Page 99 of The Flowers of Bay C
Barbara twinkles. ‘They took me to the sea.’
‘They what?’
One of the other healthcare assistants hovers at Barbara’s bed, bending and looking closely at Snowy. ‘Wait… isn’t that… Nicki, isn’t that that cat in theHerald?You know, yesterday? Ain’t seen many cats look like that.’
Nicki stares. ‘It is, you know. Barbara, where did you find this cat?’
Barbara puffs out her cheeks. ‘I just told you. The caravan. The caravan full of skunk.’
Jodie looks at me and mouthsskunkwith big wide merry eyes, and I start laughing, and then Kat starts laughing, and then we’re all lost in helpless fits of giggles, and the staff and visitors are standing around us, their faces written with great bemusement and a little bit of alarm.
‘What cat in theHerald?’ Sister Joy says.
Nicki says, ‘That one that was stolen. That rich toff’s cat, Lady something-or-other. Some guy asked for a ransom of 20k or something. But then he never gave her the cat back even though she paid, left the money and everything.’
The other healthcare assistant nods. ‘That cat is worth a mint, but that rich old bat, his owner, she said he was priceless to her. She was offering a reward, like 10k or something like that, if anyone finds him.’
‘No way,’ Jodie says.
‘He’s got some poet’s name or something,’ Nicki says.
‘Here, look, he has a collar,’ Sister Joy says, bending in and lifting the tag. The tag we all missed in the chaos, and the dark, and the snow. ‘Here. Byron.’
‘He’s called Snowy,’ Barbara says.
There’s a pause.
‘What have you lot been up to?’ Sister Joy says, her head tilted to the side.
Jodie shifts herself into a semi-sitting position. ‘We went to the sea. Barbara wanted… needed to see the sea one more time and didn’t have no one to take her there. So we did. Only it went a bit wrong, my boyfriend… I mean my ex, he kind of left us in the lurch. And then there was this caravan dude, and this bus driver here, Cal, who is like my superhero. And we have to tell the police about the caravan guy.’ She stifles a yawn over the last words.
Jake raises his eyebrows at her. ‘Cool storybro.’
She sniffs at him. ‘True story.’ She closes her eyes and curls into her pillow.
Cal hovers in the doorway to the bay. ‘I should go. The bus…’
Kat drags herself off her bed and hugs him tight. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re my superhero,’ Jodie says sleepily.
Cal’s face is flushed, and I don’t know if it is because of the heat of the ward or because he is blushing. He shakes his head as Kat lets him go. ‘I’ll blame you, you know,’ he shouts over to me. ‘When the bus company have my arse.’
‘Do that,’ I say.
As he walks out of the ward I stare after him and think about how some men are, after all, good.
Sister Joy stands in the middle of the bay with her legs planted, her arms crossed and her lips flattened, looking around at each one of us. ‘So you’ve all been out on the coldest day of the year, in the snow, for over two-and-a-half hours? There’s all levels of stupid, but this has to be at the top.’ She turns to Kat. ‘What were you thinking?’
She sounds a whole lot like Sister Harris.
Barbara beckons her over and pulls at her arm. ‘They were thinking about me and my Maggie Mouse. And I’m glad they did.’ Her cheeks are mottled with sheets of colour, a little bit like she has subsumed the sunset she so wanted to see. She leans back on her pillow, cradling Snowy close, a beady suspicious eye on Nicki.
‘We really do need to talk to the police,’ Kat says. ‘We’ve quite a story to tell.’
‘What you need is to get these visitors out and have a nice cup of tea.’ Nicki walks through the ward, sweeping her arms at Jake and Nate and the others. ‘And then a bit of hot dinner’ll be here any minute. Then we can sort out the police, and hear what you’ve been up to.’
Sister Joy looks taken aback, as if shocked by a mere healthcare assistant taking charge when she is in the room. But she says nothing. Jake ignores Nicki and stays slouched on the chair next to me, arms folded and long legs splayed out, glancing around the bay with amused eyes.
