by Ken McClure
Donor
( Steve Dunbar - 1 )
Ken Mcclure
Ken McClure
Donor
PROLOGUE
Amy’s room was cold; the heating had been turned off. Outside, snow was falling from a white-grey sky and the view from the window was blurred as a slight breeze caught the flakes and threw them silently against the glass. There was no rattle of raindrops or hammering of hail. This was as it should be, thought the woman who stood there looking out. The weather was showing proper respect. The whole world seemed quiet; it was holding its breath.
There was a distant hubbub from the people waiting downstairs but that served only to accentuate the silence in a room that had so often been alive with childish laughter. Ostensibly everything about the room itself was the same as it always had been. The pink wallpaper, the Disney curtains, the toys, the dolls, the picture of the boy-band on the wall. Amy’s pyjamas lay on the pillow, neatly folded in a little square parcel; her colouring books were stacked on a bedside table with a box of pencils on top; but none of them would be needed again.
There would be no more brightly coloured pictures of jungle animals for her father to admire before telling her bedtime stories, no improbable pink giraffes or mauve tigers. Red birds would no longer fly off into green sunsets and Jack would not be slaying the giant again to childish sighs of relief. Amy was dead. She lay in the little white coffin in the middle of the room.
The hospital had given special permission for this. It was unusual for the bodies of patients who had undergone postmortem examination to leave the premises. They were usually taken directly to the hospital mortuary to await collection by appointed undertakers on the day of the funeral. But Amy’s mother had dug her heels in and insisted that she be allowed home for the last time. She didn’t know why she’d done it and she suspected the authorities had only given in to avoid a prolonged scene with a grief-stricken woman. She only knew that, as she continued to look out of the window, it seemed right. Amy was going to start her last journey from her own room.
Jean Teasdale’s face was expressionless, her eyes distant. There were no tears; she had cried herself out. She barely acknowledged the fact that a hearse was drawing up outside the house, its wheels silenced by the snow. A few moments later the sound of the hubbub downstairs increased as the door behind her was opened and then faded as it was closed again.
‘It’s time, Jean,’ said her husband softly.
‘What was it all for? Tell me that,’ she asked without turning.
‘I wish I could,’ came the whispered reply.
‘Seven years of life and then nothing. Snuffed out. What a waste, what a stupid, pointless waste.’
Frank Teasdale put his hands gently on his wife’s shoulders and kissed the back of her head lightly. She didn’t turn round but she reached up her right hand to rest it on his.
‘It’s time to be brave,’ he said.
‘It’s stupid, I know, but I can’t help worrying about all that snow out there.’
‘What about it, love?’
‘I keep thinking… when they put Amy in the ground… she’ll be cold.’
Frank Teasdale lost the battle with his emotions; and he had been doing so well up till that moment. Tears flooded down his cheeks and his shoulders heaved with the effort of trying to maintain a masculine silence. Jean finally turned away from the window and they held each other tight as they sought solace; but in this situation none was possible.
Frank broke away, pulling out a handkerchief and blowing his nose as he fought to find composure again. ‘We’d best be getting downstairs,’ he said. ‘Get this over with. People have come from the hospital.’
Jean nodded. ‘That’s nice,’ she said.
They paused together by Amy’s coffin and rested a hand on the lid for a moment in a silent gesture of farewell. Frank looked at Jean; his eyes asked the question. She nodded in reply. They went down to join the mourners, passing between two of the undertaker’s men who were waiting at the foot of the stairs.
‘All right if we go up now?’ asked one.
‘Yes,’ replied Frank without looking at him.
Amy’s coffin was taken from the house and gently loaded into the hearse, to be surrounded by flowers from friends and family. They looked strangely incongruous against the snow, a splash of colour in a black-and-white world. Frank Teasdale found himself mesmerized by them; he kept staring at them through the windscreen of the car behind as he sat in the back with his arm round Jean. It was impossible not to draw analogies: beautiful, ephemeral things there for only a moment in the great scheme of things before withering and dying. He thought, it will soon be Christmas.
