13
Alex sends a text to Ben as soon as he stops the car in front of the beach house, then lets Bart out. Snapping the lead on him, he goes around the side of the house and finds Allie and Polly sitting on the recliners, under an umbrella. Polly is dressed in her usual eclectic style of acidic colors and an oversized purple sunhat that looks as though it came straight out of a Fitzgerald novel. Allie, a cotton blanket over her legs, is wearing a blue and white cotton beanie and large black sunglasses hide her eyes. A pitcher of iced tea is on the table between them, Allie’s glass appears untouched.
“Alex, I didn’t hear you arrive.” Allie smiles when she sees him. “We weren’t expecting you until after lunch.”
She pushes at the blanket but Alex shakes his head and tells her to stay where she is. Bends and kiss her cheek, then turns to hug Polly.
“I was able to get away early and missed the worst of the traffic,” he says as he fills Bart’s water dish from the hose on the side of the house. Polly is holding a glass of iced tea out to him when he straightens and he takes it with a grateful smile The storm had finally broken in the early hours of Sunday morning before they left and now the summer heat is back, crisp and unrelenting.
His phone chimes and Ben’s name flashes on the surface.
“Stuck in meeting, will phone when out. Hug them for me. Love you.”
When he’s finished reading the message out, he drops the phone on the tabletop and tops up Polly’s glass, then his own. Holds Allie’s glass to her and waits until she has a small mouthful before sitting down.
“How was he this morning?” Allie asks.
Alex gives a small shrug. About the same as yesterday he admits.
A tear appears below the sunglasses and Alex leans forward and removes them. Allies eyes are showing yellow in the whites now and the circles beneath them are darker than ever.
“Allie,” he says, “he’s okay. He’s sad and he’s angry but he’s okay. I wouldn’t want to be Scott on the squash courts this afternoon but he’s coping.”
“Okay,” she nods.
“How are you doing?” he asks.
“My stomach hurts this morning. I had some rice last night for dinner and I think that may have been a mistake. Everything feels bloated and painful.”
“Have you been to the bathroom?”
“No,” she admits. “Nothing seems to be moving at the moment, in any direction.”
He nods, thinks for a moment.
“Okay, I’m going to empty the car, no you’re not going to help, Polly,” he shakes his head when she stands, “then I might go back to town to check in with the nursing bureau and your doctor, and pick up a few things. Why don’t you make a list of anything you need and I can get it at the same time?”
“I wish I could come with you,” Allie says, voice wistful as she picks at her blanket.
Alex frowns and purses his lips.
“Would you like to?”
“I’d love to but I don’t think I can walk very far. I don’t want to be a bigger nuisance than I already am.”
“You make yourself beautiful and let me worry about the rest,” Alex says clicking for Bart. “You’re not a nuisance.”
Alex takes his things up to the bedroom, feeling lost in the room without Ben then settles Bart in the kitchen and calls Allie’s doctor and the nursing bureau to let him know they’re on the way. Finally, he goes to look for Allie and finds her sitting on the bed, dressed in a long-sleeved pink and blue dress and tennis shoes. The laces are undone and she looks exhausted.
“Let’s get these sorted, shall we?” Alex goes down on one knee and fixes the laces. When the bows are secure, he stands up and looks at the beanie she's turning in her hands. Takes it from her and eases it on to her head.
“I think we need to get you a nice hat,” he says.
“Why?” she asks and for the first time he hears defeat in her voice.
“Because, you’re beautiful and you deserve a beautiful hat.” With that, he wraps her arms around his neck and slides his own under her legs. Ignoring her protests, he lifts her up; she weighs so little no effort is needed. Polly is waiting in the doorway when he turns around.
“Lead the way,” he says and follows Polly to the door.
Within minutes they are driving toward the village, with Alex glancing from Allie, out of the corner of his eye, to Polly in the rear vision mirror, every few seconds.
◆◆◆
When they pull in to the Health Clinic, Allie refuses to be carried, opting instead to cling to Alex’s arm as they walk in. Doctor Adams meets them at the door. He shakes Alex’s hand before taking them through to his room, where he proceeds to take Allie’s temperature, check her blood pressure, and look at her eyes.
“How’s the pain this morning?”
She repeats what she told Alex earlier.
