Page 61 of The Flowers of Bay C
I catch Kat’s eye.
‘You lot make me laugh, you do.’
‘You make us laugh, too, Barbara,’ Jodie says gently. ‘We’re gonna take you for a little walk later, okay? Little bit of fresh air for you.’
Barbara’s eyes light up. ‘You taking me to the sea at last?’
Jodie winks over at me. ‘Don’t be daft. You know we can’t do that. We’re taking you for a little wander somewhere nice.’
Barbara clasps her hands together. ‘Ooh, lovely.’
Sister Joy is listening in. ‘We’ll just have to keep an eye on her temperature to check you can do that.’
Jodie smiles. ‘I’ve got a feeling her temperature is gonna be fine.’
???
It’s quiet when the doctors have left, like it usually is on a weekend, though there is an unending stream of different healthcare professionals attending to Alice. A pharmacist, phlebotomist, physiotherapist and radiologist are all here at different points through the morning with their various bits ofequipment. ‘Poor thing,’ Kat says, eyeing Alice’s curtained-off cubicle.
Jodie says, ‘I wonder if she needs a trip to the seaside?’
We all laugh, even Violet. ‘Are you coming then, Vi?’ Jodie says to her with a sly wink over at Kat.
Violet bristles. ‘My name is not Vi, and you know that, young lady.’
‘So? You coming with us?’
‘Coming where?’ Nicki breezes in with the tea trolley rattling like a sack of old bones in front of her. ‘You all going for a little outing, are you?’
I look at Jodie. Has Nicki rumbled us?
Jodie plays it cool. ‘Just to the garden, like usual. Just trying to get Violet here to join in, she was a bit of a grumpy cow yesterday, weren’t you Vi?’
Violet narrows her eyes.
‘Well, she was out there for her smoke earlier, weren’t you flower?’ Nicki says, heaping sugar into Kat’s tea. ‘She’s fine out there, aren’t you?’
Violet shrugs. ‘I suppose.’
‘So?’ Jodie says.
Violet sniffs.
Nicki laughs. ‘You lot and your little walks. Still can’t get rid of you, though, can we? You’ll all be gone next week and then what’ll we do round here?’
‘You’ll have more time to do your job,’ Kat says.
‘Too right, flower. Too right.’
???
By lunchtime I am sick with nerves. Everyone seems prepared, ready to do this thing. Barbara’s temperature has stayed steady andSister Joy has pronounced her ‘fit for a little walk’. Jodie has been on the phone to Kane, speaking in low hisses then assuring us that all is well and he will be here at two-thirty sharp with a chair for Barbara. We’ll be back for three-thirty, or at the latest three-forty-five, she says. Twenty minutes there, twenty minutes on the beach, twenty minutes back. Back for visiting at four. Easy as that. Does everyone have warm clothes? Kane is bringing her coat in, she says, but she’s just wearing her pyjamas under that. She’s dressed in them now, all ready, out of her undignified hospital gown. She’s wearing a tatty Justin Bieber T-shirt and her pink leopard print fleece pyjama bottoms. I say yes, Jake brought me some clothes in, and Kat says Nate was rubbish and forgot her proper coat so she’ll have to wear her dressing gown.
Violet stares at Jodie. ‘You’ll be too cold with just those and a coat.’
‘Nah. Hot-blooded, me.’
Violet shakes her head and turns around, rummaging in her bedside cupboard. ‘Here.’ She holds something dark and fluffy up to Jodie. ‘You can borrow this, put it on over that tiny little T-shirt.’
