‘I can’t believe she’s in that helicopter right now.’ Clementine stared at the sky. ‘I should have been the one to go with her, not Sam. I don’t know why I let him go – what if, what if …’
‘Snap out of it,’ said Erika. ‘Who cares who went in the helicopter? She’s sedated. She won’t even remember it. Off you go. Do I need to slap you across the face?’
‘What?’ Clementine blinked. ‘No!’
‘So call us, okay?’ said Erika.
‘Of course I’ll call you,’ said Clementine snippily.
They really were like sisters.
As Erika followed Oliver and Holly down the driveway, in bare feet, her wet shoes in her hand, Vid came from inside with Tiffany’s wallet, followed by Dakota.
‘Well. So. We hope little Ruby is all good, back to her little monkey self in no time. I’m sure she will be,’ said Vid to Clementine. ‘You have private health cover, right? Tell them you want the best doctors. No trainees.’
Poor Vid. He didn’t shine at times like these. Tiffany could see the tension in his shoulders, as if he were squaring up for a fight. It was like his entire body resisted negative emotion.
Clementine studied Vid. Her face twisted with some unreadable emotion.
‘Yes,’ she said formally. ‘Thank you.’ She looked at Tiffany. ‘Can we –’
‘Of course,’ said Tiffany. She pointed the remote on her key ring at the garage door to open it, and as she did she saw Dakota bravely open her mouth and start to say something to Clementine, but Clementine walked straight past Dakota, her eyes on the car, clearly desperate to get to the hospital as fast as she could.
chapter fifty-six
‘I’m just going to pop over next door for a moment,’ said Erika to Oliver when she got home. ‘My psychologist thinks the best way to get my memory back is to “return to the scene of the crime”, so to speak.’
‘There was no crime,’ said Oliver thickly. He was up and dressed and sucking on a cough lolly.
‘It’s a figure of speech,’ said Erika. ‘That’s why I said, so to speak.’
‘I don’t think Vid and Tiffany are home at the moment,’ said Oliver. ‘I saw their car leave as you were coming in.’
‘I know. I saw it too. I’d actually rather go over when they’re not there,’ said Erika. ‘Less distracting.’
‘What? You can’t go over while they’re not home,’ said Oliver. ‘That’s trespassing.’
‘Oh for heaven’s sake, Vid and Tiffany wouldn’t care,’ said Erika. ‘I’d just explain … well, I’d just explain what I was doing.’ It would be awkward but it would be worth it. She wanted to get some return on the money she’d invested in Not Pat’s session.
‘And it’s raining,’ pointed out Oliver. Now he was crunching the cough lolly between his teeth. ‘There’s no point going over in the rain. It wasn’t raining that day.’ He suddenly swallowed the lolly in one gulp and gave her a hard look. ‘You’re not going to remember anything by standing in their backyard. You were drunk, that’s all. I’ve told you before. Drunk people forget stuff. It’s perfectly normal.’
‘And I’ve told you before, I got drunk because of the medication,’ said Erika. Don’t take your childhood issues out on me.
‘It’s not relevant how or why you got drunk, I’m just saying,’ said Oliver. ‘It’s not going to help. Come on. It’s a crazy idea. Stay here. Tell me about your mother’s place. How bad was it?’
‘This won’t take a minute,’ said Erika as she walked to the front door. ‘I’ll be back in a moment. I’ll tell you about Mum then.’
‘I’ve made a chicken curry for dinner.’ Oliver kept talking as he walked behind her. He held the door as she opened it. ‘I started to feel a bit better this afternoon, and I wasn’t sure if we had any coconut milk but we did. Oh, and I nearly forgot, the police came today! About Harry. They’re having trouble finding -’
‘Hold all those thoughts!’ Erika picked up her umbrella. Oliver wasn’t normally so loquacious but a sick day at home alone always left him banked up with conversation. Also, she had a feeling those cold and flu tablets he took made him a little hyper, not that she would ever tell him that due to his horror of ever being affected by drugs and alcohol. It was cute how chatty he got.