The next hour or so saw Frank and Jean Teasdale support each other through their daughter’s funeral service and subsequent interment in the churchyard of St Mungo’s, their local church, although neither had seen the inside of it since Amy’s christening. They clung to each other as if afraid to let go even for a moment. It was almost a relief when the first shovel of earth hit the coffin lid and Amy could now exist only in memory.
Frank had started to guide his wife back along the path to the car park when she suddenly stopped. He felt her arm become rigid and looked up to see what had caught her attention. A woman was standing in the trees off to the side. She was wearing a raincoat and headscarf but Jean had recognized her.
‘It’s that nurse,’ she said. ‘It’s that damned nurse. Why won’t she leave us alone? Why must she go on spreading her poison?’
Frank could sense his wife becoming distraught. He tried to calm her, before taking a step towards the woman in the trees. The woman made an apologetic gesture as if to indicate that he needn’t move; she had not meant to cause trouble. She moved back until she was out of sight.
‘She’s gone,’ said Frank, returning to his wife’s side.
‘Why does she persist?’ demanded Jean.
He looked sadly back to the trees. ‘I really don’t know,’ he said.
ONE
‘Who can tell us where we get bread from?’ asked Kate Chapman. There were eighteen children sitting in front of her. She smiled as a forest of eager young hands went up and enthusiasm filled their faces. She loved teaching, especially at primary school. For her there was something magical about introducing children to the voyage of discovery she firmly believed education should be. She took her early navigational responsibility seriously. Not for her the cynicism that said these would be the surly teenagers of tomorrow, the bus-shelter vandals, the lager louts, that each new generation was more spoilt than the last. Kate simply could not see beyond the innocent little faces that currently vied for her attention.
‘Kerry?’
‘Please, Miss, a baker, Miss.’
‘Good, Kerry. Now, who’s going to tell us how the baker makes our bread?
No hands went up this time.
‘Come on, what does the baker use to make the bread?’ coaxed Kate.
A little boy, wearing glasses with one lens blanked off to encourage a lazy eye, put his hand up tentatively then withdrew it. He did this several times with furtive glances to the side as if afraid of making a fool of himself.
Kate sensed his dilemma. ‘Yes, Andrew,’ she said encouragingly. ‘Come on, have a try. What do you think the baker uses?’
‘Is it flour, Miss?’ asked the little boy, putting his head to one side and then putting the end of his pencil in his mouth.
‘Well done, Andrew. It’s flour.’
He flushed with pleasure.
‘Now, what kind of man makes the flour that goes to make the bread?’
Kate glanced behind her at the colourful pictures that lined the wall. She looked directly at the one showing a windmill with a red baker’s van standing outside it.
>
Several hands went up as excited children got the clue and made the connection.
‘Yes, Annie?’
‘A miller, Mrs Chapman.’
‘A miller,’ agreed Kate. ‘Well done, Annie. Now then, what does the miller need to make the flour?’ She looked along the rows of children as they struggled to come up with the answer. The expressions on their faces were such that she could almost hear their minds working. But she frowned when she came to a pretty little blonde girl in the second row. She felt a sudden wave of concern. Amanda clearly wasn’t concentrating on the question. Her eyes were dull and distant and her face was pale with a suggestion of moistness on her forehead.
‘Are you feeling all right, Amanda?’ she asked.
The child did not respond and the class murmured uneasily.
‘Amanda?’ repeated Kate.
The little girl turned her face towards her but still seemed distant.
Kate went over to her and put her arm round her shoulders. ‘What seems to be the trouble?’ she asked. She bent her knees, sat on her heels and smoothed the child’s hair back from her forehead. She let her hand rest there for a moment. Amanda was burning up.
‘Oh dear,’ Kate soothed. ‘You’re not very well at all, are you?’
