Blood Brothers

by Charles Beagley

  The only person in the room was Chris. He was standing by the open drawer of a wooden cabinet, going through some of the files by the look of it.

  The only other door in the room opened and a small middle-aged man wearing a long white coat entered the room. He looked harassed until he saw Jeff, his first eye contact; then he immediately turned to Kate and a smile broke out across his face. Chris closed the drawer and left the room through the same door.

  “This must be Mrs Dexter,” he said, holding out his hand.

  Kate shook it and smiled back. “Call me Kate, please,” she said.

  “Is it okay, Doc, if I leave Kate with you?” Jeff said, taking hold of the door handle. “It’s only I’ve got a lot of problems today,” he laughed. “You’re not one of them, Kate. Mine are all four-legged.”

  “I understand, Jeff,” she replied.

  “I’ll keep a check on you…don’t worry,” he continued, then left.

  The little man walked around to the other side of the desk and dipped his head to look over his glasses before he sat down. “Please Kate…sit down. We’ll have a little chat before I take you in to see Martin.”

  Although he seemed pleasant enough, Kate could feel her apprehension returning as she sat down opposite him. Despite his name she could tell he had been in Australia for a long time. You don’t get sallow, wrinkled skin in Ireland. And the small brown spots on the back of his hands made her think he might probably be older than she’d first thought.

  He still had his stethoscope around his neck. He placed it on his desk, went across to the wooden filing cabinet Chris was standing by, took out a file and returned to his seat. He opened the file and looked up at Kate.

  “I’m sorry if all this seems a trifle melodramatic; I know you must be anxious to see your husband. But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea when you meet him. I want you to be fully informed of his condition.”

  “I understand, Doctor, thank you.”

  “Firstly, to put your mind at ease, Martin’s condition is stable.”

  Kate tried to smile, but his words did not help.

  “His condition can be broken down into three categories: firstly he broke his lower arm and wrist in the crash. According to Martin the pilot helped him set his arm in a splint; quite a good job really. We only had to change the bandage for a plaster cast. I don’t have a lot of information about the pilot, but it sounds to me as if he had severe internal injuries; but I’ll return to him later. Secondly, they spent several days cooped up in a small space, in extreme temperatures, with very little food and even less water: I understand they had a few Mars Bars and some Hard Tack biscuits, whatever they are. They could not have survived for very long.”

  He reached over to a small tray with a jug of water and glasses on the end of his desk. He poured a drink and nodded towards Kate. She nodded back.

  “If it hadn’t been for the young Aboriginal boy stumbling onto the plane I fear you may well have lost your husband. He had a day at best. As it was, the boy gave him water, which I understand contained an Aboriginal potion to combat heat prostration and it helped Martin’s condition immensely. Enough for the boy to get him out of the plane and walking the twenty kilometres or so to our cattle station; although, I must admit the boy was clever enough to catch a horse in the latter period, which helped enormously. I have to add at this point that the boy inadvertently infected your husband. He arrived with a high temperature and a badly infected wound on his neck. Apparently Martin was stung by something. He had his first aid and told the boy what to do to keep the sting sterile, but at the end he had to use the Aboriginal way of sucking the poison out.”

  “And he gave Martin blood poisoning?”

  “Yes…but don’t worry, I had some antibiotics on hand and everything is under control. His temperature is back to normal.”

  “That’s good,” she said. “You mentioned a third category?”

  “Are yes. In fact it’s probably the most important at the moment. Something I’m not capable of treating. It’s something the hospital in Broome will have to look into.” He saw the look on Kate’s face. “Don’t alarm yourself, Kate. It’s just that I don’t have any experience in psychiatry.”

  “Psychiatry. What does that mean?”

  He glanced at the open folder in front of him. “According to observations, he has been showing signs of delirium. At first we thought it was a product of his high temperature. Then we examined the potion the boy gave him; he said he reacted to it strangely before he improved, but it turned out to be nothing more than a mild sedative. Now that he is fairly stable physically, I can see no reason for his ramblings, other than he is suffering some form of paranoia brought about by the traumatic ordeal he went through.”

  “What ramblings?” Kate exclaimed.

  “I said I would come back to the pilot. He seems to be Martin’s main preoccupation at the moment, along with the young Aboriginal boy. It all seems to relate to how he bonded with these two during his hallucinations.”

  “And how does it manifest itself?”

  “For one, he still thinks the pilot is alive. He talks to him all the time. I think he calls him Joe.”

  “Yes. That’s right.”

  “And he looks upon the Aboriginal boy as his saviour.”

  “I really want to speak to the boy, but Jeff says he’s having trouble with his tribe. Do you know what’s happening?”

