‘It’s okay,’ I say, even though I have no idea if that’s true.
She reaches Apple Tree first and pushes the door open. Ruby is lying on one of the twin beds in her vest and pants, her sheets twisted beneath her, a sheen to her skin. ‘Ruby.’ Selena runs over to her and pushes back her hair. It’s wet with sweat. ‘It’s okay, darling. I’m here. I’m here now. We’re just going to take a little trip in the ambulance.’ By the bed I see a wet towel crumpled on the floor.
‘Not the hospital again,’ Ruby wails.
‘It’s okay, they’ll just check you over. Make sure there’s nothing to worry about.’ She sinks to her knees, gripping Ruby’s hand in both of hers. Ruby looks resigned to what’s about to happen. Selena glances across Ruby’s prostrate body to me. ‘She’s still very hot. I gave her Calpol …’ She notices me frowning and adds, quickly, ‘I forgot to take it from you earlier but I remembered you had some in your cupboard. It hasn’t brought her temperature down.’
‘Could it have been a febrile convulsion?’ I offer.
‘She might be a little too old for them,’ says Selena. She’s standing up now and is pulling on jeans and a jumper.
Mum bursts through the door, her hair elegant even at two in the morning. ‘The ambulance has arrived. Do you need any help carrying Ruby?’ she asks Selena.
‘It’s fine. We’ll be fine. Thanks, though, Aunty Carol.’ She helps Ruby into a pink dressing-gown, then scoops her up as though she weighs no more than a doll and carries her out of the room.
Adrian has let in the paramedics, who are waiting in the hallway, the front door wide open. The blue lights of the ambulance are flashing, reflecting in the windows of the cottages opposite. My next-door neighbour, Mr Collins, has his face pressed to an upstairs window. The paramedics strap Ruby to a chair and Mum rushes back to Selena’s room to get her coat and shoes.
‘Do you want one of us to come with you?’ I ask.
Selena shakes her head. ‘No, thanks. Go back to bed. I’ll ring you from the hospital.’ She throws me a wan smile. ‘You’d think I’d be used to this by now, wouldn’t you? But it doesn’t get any easier.’
I go into the office and snatch up a spare phone I have in my drawer. It’s only pay-as-you-go and I’d planned to give it to Amelia when she starts senior school next year. I punch my number into it. ‘Here, have this,’ I say, pressing it into Selena’s hand as she won’t have hers. ‘Please let me know how she is.’
I watch as they carry Ruby to the ambulance, Selena trotting behind them. My heart is heavy as I close the door on them.
‘She’ll be okay, love,’ says Mum, rubbing my arm in a rare show of affection. I should be the one comforting her. It must make her think of Natasha.
As we climb the stairs I see Janice on the landing outside her room in a hot-pink velour dressing-gown, cradling her pug. She’s wearing a hair net.
‘I’m sorry if we woke you,’ I say.
She shakes her head and I think she’s going to tell me not to worry, or ask who the ambulance was for, but instead she mumbles something about bad energy, then goes back to her room.
13
Two days before
It’s torture getting up early the next morning to make breakfast. Even though it’s Mum’s turn (we set up a rota so that one of us would get a Sunday lie-in once every three weeks), I feel, as it’s our first proper morning, I should be on hand to help.
As I shower and get dressed I think wistfully of all those Sundays in the past when we got up late and mooched around the house, the girls playing together, Adrian watching football, me pottering in the garden or kitchen. Would we ever have another lazy Sunday?
Mum and I creep down the stairs, hoping not to wake anyone. It’s still dark outside and the wind is howling down the chimney and rattling the windows. I hardly slept after Ruby was taken to the hospital and now I feel sick with tiredness. I don’t know how I’m going to face cooking bacon and eggs.
As I pass the front door I pause. I can see a dark shadow through the glass as though something has been tied to the door knocker. I think of the dead flowers we received two mornings ago. I hadn’t mentioned them to Mum, or Selena, not wanting to worry them and not even sure if it was anything to worry about. Mum hasn’t noticed that I’ve stopped and continues on to the kitchen. But I open the front door, wanting to make sure there isn’t anything untoward hanging there for Selena to find when she returns home with Ruby.
I look down at the empty doorstep. Then I turn to the door. I was right. Something has been attached to the knocker: a bouquet of dead flowers tied with twine and hanging almost upside-down, obscuring the glass panel in the door.
Even though I’d been half expecting them, I still gasp in shock, the cold air hitting my lungs. Calla lilies this time. I love them. I had them in my wedding bouquet. But most people think of them as funeral flowers. I reach out and touch a petal, once creamy white but now yellow. Who is leaving them here – and why?
My hands tremble as I untie the flowers. I dispose of them quickly, shoving them into the designated gardening bin on top of the dead roses we’d received the other day. Despite how unsettled I feel, I’ll only tell Adrian if he finds them and asks.
Mum and I are cooking and making tea when we hear the bed creaking in the room above us. It’s Room Five – Tulip. It must be the teenage lovebirds. Mum turns to me in shock and I clamp my hand over my mouth to stop myself giggling.
‘Didn’t you say they were only about eighteen?’ says Mum.
I nod, unable to speak.
‘Well, they’re obviously here for a dirty weekend.’ She sounds disapproving and I shush her, knowing they’ll be mortified if they think we can hear them. They looked like they wanted to shrivel up with embarrassment just being in the hallway with me yesterday.
