Her eyes widened, probably because she recognised the tone of my voice. I did too. It was my Adam voice: tight and controlled, and typically reserved for discussing something bad.
‘What’s happened, Lily? You’re scaring the crap out of me.’
I took her hand, more to prevent her from bolting for her car when she heard what I had to say than anything else. There was no way I was allowing her behind the wheel of a vehicle.
‘Someone from the party phoned to let you know there’s been an ...incident... on the bouncy castle. Polly’s had a bit of a tumble and they’ve taken her to St Luke’s to get checked out.’
‘Checked out? What the hell does that mean? What kind of an incident?’
I’d never seen the colour drain from anyone’s face so fast.
‘They think she might have broken her arm.’ It seemed safest to lead with that.
‘Bloody bouncy castles,’ Raegan interjected angrily. ‘I warned her to be careful and stay away from the bigger kids.’
Her rage froze when she realised I wasn’t done yet delivering the bad news.
‘They also said she’d hit her head.That’swhy they thought it best to call an ambulance.’
Raegan, my tough-as-nails, ‘take on the world single-handedly’ friend, swayed on her feet like a heroine in a Victorian novel. My arm snapped instantly around her waist. She was trembling so hard I could feel every shudder vibrate through me.
‘Come on, I’ll drive us to the hospital,’ I said, urging her through the door.
‘No. I should go straight to the party. Polly can’t go off in an ambulance all by herself. She’s too little. She’d be terrified.’
There was no easy way to say this, so I just had to put it bluntly.
‘I don’t think she’d know, hon. The woman who phoned said Polly wasn’t properly awake.’ In truth the woman had said Polly had been knocked unconscious by the fall, but I didn’t think Raegan could handle that frightening piece of information just yet.
I drove faster than I should have, almost hoping a police car would pull us over and then escort us to the hospital with sirens blaring. I think I caught the flash of at least two speed cameras on the way, but the fines would be worth it if I reunited Raegan with her daughter even one minute faster.
My friend had been a source of unshakeable support to me in my darkest moments with Adam, and as I sped through the side streets towards the hospital, I only hoped that I could be just as strong for her now that the roles were reversed.
Just let her be all right, I pleaded to a God who hadn’t exactly been listening when I’d begged him to help the man I loved.
Raegan, who was rarely silent, said virtually nothing throughout the twenty-minute journey. Out the corner of my eye I could see the tension thrumming through her, making her legs jiggle so violently thathadshe been driving, the car would have kangarooed all the way to the hospital.
‘She’ll be alright,’ I assured her. ‘Polly’s a tough cookie. She’s practically made from Teflon. Remember that time when she fell off the swing in the park and grazed her knees really badly andstillrefused to go home and get cleaned up.’
Turning reluctantly in her seat, as though taking her eyes from the road would somehow slow us down, Raegan spoke in a voice that seemed smaller than it ever had before.
‘They called an ambulance for her, Lily. A bloody ambulance. You don’t do that for something you can slap a plaster on.’
I grappled for a comforting reply, couldn’t find one, so pressed down a little harder on the accelerator.
‘She’s broken her arm and has a head injury,’ Raegan continued with a hitch of a sob. ‘That doesn’t sound like Teflon to me.’
I swept into the hospital grounds like I was qualifying for the F1. I didn’t bother following the signs for the visitor car park, but drove straight up to the main entrance, which I was pretty sure only emergency vehicles were allowed to do. That was probably another fine in the making.
‘Go,’ I said to the already empty seat beside me. ‘I’ll find you when I’ve parked up.’
I left my car in the hospital multistorey, at a weird angle and straddling two bays; that was probably another infringement. Not that I cared. I’d happily cough up a fortune in penalties today if it meant that Polly was alright.
I ran recklessly down the concrete car park stairs to the ground floor, too impatient to wait for the lift to reach me. The clatter of my boots echoed noisily in the stairwell, but the thundering of my heart was louder. I didn’t know the layout of this particular hospital. It wasn’t one where Adam had ever been treated, but I knew better than to join the long queue of people waiting to be seen at the reception desk.
The Accident and Emergency department was well signposted, so I sprinted down corridors, slaloming past patients in wheelchairs and hospital beds, as though I was on an assault course. Miraculously, I didn’t send any of them flying. I burst through the doors into A&E, scarlet-faced and out of breath, looking more in need of oxygen than half the waiting room.
I scoured the rows of chairs but couldn’t see Raegan anywhere. I hurried to the desk, raising my voice as though I didn’t trust the Perspex screen not to muffle my words.
