Who Are You? by Elizabeth Forbes

Author:Elizabeth Forbes [Forbes, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novel, Fiction, Post Traumatic Stress, Combat stress
Publisher: Cutting Edge Press
Published: 2014-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

13

Alex finishes off restacking the dishwasher, sighing at his mother’s inability to arrange everything in its correct place. ‘I’m beginning to wonder if it wasn’t the stuffing after all.’ Geraldine says, placing a cup of coffee in front of Alex. Instant. He can’t drink it. The only reason they keep a jar is for the daily. He pours it down the sink when Geraldine isn’t looking and makes himself an espresso.

‘Sorry?’

‘Well it’s probably a bug if Ben’s gone down with it too. I hope we don’t get it. Be awful not to be able to go to Lucinda’s, but we wouldn’t want to give it to them. Not with such a young baby in the house.’

‘It’ll be fine.’ Alex is surprised that Ben’s gone down with a dose of diarrhoea. When he went to check on him last night, his bed was empty so he went upstairs to find he’d gone to bed with Juliet. And so Alex had spent most of the night in his study and then eventually tried to get some sleep in Ben’s small single bed. This morning he’d taken Juliet a cup of tea and a piece of toast and marmalade, and a boiled egg and soldiers for Ben. Breakfast in bed as a treat for them both. But Ben was sitting on the loo whining and still complaining of bad tummy pains.

‘He’s been ill all night,’ Juliet said. ‘I’m really worried about him. If he doesn’t get any better he’ll have to see a doctor.’ Her voice was still rasping, as if she was going down with a bad sore throat.

‘If he needs to go, I’ll take him,’ Alex said, and placed the breakfast tray on the bed beside Juliet. She ignored it.

‘You’re worried a doctor might wonder how I got this?’ She pointed to the bruise on her cheek and the gash on her head. Alex walked over to her and took a large lock of her hair in his hand. Then he twisted it so that she had to lean her head towards him.

‘I said I’ll take him. Understand?’

‘Yes, Alex.’

Alex once again felt the surge of something almost comfortingly familiar. ‘Eat your toast, you barely had anything yesterday. And I’ve brought Ben an egg. Anything else I can get you?’

‘Ben shouldn’t eat anything and I’m not hungry.’

And so he’d come down to report on the absence of his wife and son at breakfast. ‘Ben’s still feeling ill, and Juliet had a really nasty fall in the bathroom. She slipped on the wet tiles. They’re lethal. I’m thinking of getting them changed. She’s feeling a bit fragile – battered and bruised – but she’s going to join us for lunch.’

‘Oh, goodness me. Poor darling. Is she all right?’

‘She’ll be fine, just a bit knocked about.’

‘Do you think I might go upstairs and just see if there’s anything I can do?’ Geraldine asks.

‘No thanks, Mum. They’re both resting. I said I’d give them a couple of hours and check on them after that.’

‘I just feel there should be something I can do to help.

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