River held his breath.
“Don’t. I don’t deserve forgiveness. What I did was unforgiveable.”
Newt leaned in and gently hugged him. “I forgive you anyway.”
Newt was a better person than River. He’d never forgive his father. He wondered if he’d have been able to forgive Phelan if he’d been in Newt’s shoes. Could he have been that generous? He didn’t think so.
River wanted to do something to make this a good day for both Phelan and Newt. Nothing could change the past but they could make another memory, one that Phelan could cling to and one that might comfort Newt.
“Like to…go out in my car?” River asked.
“Out? Can you?” Newt pulled back and looked at his brother.
“Don’t know. But yes. I’d like to go out… I’ve not been out since they brought me here.”
“I’ll go and see.” Newt left the room.
Phelan looked across at River. “You don’t need to wear a mask. You can’t catch anything… I don’t care if you have something I can catch. It’s too late now for me.”
“Not why I wear one.”
“Why then?”
River didn’t know if Phelan would recognise him, but he took off his mask.
Phelan’s eyes widened. “You…look like River Lawson.”
“I am River Lawson.” River put his mask back in place.
“Fucking hell. How do you know Newt?”
“He works for me.”
Newt did more than work for him but that wasn’t River’s story to tell. Not to Newt’s brother. “Where do you want to go?” He was thrilled he managed to get that out so smoothly.
“The sea? I won’t be able to walk far but sitting in the car and looking at the water would be…great…” He breathed heavily. “If that’s not too far to take me.”
Newt came back with a wheelchair. “They said yes and no need to take oxygen with us. To be honest, if they’d said no, we could have made a run for it. Broken you out for the day.”
Phelan smiled. River could see Newt in his smile. Just.
“There’s a coat in the cupboard and my shoes.”
Newt helped his brother get ready and when he tied the laces on Phelan’s trainers, there were tears in Newt’s eyes. River followed as Newt wheeled his brother out of the building and over to the car.
“Oh my God!” Phelan gasped. “A Vantage DB12? We’re going in that?”
“No, in the Lada next to it,” Newt said.
“That’s not a Lada,” Phelan said. “You never could tell one car from another.”
River climbed in the back. There wasn’t much room but he could manage. Newt helped Phelan in, fastened his seat belt and took the wheelchair back. No way would that fit in the boot.
“This is my dream car,” Phelan whispered as Newt sat in the driver’s seat. “I bought one from an old lady whose husband had…left it covered up in a barn.”
“You always wanted one,” Newt said.
“I gave her more than she asked for.” He panted. “Notenough really. It was a delight to work on.”
