When they pull up, they hear Arthur before they get out of the car. Maddie hurries up to the front door and unlocks it, and Callum trails her through the house. There is a bowl of half-finished soggy cereal sitting on a small table in front of the television, and a movie still whirring in the DVD player. No one has been home since they first rushed away after the news of the accident.
When Maddie opens the back door she is almost flattened by Arthur. The big chocolate labrador jumps up and paws her arms, leaning in to lick her enthusiastically while whimpering, his tail whipping furiously back and forth.
‘Get down, Arthur.’ Maddie pushes him away, screwing up her face despite her smile.
Arthur races over to Callum and gives him the same enthusiastic greeting. ‘Okay, okay,’ Callum laughs, fending him off repeatedly. ‘Enough slobber, you can come with us.’ He turns to Maddie. ‘Do you want to get anything else?’
She heads towards the stairs. ‘I’ll just throw some things into a bag.’
While he waits, Callum goes over to the cupboard, finds the dog food and puts a scoop down for Arthur, who sets about it as though he hasn’t eaten in a week. By the time he’s finished, Maddie is back downstairs. Callum grabs the packet of food. ‘I’ll bring this. Can you get his lead?’
When they reach the door, Arthur is already waiting. He races off down the pathway and hares past the car towards his regular walking route, ignoring Callum and Maddie’s shouts until he has had a good sniff around the flowerbeds of a few neighbouring gardens. When Callum corners him he trots nonchalantly back to the car and scrabbles into the back seat next to Maddie. ‘Sit. Down,’ she says firmly as he tries to give her face a good clean with his long pink tongue. As Callum starts the engine, Arthur lies on the seat and rests his head on his paws, apparently unaware that his sizeable rump has wedged Maddie against the opposite door.
‘At least we’re not going far,’ Callum says with a smile, but Maddie is lost in thought, staring out the window while stroking Arthur’s fur.
They have just turned off the main road and begun the steep climb towards Fellmere when Callum’s phone announces he has a message. He knows he should pull over to read it, but he doesn’t want to draw Maddie’s attention. He eases the handset out of his pocket and tries to surreptitiously view the screen.
‘What’s happened?’ comes her voice from the back seat. ‘Is it Dad?’
‘No, it’s just the office.’ Thank god his bosses allow him such flexibility with his hours. Usually it’s so he can attend rescues, but today they have been just as understanding about the family’s situation. It’s a relief, because there is no way he would be able to concentrate at work.
He wonders if Danielle has got his text. If she has read it, what is she thinking? What will he do if she doesn’t respond? Is he ever going to get her out of his mind?
‘Do you have to go in to work?’
‘Not right now. They just can’t locate some files. Let’s get home first, and when you’re settled in I’ll give them a call.’
She doesn’t reply, and when he turns around to check on her she has gone back to her phone. Arthur lies immobile next to her, his eyes closed.
Callum is freshly aware of the phone sitting mute on the passenger seat. He finds himself willing it to make a noise. He’d rather read a hate-filled diatribe than suffer the uncertainty of silence right now.
Neither of them speaks again until they reach the house. However, as Callum is parking on the driveway Maddie asks in a small voice, ‘Uncle Cal, will Sophia really be okay?’
He turns to find her studying his face.
‘Of course.’
‘Why do you look so worried?’
He tries out a reassuring smile. ‘It’s okay, I was thinking about something else. Sophia will be fine, I’m sure of it.’
‘But she’s been asleep for such a long time.’
‘That’s normal with the amount of sedatives and painkillers they gave her.’
‘I’m worried I won’t know what to say to her when she wakes up. I want to help her, but every time I look at her leg and that big bruise on her face, I just start crying.’
Callum remembers Georgia’s elbow this morning and nods.
‘How do you do it on the rescues, Uncle Cal? How do you stay calm when you see all this horrible stuff?’
Callum thinks of Mike McCallister and feels anything but calm. ‘Well, it’s always difficult to see anyone in pain. I guess I just talk to them the way I’d want someone to talk to me if I was in shock or injured – which is gently, with lots of encouragement. That’s how I’d want people to talk to you if you got stuck up there.’
To his surprise, Maddie leans over and gives him an awkward hug. ‘Thank you, you’ve made me feel lots better,’ she says before she climbs out of the car.
Callum allows himself a smile as he follows her. Of all the people he’s talked to today, it feels like Maddie is the first person he has actually reached. Buoyed by her gesture, he checks his phone. Still no reply. But maybe there’s a chink of hope left for him, after all.
14
ANYA