Oh.
I checked in the bathroom and outside in the garden. Do you think I should go and look for her? Should we wake up the others?
No, don’t, Nick said. She’s, um. Oh, Jesus Christ. She’s in here with me.
There was a long silence then. I couldn’t see Bobbi’s face, or his. I thought of her kissing my lips earlier and calling me self-righteous. It was terrible that Nick had told her like this. I could see how terrible it was.
I didn’t realise, said Bobbi. I’m sorry.
No, of course.
Well, sorry. Goodnight then.
He wished her goodnight and closed the door. We listened to her footsteps descending the back staircase to the basement rooms. Oh fuck, Nick said. Fuck. Expressionlessly I said: she won’t tell anyone. Nick made an irritable sighing noise and said: well yeah, I hope not. He seemed distracted, as if he no longer noticed I was in the room. I put my nightdress back on and said I would sleep downstairs. Sure, okay, he said.
Nick was still in bed when Bobbi and I left the next morning. Melissa walked us down to the station with our luggage and watched us, quietly, as we boarded the bus.
PART TWO
18
It was late August. In the airport Bobbi asked me: how long has that been going on for, between the two of you? And I told her. She shrugged like, okay. On the bus back from Dublin airport, we heard a news report about a woman who had died in hospital. It was a case I had been following some time ago and forgotten about. We were too tired to talk about it then anyway. It was raining against the bus windows as we pulled up outside college. I helped Bobbi lift her suitcase out of the luggage compartment and she rolled down the sleeves of her raincoat. Lashing, she said. Typical. I was getting the train back to Ballina to stay with my mother for a few nights, and I told Bobbi I would call her. She flagged a taxi and I walked toward the bus stop to get the 145 to Heuston.
When I arrived in Ballina that night, my mother put on a bolognese and I sat at the kitchen table teasing the knots out of my hair. Outside the kitchen window the leaves dripped rain like squares of watered silk. She said I was tanned. I let a few split hairs fall from my fingers to the kitchen floor and said: oh, am I? I knew I was.
Did you hear from your father at all while you were over there? she said.
He called me once. He didn’t know where I was, he sounded drunk.
She took a plastic packet of garlic bread from the fridge. My throat hurt and I couldn’t think of what to say.
He wasn’t always this bad, right? I said. It’s gotten worse.
He’s your father, Frances. You tell me.
I don’t exactly hang out with him on the day-to-day.
The kettle came to the boil, releasing a cloud of steam over the hob and toaster. I shivered. I couldn’t believe I had woken up in France that morning.
I mean, was he like this when you married him? I said.
She didn’t reply. I looked out at the garden, at the bird-feeder hanging off the birch tree. My mother favoured some species of birds over others; the feeder was for the benefit of small and appealingly vulnerable ones. Crows were completely out of favour. She chased them away when she spotted them. They’re all just birds, I pointed out. She said yes, but some birds can fend for themselves.
I could feel a headache coming on while I set the table, though I didn’t want to mention it. Whenever I told my mother I had headaches she always said it was because I didn’t eat enough and I had low blood sugar, although I had never looked up the science behind that claim. By the time the food was ready I could feel a pain in my back too, like a kind of nerve or muscular pain that made sitting straight uncomfortable.
After we ate, I helped load up the dishwasher and my mother said she was going to watch TV. I carried my suitcase to my room, though as I went up the stairs I was finding it physically difficult to walk upright. My vision seemed brighter and sharper than usual. I was scared of moving too vigorously, like I was afraid it would shake the pain out and make it worse. Slowly I walked to the bathroom, closed the door and steadied my hands against the sink.
I was bleeding again. This time the blood had soaked through my clothes, and I wasn’t feeling strong enough to take them all off right away. In various stages, using the sink to brace myself, I managed to get undressed. My clothes peeled off wet like skin from a wound. I wrapped myself in a bathrobe that was left hanging on the back of the door, then sat on the rim of the bath with my hands pressed hard into my abdomen, bloody clothes discarded on the floor. At first I felt better, then worse. I wanted to shower, but I was worried I was too weak and I’d fall over or faint.
I noticed that along with the blood were thick grey clots of what looked like skin tissue. I had never seen anything like this before and it scared me so badly that the only comforting idea I could think of was: maybe it’s not happening. I kept returning to this thought every time I felt myself starting to panic, as if going insane and hallucinating an alternate reality was less frightening than what was really going on. Maybe it’s not happening. I let my hands tremble and waited to start feeling normal again, until I realised that it wasn’t just a feeling, something I could dismiss to myself. It was an outside reality that I couldn’t change. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before.
I crouched down to get my phone and then dialled the house number. When my mother answered I said: can you come up here for a second? I’m not feeling very well. I could hear her come up the stairs saying: Frances? Sweetheart? Once she came in I told her what had happened. I was in too much pain to feel embarrassed or squeamish.
Was your period late? she asked.
I tried to think about this. My periods had never really been regular, and I estimated it had been about five weeks since the last one, though it might have been closer to six.
I don’t know, maybe, I said. Why?
I suppose there’s no chance at all you were pregnant?
I swallowed. I said nothing.
Frances? she said.
It’s extremely unlikely.
It’s not impossible?
I mean, practically nothing is impossible, I said.
Well, I don’t know what to tell you. We’ll have to go up to the hospital if you’re in that kind of pain.
I held the rim of the bath with my left hand, until the knuckles went white. Then I turned my head and vomited into the bathtub. After a few seconds, when I knew I wouldn’t be sick again, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and said: maybe we should go to hospital, yeah.
*