Kate now had a problem. Amanda was not only one of her pupils; she was also her daughter. There was therefore no option but to pass the buck to a third party. Sandy, her husband, a medical lab technician, was on duty at the local hospital and there was no one else she could call on for something like this. They had only moved to Bardunnock a few months before and were still at the settling-in stage.
Kate stood up in front of the class and said, ‘I’d like you all to draw me a picture of what you think a miller might look like while I have a word with Mrs Jenkins. Any questions?’
‘What’s wrong with Amanda?’ asked Tracy Johnson, the local postman’s daughter.
‘She’s not feeling very well,’ replied Kate. ‘I think she’s got a bit of a cold coming on.’
Please God that’s all it is, thought Kate, as she picked up Amanda and hurried along the corridor to throw herself on the mercy of the head teacher, Isa Jenkins.
Isa Jenkins was teaching her own class. Kate looked through the one clear pane on the half-glass door and caught her attention. She saw Isa instruct her pupils to get on with something before coming outside into the corridor.
‘What’s up?’
‘It’s Amanda. She’s not well. I think she may be coming down with flu.’
Isa put her head on one side to look at Amanda, who was resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. ‘Poor wee mite,’ she said. ‘You don’t look well at all, do you?’
Amanda responded by putting her thumb in her mouth and nuzzling into her mother’s shoulder.
‘I’m awfully sorry about this-’ began Kate but Isa stopped her. ‘Nonsense,’ she said. ‘I’m sure we can work this out together. What do you want to do? Take her home or over to the medical centre in Colbrax?’
‘I think maybe home,’ said Kate. ‘I’ll put her to bed and keep an eye on her for a while. She’s got a bit of a temperature but it could subside as quickly as it came on. You know what kids are like.’
‘I should by now,’ Isa smiled. She had been a teacher for thirty-two years.
‘I really hate doing this to you,’ said Kate, ‘but-’
‘Nonsense,’ insisted Isa. ‘I’ll commute between classrooms until the bell.’ She looked at her watch. ‘It’s only another hour and a half. No problem. What are your lot doing?’
‘They’re drawing a miller.’
‘Right, off you go.’
‘Thanks, Isa, I’m indebted to you,’ said Kate, finding another reason for liking the life in Bardunnock.
At six o’clock Kate was in the kitchen when she heard Sandy’s car come round the bend at the foot of the hill and labour up to the tight right-hand turn into the drive of the cottage. The car was a green, eight-year-old Ford Escort they had named Esmeralda.
‘Where’s my princess?’ Sandy Chapman called out as he opened the door. He paused to wipe his feet on the coarse mat before stepping inside. For once his call was not answered by the sound of running feet and laughter. Kate emerged from the kitchen, drying her hands. ‘Your princess isn’t very well, I’m afraid. I had to bring her home from school this afternoon.’
Sandy stooped to kiss Kate on the forehead and put his arm round her shoulder before asking, ‘What’s the matter?’
‘I thought it was just a cold but now I’m not so sure. I thought I’d wait till you came home before I called the doctor.’
Sandy nodded, now looking worried. He climbed the stairs to Amanda’s room and pushed open the door. Amanda’s head didn’t move on the pillow but her eyes looked up at him.
‘Hello, Princess,’ said Sandy softly.
Amanda didn’t reply. Her gaze drifted off to the window but her focal point was miles beyond.
Sandy’s head nearly touched the ceiling in the upstairs rooms of the old cottage and his shoulders almost filled the doorway. He sat down on the floor beside Amanda and rested his elbow on the bed. ‘Poor Princess,’ he said. ‘Have you picked up some nasty bug?’
He ran his fingers lightly along his daughter’s forehead and felt the film of moisture on her pallid skin.
‘I think we are going to call Dr Telford to give you some medicine to make you well again.’ He looked at Kate meaningfully and she got the message. She left to telephone while Sandy continued to talk to Amanda.
