The Family Next Door by Caroline Finnerty

Author:Caroline Finnerty [Finnerty, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2023-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

27

The days between Christmas and New Year ticked by slowly. I was keeping an eye on the house next door and hadn’t seen a soul coming or going. I still didn’t know how Lucy was. I had called into the Garda station on St Stephen’s Day and given a statement to Garda McCabe as she had requested. I had asked if she knew how Lucy was doing but she said she didn’t have an update on her condition. I didn’t have contact details for Lucy’s parents, and I knew that because I wasn’t a relative, the hospital wouldn’t give me any information on her condition if I tried calling them. Besides, I didn’t even know what hospital she was in. I prayed that she had pulled through. I thought about little Anabel too; I hoped the child was doing all right.

Dora and I carried on as best we could. I was relieved that the pressure of Christmas was finally over. The weeks of build-up felt like a bottle of fizzy coke that had been shaken too much that when you twisted the lid, you didn’t know how much was going to come out, but we had survived the madness and I was proud of myself for getting through it all relatively unscathed. The ads of cosy families gathered around a dinner table and little children getting excited as they unwrapped presents had disappeared from the TV, and normality was slowly being restored once more.

One day I was watching telly when I saw a car turn into the driveway next door. I hadn’t seen anyone going in or out of there since Christmas night. I moved closer to the net curtains and saw Lucy’s father getting out of the car. I hurried outside with Dora trotting after me.

‘Hi there,’ I called over the wall. I noticed that he didn’t look as distraught as he had on the first night that I had met him, when he had been ashen with shock and worry.

He turned from where he was putting the key in to open the front door. ‘Oh, hello,’ he replied, making his way over towards me.

‘I just wanted to ask how Lucy is doing? She’s been on my mind all Christmas.’

‘She’s doing well, thank you. She’s still in hospital and she has a lot of broken bones but at least bones heal.’

‘Oh, thank God,’ I exhaled heavily. ‘I’ve been worried sick thinking about her.’

‘It was touch and go there for a while but she’s a fighter…’ He paused. ‘You know, she was born two months premature. She weighed the same as a bag of sugar. We used to go watch her lying in the incubator, all tubes and wires coming out of her, and I would say to Noleen, she’s strong that one, but I never imagined she’d be proving it to us in this way.’ His bottom lip trembled.

‘I can imagine. The main thing is that she’s on the mend. And little Anabel, how is she?’

‘She’s good, thank you. She’s missing her mum, of course, but the good news is that Lucy is being released tomorrow.

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.