Page 47 of The Flowers of Bay C
‘Somebody get this man off my bed!’
I try to wake up, open my eyes, but they are pinned shut, as if I am being held down, my limbs immobilised. Wake me up, wake me up somebody, I try to say, try to scream, but no sound comes out of my mouth.
‘Nurse!’
I wake up with my chest in a vice, confused and disorientated. Where am I? There’s a clamour in the bay, a whoosh of air, patters of feet, outraged shouts.
Over the bay Violet is on her feet, quivering from head to toe, her face screwed up with rage and something like fear. A nurse I don’t recognise is standing next to her, telling her to breathe. Nicki dashes into the bay and over to her bed and pulls at something. Someone. A man, lying on Violet’s bed.
Harold.
‘I got back from my smoke and found him there!’ Violet waves her arms around. ‘In my bed, cheeky as you like! Get him out of there, nurse!’
‘Harold!’ Nicki says.
No response.
She shouts in his ear. ‘Harold! You’re in the ladies’ bay!’
Harold stirs and groans. I wonder how long he’s been there. He opens his eyes and closes them again, then opens them wide. ‘What…?’
Nicki slows her voice down. ‘You’ve got in the wrong bed, flower. In the wrong bay.’ She looks around at Violet and me and Jodie. ‘He’s in this bed space in Bay D. Must’ve used your loo and then forgot where he was. Now, Harold, let’s get you back to bed, shall we? Poor Violet, stood there shivering when she’s been so poorly. Kelly!’ She hails a healthcare assistant lingering at the door. ‘Get some new sheets for Violet’s bed, quick now.’
Kelly scuttles off. There’s clearly a pecking order of healthcare assistants in here, and Nicki is most definitely at the top.
Violet wraps her arms around her chest. ‘It’s a jolly good thing I wasn’t in that bed when he got into it.’ Her mouth is a thin slash of disapproval.
‘It’s a bit funny, though, isn’t it,’ Jodie says, a smile curling the edges of her mouth.
Violet purses her lips and her nostrils flare. ‘No. Not in the least. Get this man out of here, nurse. This is why I asked for a room of my own! This always happens.’
Jodie smirks. ‘What, when you’re in with the commoners, you mean?’
Violet sticks out her chin and sniffs.
Jodie doesn’t leave it be. ‘An’ what, so you’re saying random dudes climb into your bed every time you come into hospital? Lucky you.’ She catches my eye and grins.
Violet huffs. ‘Stop being so—’
‘What? So chavvy? So gobby? You don’t seem to care so much when you ask me to light your fag for you.’
‘Come on, Harold.’ Nicki has Harold on his feet at last, taking firm hold of his arm. He looks older than he did last time I sawhim, his face criss-crossed with jagged lines, sparse hair all askew, eyes wild. His dirty pyjama top is inside out.
‘Where am I?’
Nicki leads him out of the bay. ‘Let’s get you back, flower. It’s okay. You’re okay.’
He shuffles along with her like a small child with his mother, clinging to her arm, head hung low, compliant and silent. I think he has tears in his eyes.
‘Come on, petal. Everything is going to be okay.’
Nicki, somehow, always makes everyone okay in the end.
???
When the doctors’ rounds begin, I am sitting up out of bed. I want them to see that I am doing well, that I have more strength, that I will be able to go home next week. This morning, for the first time in ten days, I managed my own shower. I sat on the fold-down chair, water pummelling my face and my body until I folded myself into it and wished it would never stop. I scrubbed the built-up filth out of my bird’s nest hair and then brushed out the tangles.
I sit here in my clean pyjamas and fleecy dressing gown, scrolling through my Facebook feed, my stomach squirming as I wait to see if he has the CT results and what they will show.