“We can give you a gentle laxative to help with that,” Doctor Adams is already scribbling on a prescription pad, “I’ll also give Alex a prescription for something stronger in case it doesn’t work. It may be a bit unpleasant and sometimes it can be a bit sudden so just be aware of that.”
“Filed under things you never think you’ll have to discuss with your son-in-law,” Allie says drily.
“Well now he’s your nurse, not your son-in-law, so don’t waste time being embarrassed.” Doctor Adams looks at Alex. “I think we should move to patches instead of pills. Are you okay administering and managing an IV if needs be?”
“Yes and I think we need to consider that for fluids. She’s had no solid food since last night, only a half glass of milk this morning, and a couple of mouthfuls of iced tea since my arrival.”
“Okay, I’ll organize for a delivery of equipment for you. It may not arrive for a couple of hours though, possibly tomorrow morning, but I’ll try to get it through urgently. See if you can pick up some of those liquid meal replacements athletes sometimes use. I could prescribe some but it’s probably just as easy to get them from the gym. She should be able to cope with one of the blander ones. Now, I have been able to get what you asked for, I’ll just need to get you to sign some insurance paperwork for it.”
Allie frowns. Holds her hand up.
“Excuse me could we try to remember that although I’m dying, my mental faculties have yet to leave the party.”
While Doctor Adams does his best to school his expression back to neutral, Alex grins.
“Yes, sorry. I asked if they could lend us something that would let us get you out of the house a bit more.”
“And that would be?” Allie asks.
Doctor Adams excuses himself and leaves the room, returning a few moments later with a wheelchair.
“Absolutely not,” Allie snaps, glaring him.
“Allie…” Alex tries to speak but she cuts him off.
“I do not need a wheelchair. I may not be able to walk far or fast but I am quite capable of walking.”
Alex is not put off by her tone or the look on her face; these are familiar reactions, ones he sees in patients every day. Keeping his voice quiet, he crouches next to her chair, careful to not touch her, not invade what is left of her personal space.
“Yes, you are, Allie,” he says. “Around home, you are able to walk. But you can’t walk up the road, or next door to visit Mrs Morris. You can’t come to town. This will let you do these things. And maybe on Saturday when Ben’s here, if you feel up to it, we could go to the Regency and have cocktails at the Waterview Bar. I’m not trying to take away your independence, I’m trying to give some of it back.”
He waits while her eyes travel over his face, sees the suspicion and fear in them, then the indecision, and finally reluctant acceptance. Without a word, she nods.
“Good girl.” He offers her his hand. She pushes it away with a scowl and stands up. Makes her way to the wheelchair and sit down.
Alex shakes his head.
“I know where Ben gets it from now.”
◆◆◆
Making sure he stays to a speed Polly can keep up with, Alex pushes the wheelchair around the shopping area. They stop at the pharmacy for the prescriptions, get a few things from the supermarket, and call into the nursing bureau. When they get back to the car, Allie is dozing in the chair, chin on her shoulder.
Alex lifts her into her seat, puts the bags in the back, and asks if they would mind waiting a few minutes while he just gets two last things. Allie tells him to take his time and closes her eyes. Polly holds her phone up to show if she needs anything, she’ll call.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” he says.
True to his word, he’s back ten minutes later with two more bags. One he puts in the back next to Polly and the other he puts on the floor by Allie’s feet while he slips her beanie off. From the bag, he pulls a small pink sunhat with daisies around the brim. He puts it on her head and tilts her chin up so he can see her eyes.
“There, that’s better.”
“I’m sorry I snarled at you about the wheelchair,” she says.
“You ever seen your son with a hangover?” Alex asks. “Trust me, you have a long way to go before you are anywhere near his league, so don’t worry about it.”
When they get home, Alex insists Allie has one of the small boxes of apple juice they’ve bought and some of the laxative the doctor has prescribed. While she sips he takes her temperature and checks her blood pressure, notes them in the folder from the nursing bureau, and applies one of the morphine patches.
“This might make you feel a little sick or like it’s hard to breathe. Don’t panic if that happens, just let me know and we’ll keep an eye on it, take it off if we need to.”
“I read the box,” she says, “and it says they also cause constipation. Great.”
“I know but hopefully we’ll be a little bit ahead of that game.”
