‘Of course I haven’t forgotten. I’ve been speaking to him regularly since this happened.’
‘Well, that’s something, I suppose. If there’s one good thing to come out of this, it’s that you’re on speaking terms with your brother again. I was beginning to think that the next time you communicated would be at my funeral.’
Alastair rolled his eyes.
‘You’re a long way off that, Mum, and in case you didn’t know Rosie’s just got a new job. She can’t take time off now.’
Rita slapped her hand on the side of the chair, her wedding ring glinting under the glare of the hospital lights.
‘If your father knew what you were trying to do!’ she said. ‘Trying to force me out of my own home first and now put me in some care place where half of the residents probably don’t know their own name and can’t wipe their own bottoms.’
Tears were streaming down her face. Jules took hold of her hand.
‘Shh,’ she whispered.
‘Mum, this really isn’t like you,’ Alastair soothed.
‘It’s probably the painkillers,’ the doctor said. ‘I’ll check she’s not having a reaction to them.’
‘I’m here,’ Rita said. ‘I’m not dead yet, although it would probably suit some people if I was.’
‘Rita,’ the doctor protested, ‘I don’t know where you’ve got all of these negative ideas from, but…’
‘It’s Mrs. Tompkins to you. All of this familiarity making it seem as if you’re on my side when you’re not. You’ll have to take me out of this bed kicking and screaming unless I know for sure that I’m going home and that’s not going to look good in the local paper, is it?’
She turned her head towards Alastair again.
‘Why can’t we have someone in to look after me? There are companies who specialise in this sort of thing.’
‘Do you know how much they cost?’ Alastair asked.
‘I’ve got a bit saved,’ Rita replied. ‘I was going to leave it to the grandchildren, but…’
She gulped and let out a huge sob.
Jules couldn’t bear it any longer. It really wasn’t her place, but who cared?
‘Rita, you really mustn’t upset yourself like this.’
She knelt down and handed her another tissue, saw the raw fear she was trying so hard to contain.
‘I’ve been upset ever since my George went.’
‘I know you have.’
Rita looked down at her, tears spilling on to capable hands which twisted and turned the tissue.
‘You understand me better than my own kith and kin.’
Something tickled Jules’s ear. She pushed her hair back. There was a little whoosh of air as if someone was breathing against the side of her face and then a voice, faint, but steady.Go on, it said.You know it’s the right thing to do.Jules shook her head.
‘That’s not true,’ she replied both to Rita and her brain, which was obviously playing tricks on her.
Rita completely covered her eyes with the tissue. She was silent for a few seconds apart from small involuntary sobs.
‘One of the nurses can give you the name of a couple of places we recommend,’ the doctor said to Alastair.
Something prodded Jules in her side.
