Falling into Place by Pamela Mc Casker

Author:Pamela Mc Casker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 37

Leaving Hospital with Alex

After Claire’s operation, it’s decided she stay at ‘The Lodge’. Woozy from the procedure to set her tibia, discussions about her recuperation proceed without her.

“You’ll be right as rain, Claire. Besides, with my finals coming, I’ll have no time for you. It’s a boon,” says Clive.

“Great!” says Claire. She’s a sad winged bird. Her full range of movement is not even guaranteed, yet Clive is happily abandoning her.

“Cynthia hates me,” says Claire. “Let me go home with you,” she croaks.

“Darling, I knew you’d understand.”

She flaps her hands ineffectually but he concentrates on filling a vase with those horrid artificial felt-petalled flowers, the ones she always forgets the name of…

“Gerberas! Gorgeous. They’ll last forever,” he says, admiring his handiwork.

Only because they’re already half dead. Like me, Claire thinks.

“They’re gorgeous. I could’ve been a florist if I’d wanted to be,” Clive says.

“You could have been lots of things, Clive…Right now, you’re a…”

“Now you be a patient. Okay? Got to go. Alex is staying to help out.”

“Thank God!” says Claire.

“Yes,” says Clive. He kisses Claire and goes to consult the nurse.

Marooned in the lumpy bed, she thinks about Clive’s complacency. His assumption is that Alex is all innocent brotherliness, but Claire knows he likes her far too much. Clive wouldn’t believe Alex capable of the sort of feelings she’s glimpsed.

Clive is a gas BBQ – when turned on, he fires up. He’s no high maintenance wood-fire; he needs no poking, prodding or (dare she even think it?) blowing. Guaranteed one bonk per week, he’s content.

Clive returns; he affixes her clipboard to the foot of the bed.

“Love me, Clive?”

“You raise my happiness quotient massively. You’re my Himalayas!”

“You want to climb me?”

“No, Hon, you make me feel I’m soaking in minerals at Hepburn Springs.”

“Shouldn’t I be exciting you?”

“I’m stimulated at work. I’ll miss your healthy cooking, though. I’d started losing my pot belly!” He pats his mid-riff, proud as a peacock. “But you’ll be as safe down here as in a chastity belt at Pentridge. Goodbye, darling!” He blows Claire a kiss from the doorway.

Alex picks Claire up from hospital the following day. He wheels her to the car, helps her into the jeep; he arranges her broken limb on the back seat, snaps on her safety belt and packs the wheelchair into the boot.

He belts up but keeps his hand on the ignition key, thinking. “Who do you want?” he asks her, “Clive or Ma?”

“Clive,” she says, wishing she had a third option.

“Well, he comes bracketed with Mama. She’ll be part of your marriage. It’s potent, oedipal stuff. You sure you want to occupy one corner of a love triangle?”

Claire shrugs. “I’ve never found myself in a love twosome before.”

“Love isn’t for ‘finding oneself in’ but for falling helplessly into. It’s stepping in dog shit and not caring. If you’re not ready to decide, go see the world. Grow up,” says Alex.

“Clive says my innocence makes me special.”

“Especially naïve and malleable,” says Alex.

“Which bits of the world should I see?”

“Take a stab at the atlas.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.