Keep Her Safe by Jen Faulkner

Author:Jen Faulkner [Faulkner, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Published: 2022-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

31

Catherine

Wednesday 16th October

My first instinct is to race to my car and drive to her.

Why is she at the surgery? My mind races with the possibilities. Maybe she is simply getting a repeat prescription for her inhalers. Or she could be registering with the surgery. While tracking her I hadn’t seen her picture hovering over the doctor’s surgery before and so this could definitely be what she is doing. There might be nothing wrong after all. My heart rate slows a little, but I am still on edge.

Breathing into my abdomen I contemplate calling her. Is there any chance she has calmed down after my drunken call? Probably not. Twenty-four hours isn’t long enough. I look at my phone again. She’s still there. Not popping in and out to register then. That wouldn’t take this long. Should I call Sean and ask him?

No.

And then, as I sit in my car on the verge of a panic attack, the edge of my vision flashing with black and yellow orbs, my phone rings.

‘Anya?’

‘Mum.’ She coughs and my body tenses. ‘I’m at the doctors.’

Without thinking I nearly tell her that I know, but I stop myself.

‘Are you okay?’ But she’s not okay, she can’t be.

I hear a whistle as she breathes on the other end of the line. She coughs again.

‘I’ve got a chest infection. Feel like shit.’ The whistling is louder as she struggles to breathe and talk to me.

Blood pulses through my head. ‘Oh, sweetheart. Why didn’t you tell me?’ You said you’d call me if you needed me, I want to shout at her, you promised.

‘I’m telling you now. The cough only really came on today. I was managing, but this morning everything ached when I woke up and I’m …’ she pauses to take a deep breath in before coughing, unable to catch her breath, ‘I’m so tired.’

‘Do you want me to come and get you?’

Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.

‘I don’t know if I could sit in the car for that long, Mum. Jamie’s here; he came with me to see the doctor. But I think he might be getting ill too. And the doctor did advise me that some time at home might be a good idea.’

My heartbeat quickens and I’m no longer panicked. I’m ready to pounce. My reactions are always at the top of their game in an emergency. It’s only after the challenge is over that everything catches up with me. I’m a soldier ready for battle, gun loaded and poised.

‘Anya, I can be with you in an hour. Didn’t you say next week was a reading week anyway?’

‘Yes it is.’ She whistles. ‘I don’t have lectures, but I do have an assignment.’

‘Don’t worry about that. We can get you an extension. Right, I’m on my way.’

‘Are you sure?’ I detect a wobble in her voice and I think she’s crying. Ever since she was a baby her emotions had always been linked to mine. If she cried, I cried, as though her sadness not only made my breast milk flow, but also my tears.

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