warm and don’t stay out long. It’ll build you up a bit, ready for home in a few days, won’t it?’ She turns and looks at me. ‘When is it for you, Penny?’
‘Should be next Monday or Tuesday, all being well.’
‘Me too,’ Kat says. ‘The doctor said I’m doing well.’
‘Well, good. Now, don’t go getting yourselves cold. I don’t have to tell you that—’ she gestures at Jodie with disapproving eyes, ‘—you’re always out there anyway, all weathers, with your smoking. Her, too.’ She casts her eyes over at Violet, a shadow crossing her face. ‘She’s a little better today, but she’s staying right here. Now. Do you want one of the healthcare assistants to help you?’
‘Just to get Barbara in her chair, and get her oxygen all sorted,’ Jodie says, wheeling the chair over to Barbara who sits up like a Year One child in assembly, all ramrod straight and eager. Pick me! Pick me!
‘I’ll just fetch some oxygen,’ Joy says, going out of the ward.
Jodie beckons to Kat. ‘Come on. We can get her in between us.’
‘I can get in myself, young lady,’ Barbara says with unexpected clarity.
‘Oh! Well, okay then, let me just take your arm, though.’
Barbara shrugs Jodie’s arm off and eases herself out of her bedside chair and into the waiting wheelchair with a face set in grim determination, a series of grunts and a spattering of somewhat ripe language. Jodie takes her arm again as she stumbles, and this time she allows it.
‘Bit cold, this chair,’ she says. ‘Could do with some nice padding.’
Kat laughs. ‘It could that.’
Her oxygen tube is still attached to the vial on the wall, stretched out taut over the gap. Joy bustles in with a cylinder and an oh of surprise. ‘That was quick! You’re a sprightly one, young lady, aren’tyou?’
Barbara giggles.
Joy hooks her drip over the drip stand on the back of the wheelchair and connects up her oxygen.
We get her all tucked in with her warm fleecy dressing-gown, slippers and two blankets tucked round her from her neck down to her feet. ‘I feel like one of them mummies,’ she says.
‘Right,’ Sister Joy says, stepping on the brake and whirling round with the chair to face the doors. ‘You’ve all had your lunchtime meds and IVs, haven’t you?’
We all have.
‘Have a nice little trip out, then, ladies.’
Jodie’s eyes are merry as she whispers in my ear, ‘Little does she know.’
Joy pauses. ‘It’s nice, how you all look out for each other. Don’t see that very often.’
I cling hard to the walker as we make our slow way out of the bay and out of the ward, a ponderous procession, all dressing-gowned up. If we do go along with Jodie’s preposterous plan, we’ll need coats and proper shoes, not dressing gowns and slippers. I’ll have to ask Jake to bring some clothes in for me. Socks. I’ll definitely need socks, now I’m free of the stockings of doom.
‘You okay?’ Kat says, turning to me as I loiter at the back, behind her and Jodie who is pushing Barbara’s chair.
‘Mmm. Just a bit slow, sorry.’
‘You’re always apologising, you know.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’
