There was an unreadable faraway look in her eyes and after sipping his tea, he said, ‘It’s freezing out here, don’t get cold, will you?’
Ignoring him, she said, ‘Did Nina tell you I’m getting a dog?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Sounds like a great idea to me.’
She wheeled round. ‘I don’t need your approval.’
He felt the sting of her rebuke. ‘No, of course you don’t, and I didn’t mean to sound like I was giving it. I just meant that—’
She waved his words away with a sigh. ‘I know what you meant. I was being …
‘Being what?’ he prompted when she didn’t go on.
‘My usual combative self,’ she replied. ‘As you just said, some things never change.’
Seeing an opening, Keith said, ‘When I’ve finished here, can we have that chat, please? I’d really like to.’
With a small nod, she left him to it. He drank some more of his tea, placed the mug on the ground out of harm’s way, bentdown to gather up more of the logs and then gasped as a sharp pain ripped through his lower back. Holding his breath, he very tentatively tried to straighten up. But at the slightest movement, the pain ripped through him again and keeping as still as he could, he considered his options. Call for help in the hope Hilary would hear him or get down on his hands and knees and crawl into the house because there was no way he could stand upright.
It was ages since his back had given him any problems; the odd occasional twinge, but he knew this pain was on a whole other level.Slowly does it, he told himself as he lowered himself to the frigid ground. Then once he was in position, on all fours, he began the excruciatingly slow trek towards the back door. At one point, and now shivering with cold without his jacket, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the situation.
He was just a few yards from the door when it cracked open and there was Hilary. Never had he been more pleased to see her!
‘My back,’ he groaned, ‘it’s gone. Like that time I was clearing the drive of the snow and slipped a disc.’
‘How can I help?’ she asked, bending down to him.
‘I’m not sure, perhaps I’ll just keep crawling until I’m inside and then we’ll figure something out.’
Later, by the fire in the sitting room, he was dosed up on painkillers and a large medicinal glass of whisky and was resting in his favourite old leather reclining chair – the chair Hilary had frequently tried to get rid of because it was so shabby. So long as he didn’t move, he felt pleasantly detached, his mind and body drifting on a wave of fuzzy warmth.
He was so comfortably drifting he didn’t realise he’d fallen asleep, not until he was woken by the sound of ringing. Opening his eyes, he looked around him in the half-light, momentarily disorientated by the familiarity of his surroundings yet not understanding how he was there.
Eventually, and after trying to move and experiencing a sharp stab of pain in his back, he joined up the dots and remembered the hows and the whys. He checked his watch. It was gone four and by his reckoning he must have slept for over three hours.
The ringing had stopped now, and he could hear Hilary talking indistinctly to someone. As the one-sided conversation went on, he was suddenly conscious that he was going to have to move, and soon.
Pushing aside the blanket that covered him, he cautiously leant forwards in the chair, gritting his teeth against the pain. Mind over matter, he said under his breath as he leant forwards and prepared to haul himself to his feet.
Once upright and doing his best to ignore what felt like a knife being jabbed into the base of his spine, he put one foot in front of the other and slowly moved towards the door. He’d made it as far as the hall when, and with the pain causing sweat to break out all over him and nausea to churn in the pit of his stomach, he had to stop and lean against the wall to rest. He had the awful thought that he wasn’t going to make it to the loo in time and was about to push through the pain and cover the final distance to the downstairs cloakroom when, once more, Hilary appeared.
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘you’re awake. How are you feeling? No, no need to answer that, you look dreadful.’
‘Thanks,’ he said, with a half-hearted attempt at a smile. Then: ‘I need the loo and with some urgency.’
‘Here,’ she said, offering her arm, ‘lean on me.’
‘If you could just help me to the door,’ he said, gratefully leaning on her arm, ‘you don’t have to do more than that.’
‘It wouldn’t be the first time,’ she said, matter-of-factly.
Yes, he thought when he was safely installed in the cloakroom, but that was when they were a happily married couple, when they shared everything and did whatever they could to help the other.
She was waiting for him in the hall when he emerged from the cloakroom. She held out her arm again and once more he leant on it. ‘I’m sorry for putting you to all this trouble, it wasn’t what I’d planned when I came here today.’
‘I should hope not. By the way, have you phoned your … your girlfriend to tell her what’s happened?’
‘No,’ he said, wondering how much it had cost her to use the word girlfriend.
