L'Affaire by Diane Johnson

Author:Diane Johnson [Johnson, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Adult
Published: 2004-11-27T13:00:00+00:00

Embarrassed by his outburst at lunch, Kip had left the others and taken the gondola, which was still optimistically sending its little eggs up into the face of the blizzard; but at the top he judged the visibility too bad, and wended his way down the most visible pistes toward Méribel. Here the intervalley jitneys and buses assembled for the skiers coming off the slopes, and he took the one that went direct to Moutiers. He came into the hospital upon the scene of excitement surrounding Kerry’s awakening. Kerry had been on his mind all day, and now he saw that it had been ESP, because there must have been a further change in her condition. At first he feared it was a change for the worst, and he drew nearer with a sick feeling. But the expressions on the faces of the nurses and the doctor reassured him.

‘Is she waking up?’

‘Yes, indeed!’

‘Is she okay now?’

‘She is doing so well!’ agreed one of the nurses.

Much to his embarrassment, Kip burst into tears. He couldn’t control these babyish sobs, he could be Harry. He stood at Kerry’s bed sobbing and laughing at the same time.

‘Right on, Kerry. Hey, hey, Kerry,’ sobbing and laughing. Victoire was there, and smiled at him.

‘Someone was protecting her, elle avait une protectrice,’ remarked the nurse, embracing Kip.

‘I think so too,’ said the lovely Victoire.

‘When can she talk? When can I talk to her?’ He dried his eyes and got his breath.

‘You can talk to her now. She cannot talk back.’

‘Can she understand?’

‘Yes, they say so,’ Victoire told him, pleased to see the boy’s happiness. ‘They will have to take out the tubes before she can talk to you. In a day or two.’

Kip plunked himself down on one of the chairs, his ski boots dripping with melting snow, suddenly tired. He ought to talk to Kerry, even if she couldn’t talk to him, and tell her Harry was okay. He began the monologue so familiar to him, the things he’d been saying all week, Harry okay, everything okay.

‘Poor woman,’ whispered the nurses. ‘She doesn’t know her husband has been taken away to Angleterre.’

‘How long before she will be able to sit up and talk?’ asked Victoire of the nurse, Nurse Bénédicte. ‘How interesting it is to see someone come back to life, but music has that effect, as we know from the story of Orpheus, Apollo aussi and his connection to Aesculapius.’ She pulled up a chair and sat down beside Kerry. Kerry tried to turn her head slightly to watch Victoire, as if she wanted to see things and hear words spoken, grounding her in the here, wherever they were.

‘She might never remember, people don’t ever remember the blow that stuns them, only the moments before it, leading up to it, or sometimes the memory is gone about everything that happened for much longer before. Depends on the severity of the blow,’ said the nurse.

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