The sound Allie makes suggests she’s unconvinced. She says she’d like to lay down, just on top of the bed, perhaps with her cotton blanket, and have a nap. Alex pulls the curtains while she uses the bathroom and then goes to get the other bag he has brought back. He takes out a baby monitor and puts one of the two way transmitters on the bedside table next to Allie.
“I’ll have one receiver in the kitchen and one upstairs with me, and they transmit both ways, so you can just call out if you need anything, okay? I’m going to make dinner and get some things sorted.”
Allie nods as he pulls the blanket to her shoulders and is already asleep when he gets to the door.
In the kitchen, he makes tea for himself and Polly and starts preparing fruit for a fruit salad. He peels and chops easily digestible watermelon, cantaloupe, and soft, ripe peaches into a bowl, sprinkles a very small amount of sugar over them and puts them in the fridge.
Together, he and Polly spend the afternoon tidying the fridge, doing laundry, and devising a roster so Alex will be able to shower and walk Bart without having to call an extra nurse in too often. Around five, Allie joins them looking pale but better than she had when she went to sleep. She answers Alex’s questions about pain and her stomach with a sigh and sits at the table, glaring at the folded wheelchair in the corner.
“Could I have some more of that apple juice?” she asks.
Polly passes her one of the juice boxes and goes back to shelling hard boiled eggs. When Alex finishes making dinner for himself and Polly, he mixes some of the fruit salad in the blender, pours some in a glass and puts it in front of her.
“See if you can handle some of this. Even if it’s just a little.”
Allie gives the glass a dubious look but sips anyway.
“It’s no Gibson,” she says, “but I’ve had worse.”
Alex is about to answer when his laptop buzzes and he reaches behind him to get it from the counter. The Skype icon is bouncing and Ben’s face fills the screen as soon as Alex taps the mouse pad.
“Hey baby” Ben's smile fills the screen.
“You’re mom and Polly are here too,” Alex says as he waits for the inbuilt camera to connect. “How was work?”
“It was work, nothing special. Beat Scott at squash. What have you guys been up to?” Ben’s face lights up when the connection is made and he can see them. “Hi gorgeous, hi old lady. You girls looking after my boy?”
“Child, he’s my boy now, you’re never getting him back,” Polly says. Alex shakes his head behind her.
“Hey kid,” Allie says. “He’s taking good care of us too.”
“Good, what have you been doing?”
“We went shopping,” Allie says. “Your husband bought me a hat.”
“Yeah?”
“And got me a wheelchair.”
Ben’s face drops and Alex leans in so he’s in the front of the screen.
“Just so we can go out and do things. Maybe on Saturday we can all go out for cocktails.”
He steps back and mouths ‘I love you’ to Ben from behind Allie and lets them talk while he clears away some of the pots and pans. Bart wanders in from the courtyard and when he hears Ben’s voice starts barking. Allie tilts the laptop screen so Ben can see him.
“Hey Dork Dog, you behaving?” Alex grabs Bart’s collar before he can lick the screen. “I guess I better let you guys finish your dinner.”
“What are you having?” Alex asks, hoping to distract him and maybe delay him for an extra minute. He misses him.
“Picked up a steak and salad.”
“Good. There’s some double chocolate ice-cream in the back of the freezer, behind the bag of ice.”
“You didn’t tell me we had ice-cream.”
“Yes, well if I had told you we had ice-cream there wouldn’t be any would there? Try not to eat it all in one sitting.”
“No promises.” Ben smiles and Alex is relieved to see he looks happier . “Okay, you guys go finish eating. Love you.”
“Love you back kid,” Allie says and waggles her fingers at the screen. Polly blows him an exaggerated kiss and Alex picks up the laptop.
“I’ll call you later,” he says resting it on the counter.
“Yeah,” Ben says, “that’d be good.”
“I love you,” Alex says.
“Love you back.”
The screen goes black.
◆◆◆
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey, how you doing up there?”
“I’m okay. I miss you.”
“I miss you too. It’s weird being in your bed, in your room, without you.”
“You wearing your pajamas?”
“Of course.”
“How is she?”
“Hanging in there.”
“Okay. Good. I wish I was there.”
“I wish you were here too. But you will be on Friday.”
“Yeah. I know. Our bed smells like you.”
“Uh, is that a good thing?”
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Okay then.”
“Baby?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you back.”
◆◆◆