‘Bess, it was terrifying. One minute, Malcolm and I were laughing at something or other, I can’t remember what now, and the next, a great big bang sent us hurtling to the side of the road. I thought we were going to hit the stone wall but we stopped just short of it.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘And that sound, the sound of metal being torn apart as they got Malcolm out. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.’
‘It’s awful, I know,’ said Bess. But it was the best way to get a person out quickly and without causing any more injury.
‘You were all so calm at the scene.’ She looked at her daughter. ‘I mean, you told me what you do from day to day at work, but seeing it, like that, in reality…’
‘You’re safe now. And it sounds as though Malcolm is on the mend. You can try speaking to him tomorrow.’ Whoever he was, she couldn’t think about that now, or the way she might feel about her mother seeing another man. She was adept at doing this – pushing away stuff that could wait when a situation was urgent; she did it at work all the time. You couldn’t bring too many personal worries with you or you’d never get the job done.
Fiona nodded but then calm gave way to fresh emotion. ‘We could’ve been killed. Malcolm could’ve died.’
‘You’re both going to be fine.’ Bess hated seeing her mum this way, reliving it all over again, not only the incident but the terror, the pain, that came with it.
‘Did you see the size of the dent in his car? Oh, what a stupid question; you were right there, your fireman friend Gio helped to get him out.’
Herfireman friend? She kind of liked the terminology and she supposed that’s what he was. Sometimes, when he looked at her,she wondered what it might be like if things ever moved beyond friendship but she couldn’t let her mind, or anything else, go there.
They drove home in relative silence, both exhausted from the events of that evening. Bess stayed in her mother’s spare room so she’d be there just in case. She wanted to feel the closeness of home too, the almost letting go of being a grown-up by stepping into her childhood bedroom, if only for a while.
In the morning, Fiona woke Bess to tell her she was getting a taxi to the trauma centre to see Malcolm. And she wouldn’t have it that Bess could take her.
‘We’ll talk soon, Bess,’ her mother said as she hovered at her bedroom door. She had on her favourite floral blouse and a waft of Anais Anais perfume came Bess’s way. She was going to see her boyfriend and Bess wasn’t really a part of that. And as soon as the taxi’s horn alerted them to its presence outside, her mum was gone.
Now, back at the airbase, once Maya had refuelled the aircraft at the bowser, Bess climbed into the rear of the helicopter, which was separated by a sheet of heavy-duty plastic from the front. The inside of the air ambulance had the litter for patients, breathing apparatus, defibrillators, monitors, and blood transfusion equipment.
Bess retrieved the blood and plasma bags which they brought with them each time they went out on a job. They would need replenishing and the drugs they’d taken to the scene would need to be put away inside the airbase because legally, they couldn’t leave those onboard. As she climbed out, she spotted Dorothy. Dorothy was one of the Whistlestop River Freewheelers, a team of fully trained volunteers who provided an around-the-clock, seven-days-a-week service transporting blood, donor breast milk, medications and other medical supplies to the airambulance as well as hospitals, surgeries and patients themselves. The work they did was vital and words could not express how much this team of people were key to the operations here at the Whistlestop River Air Ambulance.
‘You’re right on time.’ Bess smiled at Dorothy as they both headed inside the airbase. Bess slotted her helmet onto the shelf alongside the others, ready to grab when they were called out on another job.
‘I have my uses.’
Bess put an arm around the woman’s shoulders. ‘You’re always appreciated.’
‘So is cake… Word has it Nadia has been making her scones again.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll sort you out once I’ve stored everything away.’
Dorothy gave Bess a fresh supply of blood and plasma in a special cool box fitted with a data logger that indicated if the temperature rose beyond safe limits. Sometimes, they kept blood on board the aircraft but not if it was too hot or too cold, and today, the outside temperature was questionable. Safer to keep it in here. And then any blood unused after twenty-four hours would be returned to the blood donation system to be used elsewhere. It was too valuable to waste.
Once everything was sorted, Bess and Dorothy headed for the kitchen and found Nadia as their welcoming committee.
‘I thought I heard voices.’ Nadia beamed. ‘Dorothy, before you head off, you need a coffee and one of my freshly baked scones with jam and cream.’ She didn’t wait for an answer, simply loaded a scone onto a plate and handed it to Dorothy.
‘Don’t tell my doctor,’ Dorothy whispered to Bess. ‘I’m supposed to be on a diet.’
‘A diet? Whatever for?’
‘Oh, don’t worry, I don’t want to lose weight, but the doctor says I need to watch my sugar levels.’
‘Watch them tomorrow,’ said Bess.
Bess was good at convincing people to live a little, take a risk, whether it was with their waistlines, their love lives or money. She was good at doing the latter herself; the evidence of that was piling up back at home.
Nadia had Dorothy entertained and after Bess had enjoyed a scone herself, she went into the office.
Noah and Maya were in there dealing with paperwork.
‘Eva loves the toy, Bess. Thank you again,’ Noah said, looking up at her.
Noah had finally thrown Eva a very belated first birthday party, even though she was now getting on for seventeen months. His life and hers had been derailed somewhat as he settled into his role as a father and the process of adopting his late sister’s daughter got underway.
