Where the Memories Lie
By: Sibel Hodge
‘What?’ He gasped over the noisy office sounds in the background. ‘Hang on; I was just about to go into a planning meeting. Give me a sec.’ The noise grew quieter until I could no longer hear it. ‘Dad’s had a heart attack? Is he OK? Is he still alive?’
‘Yes, he’s OK. It was only a mild one. I was with him at the time. He’s on some anticoagulants to thin his blood, Aspirin, and medication to reduce his blood pressure. They’re monitor-ing him closely at Mountain View, which is the best thing in the circumstances. With the DNR order, the staff felt it was better to keep him in familiar surroundings, and I agreed. There wouldn’t be much to gain by taking him to hospital.’
‘Shit.’
I pictured him running his hand through his hair, pacing up and down.
‘I should come back. It’ll take me hours, though, before I get there.’
‘Chris and Nadia are with him now, but he’d love to see you, I’m sure.’
Sibel Hodge
‘Christ. How did . . . ? Oh, never mind. I’m leaving now, OK?
I’ll go straight to Mountain View.’
‘OK. Text me when you’re on your way back to the house and I’ll sort something out for you to eat.’
‘Will do. Love you.’
‘Love you, too.’
With everything that had happened I’d forgotten to go food shopping again so I grabbed my keys, which surprisingly were where they should be in the pottery bowl.
I put my head round the door to the lounge. Since Nadia was with Tom, her dinner plans for the girls had backfired and I had them here instead. Anna was painting Charlotte’s toenails a glittery purple colour while she asked her history revision questions for an exam Charlotte had tomorrow. They both looked up with glum faces when they saw me.
‘Is there any more news about Granddad?’ Anna asked, mouth turned down.
‘Is he going to be OK?’ Charlotte gave me a sheepish look, as if somehow this was all her fault.
I kissed Charlotte on the head before sitting down next to Anna on the sofa and drawing her close. Anna was a sensitive girl, taking on other people’s pain and anguish as her own.
‘Is he, Mum?’ Anna’s eyes welled up.
‘Come on, now.’ I stroked her hair. ‘He’s fine at the moment.
He’s resting and they don’t think he needs to go to hospital.’
She sniffed and nodded. ‘I want to go and see him, but . . . he kind of scares me now. He’s not the same as he used to be.’
‘I know, darling.’ I sighed sadly. ‘But inside he’s still the same man who loves you both very much. He’s probably had a bit too much excitement for one day, anyway. Your Dad’s driving back now so he’ll see him tonight. We’ll go soon, OK?’
Another sniff. ‘OK.’
78
Where the Memories Lie ‘I want to go, too.’ Charlotte glanced up. ‘But I feel a bit like Anna. And I never know what to say to him anymore. He doesn’t even know who we are now,’ she said.
‘I know. It’s very difficult to see someone you love change like that.’ I gave them both a solemn smile. ‘Let’s just see how he’s feeling in the next day or so and then we can talk about you girls visiting him again, OK? I’m going food shopping now. Is there anything you fancy for tea?’
‘Pizza?’ Charlotte asked.
‘We had pizza the other day when you forgot to go shopping,’
Anna said, an edge of accusation to her voice.
‘Sorry, sweetheart, I’ll hand in my notice as your mum on the grounds that there was no butter in the fridge and I made you eat pizza for tea. OK?’ I forced a smile. ‘You can get a new mum from MumsRUs who’ll do a better job, although most kids would love eating pizza twice in one week.’
That got her smiling again. ‘How about spaghetti Bolognese?’
She was a pasta addict.
‘Sure.’ I glanced at Charlotte, who looked so pale she could probably do with a hefty dose of red meat. Maybe she was anaemic.
I made a mental note to get Nadia to test for that, too, when they went into the surgery. ‘That OK with you?’
‘Yep.’