Ffion screamed.
Liz screamed.
Sidrah screamed.
‘Fookin’ hell,’ said Zippy Doodah.
Annie Golightly’s room was flooded by the same early evening sunshine, the window opened wide to admit the smells of cut hay and the distant noise of cattle being led homeward. On the threshold Nurse Oorja spoke to Thelma in a discreet murmur. ‘She is sleeping a lot,’ she said. ‘That is the way it is with these times. Occasionally she wakes, but then she sleeps again. Soon she will no longer wake.’
Thelma nodded, remembering her own experiences with her parents and various parishioners over the years. She approached the bed, which had been turned to face the open window; propped up against a cluster of purple pillows, Annie was a still, small presence.
Thelma sat by the bed. ‘Annie,’ she said gently. ‘It’s Thelma Cooper.’
Annie’s eyes opened revealing that calm grey gaze.
‘Thelma,’ she said her voice barely a murmur. ‘Thelma Cooper.’
‘I’m here,’ said Thelma.
Annie nodded slightly, satisfied. Her eyes closed but Thelma sensed rather than being asleep, the woman was mustering the very last fragments of her energy. Without opening her eyes, she spoke again, in that same hushed voice.
‘The truth,’ she said. ‘Thetruth…’
Thelma took her hand, as if by doing so, she could imbue the woman with some of her own life force.
‘The truth …important…’
‘What truth, Annie?’ said Thelma.
The eyes snapped open, gazing into the amber evening light. ‘Love … it doesn’t excuse,’ she whispered.
‘I agree,’ said Thelma.
‘There have to be … limits …’ A single tear trickled down her shrunken cheek. ‘I know.’ There was agonised passion in the tiny weak voice.
‘What is it you know, Annie?’ prompted Thelma.
‘The service … for Davey …’
‘What about the service?’
‘Golden lads …’ she murmured. ‘Fear no more … Isaw…’
‘Annie, what did you see?’ asked Thelma as gently as she could.
Annie murmured something, barely breaking sound with a breathed whisper.
‘Annie, can you repeat that?’ Thelma bent her head close to that of the dying woman.
Again, that faint murmur.
Thelma frowned. She looked at Annie, but Annie had slipped back into that deep sleep from which it was unlikely she would wake.
‘Father,’ said Thelma softly. ‘Hold Annie’s hand and welcome her into your eternal kingdom.’
When Nurse Oorja came in some time later, Annie had not woken again. Thelma offered to stay but the nurse shook her head.
‘People want to be alone at this time,’ she said compassionately but firmly. ‘Besides, I will be here with her till the end.’
