Saving Grace by Cristina Slough

Author:Cristina Slough [Slough, Cristina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

JENNIFER MACK

The atmosphere is brimming with an institutionalised, oppressive tone. The modern medical equipment looks space-aged and incongruous against the 1960s backdrop of putrid yellow walls. Nurses are known as heroes, angels, but they look anything but angelic under the harsh strip lighting. They operate like robots, following regimented procedures and completing charts, smiles vacant from their weary faces. You could create a life, a beautiful life, but this is the place where it could all end, the stagnant air where you will draw your last breath. Death lies in the shadows, waiting to extend its clawed hand to snatch the next soul. You can almost see the blackness of it, hear it through the hum of the machines and hissing oxygen tanks. When we walk into the ward, the first thing I notice is a curtain pulled back and a person sniffing to suppress sounds of crying. I don’t like being here. But this is where she is, and she’s awake. A senior nurse approaches Lilith and I; authority oozes from her pores, her hairstyle is severe and stiff, cut into a jet-black box-dyed bob. Her facial features are as sharp as her frame, there are no curves to soften the edges. She wears a dark navy dress with red piping, a plastic white apron clings to her svelte figure. She wouldn’t look out of place wearing a longer dress, a cotton apron with frills and a cap from the Victorian era, her stony face would be well suited to it.

‘Can you show me some identification?’ the nurse asks without any pleasantries. Her directness doesn’t seem to faze Lilith who co-operates without further challenge or comment.

The nurse, who is named Lucy according to her fluorescent yellow name badge, casts her eyes over Lilith’s police ID and hands it back.

‘The family has agreed you can speak to the patient with the understanding if the patient becomes unable for whatever reason you must cease your inquiry. Understood?’ Lucy says.

‘Yes,’ Lilith responds.

‘The patient’s mother and father will both be present but they are not here yet, so I must ask you to wait in the family room until somebody notifies you of their arrival.’

We walk into a windowless room, its walls weary from surely having witnessed many tears over the decades. The grey carpet tiles have worn into what looks like chewing gum patches and the mismatched chairs have seen far better days; they should be burned rather than used. Lilith and I remain silent until we hear the door push open. The parents are much younger than I expected; the mother, her blonde hair tied into a topknot, wearing tight jeans and an oversized cashmere jumper with a designer handbag dangling from her arm, walks in proudly displaying the large diamond stone ring that sparkles on her left manicured finger. The father, also wearing jeans with a fitted shirt, fills the room with his expensive aftershave, he’s clean-shaven and a Rolex watch wraps around his smaller than average wrist.

Lilith is the first to stand and extend her hand.

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