Chapter 28
Nelson is on his way to work when he gets the call. He has his phone on hands-free so Judy’s voice fills the car. Nelson finds it hard to take in the details, even as he drives through the empty streets. Cathbad is in hospital, on oxygen, Judy is in quarantine.
‘I don’t know any more,’ says Judy. Nelson can hear her struggling to control herself. Judy, who is always in control. ‘It’s very hard not being with him.’
‘I bet it is,’ says Nelson, ‘but he’s in the right place. He’s getting good care.’ Even as he says this, he wonders if it’s true. Is a hospital full of Covid patients really the best place to be during a Covid pandemic?
‘Try not to worry, love,’ he says. Then he spends the rest of the journey worrying about calling his most senior officer ‘love’.
When he gets to the station, Tony is already there. Nelson groans inwardly. He doesn’t think he can take a day listening to Tony’s chatter. Sure enough, when Nelson explains about Cathbad, Tony launches into a long story about two cousins in China who caught, and subsequently recovered from, the virus.
‘That’s great, Tony,’ says Nelson, when he can get a word in. ‘Let’s get on with our work, shall we?’ In silence, he wants to add, like Sister Anthony used to say to his primary school class. ‘I’m casting my cloak of silence over you.’ But Tony seems to get the message.
Leah brings him a cup of coffee. ‘I hope Cathbad’s OK,’ she says. ‘Judy’s so lovely. I can’t bear to think of her being worried.’
Judy had been worried about Leah, Nelson remembers. What had she said?She seems a bit quiet.But Leah, unlike Tony, is not given to chatting. For which Nelson thanks God silently.
Thinking of God, as always, reminds him of his mother. He hadn’t rung her last night so he does so now.
Maureen sounds bracingly the same. No, she’s not ordering food online. She doesn’t hold with things like that. She goes to the shops with her wheely bag. Of course she wears a mask. Maeve brought her a pack. Nelson’s older sister, Maeve, lives near their mother, and visits every other day. ‘She doesn’t come in,’ says Maureen, ‘she stands in the garden and shouts up at me. It’s a gas.’ Nelson’s other sister, Grainne, lives further away but apparently she did one of those Zoom yokes the other night.
‘How are you, Harry?’ asks Maureen at last. ‘Are you still on your own? Is Michelle still in Blackpool with Georgie?’
‘Yes,’ says Nelson, ‘she’s a bit worried about her mum. Louise has diabetes, you know.’
‘She’s as fit as a fiddle,’ says Maureen.
‘She certainly seems it,’ says Nelson.
‘How’s Katie?’ asks Maureen. Nelson answers carefully. Maureen now knows about Ruth and Katie but he doesn’t want to get into an ethical debate with her, if he can help it.
‘She’s fine. Her school’s closed so Ruth’s teaching her at home.’
A silence.
‘Laura’s back home with me,’ says Nelson. ‘She was finding it a bit hard to cope, living in the flat.’
‘My prayers have been answered,’ says Maureen but without much surprise. She always expects her prayers to be answered. ‘Laura can look after you.’
‘I can look after myself, Mum.’
‘A home’s not a home without a woman in it.’
Nelson thinks of the little cottage on the marshes containing two of his favourite women.
‘We’re taking turns cooking,’ he says. ‘I’m sure Laura will go back to her flat when all this is over.’
‘Sure, it’ll be over soon,’ says Maureen. ‘I don’t know anyone who’s actually got the thing, do you?’
‘Cathbad. Remember him? He’s in hospital with Covid.’
‘Cuthbert? Of course I remember him. He’s a good soul. I’ll pray for him. I watch mass on the computer every day. Yesterday I went to the Vatican.’
‘You do that, Mum. Give the Pope my love.’
‘He’s a good man, is Pope Francis. He understands about life.’
That makes one of us, thinks Nelson.