  Kate could see by the awkward look on the doctor’s face that he was going to be as difficult as Jeff had been and she gave him her pleading expression.

  “It’s Miss Gerry, the teacher, you want to talk to. She knows everything about the Aborigines. She’ll get to the bottom of it,” he said, standing up. “Anyway, I think I’ve put you in the picture, so it’s about time I let you see Martin. But don’t forget: don’t be too alarmed at what he might say. At first he may not be the Martin you know, but seeing you might just bring him round.”

  Kate stood up when he came round the desk and opened the door leading into the hospital side of the clinic. She stepped inside and he followed.

  She had entered a long room with the first three metres taken up by a small room on either side. The one on the left was marked Toilet and the opposite one was marked X-ray. Beyond that the room was unhindered, except that it was split into small cubicles by curtains. Most were drawn back exposing an old style hospital bed with a wooden cabinet alongside in each. Directly behind the X-ray wall, the first space was taken up with a nurse’s station consisting of a small desk and chair, another wooden filing cabinet and a trolley covered with a cloth.

  Sitting at the desk, going through some charts, was a young Aboriginal girl in a white uniform and a blue plastic cap. Chris was sitting alongside. He smiled, stood up and disappeared back into the doctor’s office. As soon as Kate and the doctor entered the ward she jumped up and smiled. She looked nervous and walked round the desk to introduce herself.

  “This is Nurse Jackson,” the doctor said. “If you want me at all I’ll be next door. Oh, and nurse… explain things to Mrs Dexter.”

  The nurse nodded politely and as he left she moved closer to Kate and offered her hand. “I’m Mini,” she said, looking calmer now he was gone.

  Kate took her tiny hand and shook it. “I’m Kate, Martin’s wife.”

  “Yes, I know. He keeps talking about you.”

  “I thought he was rambling.”

  “He has his lucid moments. Seeing you might make them longer.”

  “Doesn’t the doctor call you Mini?”

  “Oh no. That would be too personal. And before you ask, we all have English surnames. No one could pronounce our Aboriginal names. I got mine from the English female actor…you know, Glenda Jackson. I thought she was so gracious in the film about Queen Elizabeth. I was going to call myself Elizabeth but at school they called me Mini because I’m so small.”

  “I like the name,” Kate said. “You were going to tell me about Martin?”

  “Not real
ly, I suppose the doctor did that.”

  Kate sensed she was conscious of what she said.

  “He didn’t tell me anything personal.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. We did try and find out from Martin if he had any allergies, but it’s too late now; we had to go ahead with the antibiotics. Eventually AMINCO came through with his details.”

  “To be honest it has never come up before,” Kate answered.

  Mini had one more question before she let Kate see Martin. “Did you bring any fresh clothes with you?”

  “What happened with the clothes he left in?” Kate asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Mini replied, checking some notes in his file. When Willy found him he was in a state and the clothes he was wearing were not suitable for walking across the desert,” she said, referring to her notes. “Anyway, Willy found some lighter clothes in a bag—”

  “Oh, those must have been his overalls,” Kate interrupted.

  “It says here they were like an all-in-one jumpsuit. Orange coloured.”

  “Yes, they were his overalls.”

  The nurse smiled, “They were in a state also. You should have seen them; I had to cut them off him.” She noticed the shocked look on Kate’s face. “It’s okay, I was discreet.”

  “That’s all right; we’re women of the world after all.”

  They laughed. “Anyway, if you didn’t bring any clothes we shall have to visit the General Store in the morning – as long as you don’t mind jeans and a shirt.”

  “No, Mini…as long as he’s decent.”

  Before she escorted Kate to Martin’s bed she opened a drawer in her desk and took out one of those plastic resealable bags. It was his personal belongings: his wallet, the little black book he used to write the note in, his mobile and an unusual piece of stiff paper.

  “What’s that piece of silver paper?” Kate asked.

  “Oh that…I forgot all about it. I think you should read it first.”

  As the nurse disappeared into the X-ray room Kate dipped her hand into the bag and brought out the wrapper from a packet of Hard Tack biscuits. Strange, she thought and instinctively turned it over. She recognised Martin’s scrawl straightaway. It was like short-hand to her. Like the numerous notes he would leave all over the house to remind him of something he had to remember. As Kate read his message, tears formed in the corner of her eyes and slowly ran down her cheeks.

  The scrawl was an abridged version of Martin’s will and ended with the words: ‘Tell my wife Kate I love her dearly, and that I’m sorry I could not keep my promise to be with her forever.’

  Kate wiped away the tears, folded the piece of paper and just as she placed it in her bag the nurse left the X-ray room and looked at Kate to see if she was ready.

  Kate said, “Can I see my husband now?”

