In the Dark by Vikki Patis

Author:Vikki Patis [Patis, Vikki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books

33

Liv

That day, two things happen that change everything.

The first thing happens just as I’m leaving for work, my phone buzzing in my pocket. Private number flashes up on the screen, and I instantly think police. Is this what my life has become now, waiting for the proverbial knock on the door?

But it isn’t the police. On the other end of the phone is a man who introduces himself as Trevor in a Jamaican accent. And he informs me, in that lovely, rich accent, that he is with my mother, who had been found wandering the streets in her underwear, a large kitchen knife in her hand.

‘Where is she now?’ I ask, my pulse quickening.

‘She’s at the hospital now. They’re just checking her over.’

‘And who – sorry, but who are you?’

Trevor chuckles. ‘I’m the postman round that area. I found her outside the Indian restaurant, down the bottom of Bullocks Lane.’

‘Jesus. That’s… that’s ages away from where she lives.’

‘I know, I’m her postman too,’ Trevor says. ‘I’ll wait with her until you get here.’

‘Oh, no, you don’t have to do that,’ I say quickly, grabbing my car keys and hurrying out the door. ‘What about your round? You must be so late.’

‘Don’t you worry about me,’ he says firmly. ‘I’ve known your mother for some years now, it’s a pleasure to wait with her. We’ll see you soon.’

As I drive, I wonder at how little I know of my mother’s life. She has never struck me as the type of person who befriends the postman or milkman or anyone at all, especially not those who sound like Trevor. She has always been prickly, stuck in her ways in that way that people often brush off at her age, but she has been like it for as long as I can remember.

I find a space and rush to the A&E department, where I ask for Jean Braybrooke. While the nurse checks her records, I wonder, stupidly, why she kept my father’s name for all these years, why it never occurred to her to revert back to her maiden name – Taylor, the name I gave myself and Seb – or to even choose a new one, a new identity away from her association with the men in her life. The men who had been in her life and were no longer. Though I suppose it’s either one man’s name or another, I reflect darkly. I wonder whether that will change for the women of the future.

‘Follow me,’ the nurse says, standing and moving around the front desk, and I do, my shoes squeaking on the linoleum as I hurry to keep up with her. Mum is in a cubicle, looking very small against the large hospital bed. She has a dressing on her forehead, and another nurse is stitching up a cut on her arm.

‘Oh, Mum,’ I say, rushing towards her.

She glares at me. ‘Who the hell are you?’

The nurse looks up and I try to smile. ‘I’m her daughter, Liv. She has… well, she’s–’

‘Mad,’ Mum says, tutting.

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