The Things We Keep by Hepworth Sally

Author:Hepworth, Sally [Hepworth, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781466852648
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

20

I arrive at work four minutes late the next morning, which isn’t disastrous apart from the fact that my eyes feel scratchy and I can’t stop yawning. It had been a late night. Through the window, I can see Angus in the garden with Clem on his heels, catapulting questions at him. He smiles at something she says, then points off at a bush in one corner of the garden. I am grateful that he likes kids, or at least appears to, because this morning I can use all the help I can get.

I rub my eyes and look at a bowl of fruit on the counter, trying to remember what I’m supposed to do with it. After a few minutes, I yank open the refrigerator and bury my head, hoping the cool air will snap me awake.

“I hear there was some commotion last night.”

I grab a carton of milk and reverse out of the refrigerator. Eric is leaning against the doorjamb.

“Morning,” I say. “Yes. Rosie told you?”

Eric nods. “I’m sorry Anna disturbed you.”

“Don’t be.” I set the milk on the counter. “Actually, I can’t stop thinking about it. She was quite upset.”

“It’s very sad,” Eric says. “A tragic disease, Alzheimer’s.”

“It is. Last night Anna asked for her mother. She also kept asking, ‘Where is he?’”

“She did?”

I nod. “Clearly she was talking about Luke. And I wondered, I mean, is there any reason why she can’t at least visit him?”

“Why do you think she was talking about Luke?” Eric asks.

“I don’t,” I admit, “but who else would she mean?”

Eric shrugs. “You said yourself that she asked for her mother, who is long dead. ‘He’ could have been her father, her brother. Anyone. Anyway, it’s the families’ decision to keep the doors locked at night. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Yes, but—” A thought rushes at me. Eric said Anna tried to kill herself and then they started locking the doors, but what if that wasn’t the sequence of events? What if the suicide attempt was because they locked the doors? “Was Anna’s suicide attempt before or after you started locking the doors?” I ask. I pause only a second before continuing, so certain I’m right. “It was after, wasn’t it?”

“No,” Eric says, frowning. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh.” I pluck a pear and an apple from the fruit bowl and begin slicing them, trying to hide my disappointment. “I just thought it might have explained things. I mean, if I were separated from the one I loved, I’d probably—”

“Loved?” Eric exhales. “Eve, falling in love requires memory, communication, reason, decision making. It’s very unlikely that people with dementia have these capabilities.”

I think about Rodney and Betty, the couple Rosie told me had held hands every day. They didn’t need memory to have a connection.

“But—”

“Look,” Eric says, “this job can be difficult. These people are at the end of their lives, and it’s sad. Particularly for Luke and Anna, being so young. But in order to do this job, you need to keep a certain distance.

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.