Small Acts of Kindness by Caroline Day

Author:Caroline Day
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zaffre Publishing

NED

I

T IS NOT MAXWELL knocking on the door. If it were him it would be tap-tap-tap, three firm raps in quick succession, equally weighted and then a count of three before opening the door. And this doesn’t sound like any of the nurses either. They all have a polite but hurried tapping – although Tammy sometimes does give the door quite a bash if it’s the end of a particularly long shift. Toby never knocks. He swings open the door, with a ‘Don’t get up’, or a ‘Not still lying there are you, Ned, mate? Anyone would have thought you’ve nothing better to do.’

Kiki, then? She said she’d be in this morning, before going along to a musical therapy session with the old woman. This tap tap-tap tap is probably her. She and Maxwell have been discussing whether I could do some sort of therapeutic music too. He seemed enthused by articles he’d read online. The effects can be ‘remarkable’ from what he says.

The door is opening too slowly for it to be Tammy and it’s not Rachel, either. Rachel does it swiftly, very business-like, and somehow manages a particularly loud squeak. I wonder if the hospital design in the squeak especially for those, like me, with our reduced states of responsiveness. Maybe the squeaking door is the medical equivalent of polite throat-clearing. Not that there’s much I could be interrupted doing these days.

My bet is on Kiki.

I wait for the ‘Hey, Nid’, and those eyes which will peer everywhere but right at me, as she sits herself down on the side of my bed and reaches for the alphabet board.

I picture her peering around the door, hesitantly. I’m already anticipating her, ‘Hope you don’t mind me barging in?’

Actually, there are a couple of things I want to say to Kiki. Because we had quite the chat yesterday, after her confession session. It was exhausting, actually, what with all that spelling. I haven’t had a conversation like that since I’ve been in here. My eyelids still ache. I’ve been thinking about it though, and I want to tell her that—

‘Norton, darling. I’m sorry I didn’t come yesterday, my love, but I was so busy.’

Not the padding of trainers across the polished floor, but clicking heels. How did I not recognise Bella’s knock?

‘And I have meetings all morning today again. That’s why I’m so early. I’m just nipping in. I’ve missed you.’

Bella kisses the side of my mouth that is facing upwards. It’s what my head does now. Lolls to one side or the other. Her hair brushes across my face and the silver bean on the chain around her neck taps my chin. I find myself imagining how it would feel to kiss her back.

‘I have good news, Nort. You remember Francis Rafferty? Raffer Productions. I worked on that commercial with them, you remember?’

I wish I could laugh and clasp my chest and say, ‘Not the Raffer Productions ad?’ because only Bella could have been so proud of being an unpaid runner on a dog food commercial.

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