‘Tell Daddy where it hurts. Is it your tummy?’
Amanda shook her head slowly.
‘All over?’
A nod.
‘Have you been to the bathroom today?’
‘Can’t remember.’
‘Can you remember what you had for lunch?’
A blank look.
‘The same as the other children?’
A nod.
‘You didn’t eat any of the berries off the bushes in the garden did you, Princess?’
A slow shake of the head.
‘Well you cuddle in now. The doctor will be here soon and he’ll make you all better.’ Sandy put Amanda’s teddy bear beside her and tucked in the covers.
‘What do you think?’ asked Kate when he came downstairs.
Sandy shrugged. ‘Same as you, I guess. I want to believe it’s just a cold or flu but I think it’d be as well to get a qualified opinion.’
Kate put her head against his chest and he wrapped his arms round her.
‘Oh God, I hope it’s nothing serious,’ she said.
‘We’re probably worrying unnecessarily,’ said Sandy, but he glanced at his watch and asked, ‘Did you get any idea how long the doctor would be?’
‘The receptionist thought about half an hour. He still has a couple of patients to see at evening surgery.’
There wasn’t enough room in Amanda’s bedroom for all three of them to crowd in, so Sandy stayed downstairs while their GP examined Amanda and her mother provided reassurance by holding her hand. Sandy stood looking out at the garden while he waited. There was no escaping the unease he felt, despite knowing that nine times out of ten a parent’s fears were unfounded. The chances were that the doctor would come downstairs joking with Kate, tell them that there was nothing to worry about and accept their apologies for calling him out unnecessarily.
He recognized that the nature of his job at the hospital tended to distort his view of how much serious illness there was around. Was it the same for policemen? he wondered. Did they see crime and potential criminals everywhere they looked? He heard Amanda’s door open and turned round to look up the stairs. Dr Telford came down first, with Kate behind. They were not joking.
Sandy knew George Telford through his job. General practitioners in the area were encouraged to participate in the care of their patients while they were in the district hospital.
‘What do you think?’ asked Sandy.
‘I’m no
t happy with her,’ replied Telford, looking concerned. ‘I think we should take her into hospital overnight and run some tests.’
‘Have you any idea at all what’s wrong?’
‘I’ve an idea her kidneys aren’t working properly,’ replied Telford. ‘I could be wrong but I think we ought to run some biochemistry on her. Can’t do any harm.’
‘I suppose not,’ said Sandy. Kate had come over to stand beside him and he had his arm round her shoulders.
‘Has she shown any sign of having trouble with her waterworks in the past few days?’ asked Telford.
Sandy looked to Kate, who shook her head. ‘None at all,’ she said. ‘She’s been as right as rain.’
‘Well, a thorough examination at the hospital should put our minds at rest.’
‘What hospital were you thinking of?’ asked Sandy.
Telford looked thoughtful. He said, ‘I’m trying to decide whether to take her in to the district hospital for overnight observation or maybe have her taken directly up to the Sick Children’s Hospital in Glasgow.’
‘She doesn’t seem to be in too much discomfort,’ said Kate, hoping to influence the decision in favour of the local hospital. That would be more reassuring than having Amanda taken off to Glasgow.
‘True,’ agreed Telford. ‘That’s what we’ll do, then. We’ll take her over to the district hospital and have some preliminary tests done.’ He looked at his watch and said, ‘I suppose at this time it’ll mean calling out the duty technician in the lab. That’s not you this evening, is it?’
‘Not tonight,’ replied Sandy.
‘I’ll stay at the hospital tonight,’ said Kate. She knew from Sandy that on occasion the parents of young children were permitted to stay over in a guest room at the hospital.
‘Good idea,’ replied Telford.
It was just after eight thirty when Kate turned to Sandy and said, ‘You must be starving. You haven’t had anything to eat.’ They were waiting in the small side room outside the ward while Amanda was settled by the nurses.
