Tiny Pieces of Enid by Tim Ewins

Author:Tim Ewins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-16T11:35:32+00:00

28

There was nothing outside Roy’s new room – not as far as he was concerned. People had come and gone through the door over the past few hours, but there was nothing on the other side. When he’d been brought there the previous day, by Barb and some people he hadn’t recognised, he’d seen the outside of the house, the corridors, the lift, the small alcove which housed the door to his room, but he only vaguely remembered any of it. He’d found it all rather distressing, and he’d been pushed in a wheelchair. It was hard to take in. The overall impression had been of a formerly grand house, with run-down interiors. A property fallen from grace.

Roy’s room was already old and well-used before he moved in, but it seemed comfortable enough. Most importantly, it was warm. He always felt so cold in his and Enid’s house. Mind you, he could never put the heating on – not at the prices he read in the newspaper.

He knew he was on the top floor because the ceiling at the end of his bed was slanted, and he could see the sky when the blind was pulled up. With better eyesight, he might have been able to see the seagulls that flew above him, searching the earth for adventure, or a child with a pasty to pinch, but they were just blurry moving black dots to him. No bother, there were pictures of birds, cut out and stuck on the wall next to his bed; they would have to do.

It wasn’t just the fall that had prompted Roy’s move (though, bloody Neil, anyway), his sight was worsening, and his hearing had become almost non-existent over the past year. That last fall had affected his ability to walk though, not straightaway, but he’d felt his legs deteriorating quickly. By his final few days at home, Roy had found himself sitting on his chair, struggling to get up and waiting for Barb to bring food.

Now, he was sitting in a different chair. Large, with huge armrests, placed next to a bed. The television was too small and far away for Roy to make out the people on it properly, and although he’d been told that the volume was high, it was not high enough. The previous night, very early in the evening, Roy had been moved from the large chair into the bed. A team of people had assisted him, changed his clothes and brushed his teeth, and the same team had washed him this morning. He’d only been here one night, but already they’d changed his underwear four times.

Barb had told him that she would visit again that day, but he doubted she would bring Enid. Roy had seen Enid become violent at times over the past year or so, and he understood that Barb was finding it hard. He doubted she would ever bring Enid.

He liked the people who had moved him to the bed and back to the chair, and he’d heard there was a PAT dog that visited every now and again.

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