  CHAPTER 19

  As Kate followed the nurse down the ward she was intrigued to see the small hospital ran to twelve beds: six down each side. The first three beds on one side were taken up by Aboriginal patients, probably stockmen, and Martin was in a bed at the far end.

  The nurse was quick to point out that she’d placed Martin there so that he would not be disturbed by the boisterous relatives of this lot; she nodded to the three smiling individuals they’d just passed.

  When they arrived at Martin’s bed Kate could see he was reclining against several pillows, with his head turned away from them. It was difficult to see if he was asleep or ‘just resting his eyes’, as he’d often said in similar situations. The nurse walked around to the other side of the bed with a mischievous look and bent down close to his face.

  “Martin, look who I’ve brought to see you.”

  His only response was a slight movement of his legs.

  “Martin,” Kate called out from the other side.

  He opened his eyes and stared at Mini’s beaming face.

  “Willy? What are you doing here?”

  The nurse stood up, shrugged her shoulders and looked perplexed. Kate was horrified and tapped Martin’s good arm.

  “Martin, it’s me…Kate. Look at me.”

  Martin turned in her direction. She thought he recognised her voice, but wasn’t sure he recognised her face; he just stared at her with a vague expression, as if she was a stranger. Then his eyes opened wide and a big smile crossed his face.

  “Kate. Is that really you?”

  The nurse left with a satisfied look and Kate sat down in the chair next to the bed. She took hold of Martin’s hand as she leaned across the covers. “Yes, Martin, it’s really me; how are you feeling?”

  “I saw you earlier looking at me through the windscreen, but when I called out, you had disappeared; where did you go?”

  This was what the doctor had warned Kate about and she felt like screaming. When Jeff and the doctor first mentioned Martin’s lapse, past memories filled her with panic. It was starting again and she dared not say anything. It was 2010 all over again, when she’d nearly lost him in that near fatal car crash. The doctors said his head injury had caused him to ‘turn in on himself’ and there seemed little chance of a recovery back then. But somehow, by a miracle, he’d found his way back.

  “Martin sweetheart, I’m in the hospital. Remember? You’re on the cattle station. I’ve flown down to visit you.”

  In the space of a few moments the expression on Martin’s face changed several times. He looked as if he was struggling with the simple question of what was real: what he could see or what was in his head. Then, to Kate’s relief, he settled on what he could see and he gripped her hand tightly.

  “Oh Kate…am I glad to see you. It’s been terrible. I told you that morning that something wasn’t right. And when I saw that plane, I just knew…I knew something bad was going to happen.”

  “I know, dear,” she said, squeezing his hand.

  Deep down this was what Kate wanted. She wanted him to face up to his demons and talk about what had happened. That was the problem with the car crash; he’d lost all recall of what had happened. To this day those three months have remained a hole in his memory. One he constantly tries to resurrect. She can’t allow another black hole to form.

  So she sat patiently and allowed him to relive that traumatic week. The detail that was spilling out of his mind was unbelievable; if she had asked him he would not have been able to recall such minutiae. Yet he did. And over an hour later he was still recalling every instant, until he reached the morning he woke and found Joe dead. The actual word was not used and at this point Kate should have stopped him, changed the subject – done anything to distract him from what she quickly found out was one of those dreadful triggers.

  She had been warned about it the first time; but then they had no idea what they might be. But the doctor had told her: stay away from any mention of Joe or the Aboriginal boy.

  “They won’t tell me how Joe is,” Martin said, glancing towards the curtained-off cubicle between him and the end of the building.

  His relapse took Kate by surprise. Up till now Martin had been lucid enough for her to understand every detail of what led up to Joe’s death. That now took him back and she had to break that by changing the subject.

  “Adam’s back in Broome by the way. He hopes you’re feeling better and will be fit enough to fly back tomorrow. It’s a nice big plane this time; not as good as the Lear, which I know you like, but still pretty swish.”

  Martin had returned his attention to the curtain, stretching his plastered arm out to see if he could snag the material, but it was no good. “They won’t pull the curtains back. I know why.” Kate smiled as if she was interested. He continued, “He’s too ill…the commotion might be too much for him.”

  “Is that so, dear? Did you hear what I said about Adam?”

  “What? Oh yes,” he said. “Go and have a look. See if he’s all right…he’s been very quiet lately. Say hello; he’ll remember you.”

  To keep him happy Kate got up and walked over to the curtained cubicle and opened a small gap an
d peered inside. There was no one there. The bed had been turned into a storage space for fresh sheets and pillows. They were neatly stacked like a wall of bricks. She shook her head in desperation and turned straight into the enquiring stare of the nurse, Mini.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  “Would you believe I’ve had a good hour or so of sane conversation. Martin was telling me all about his ordeal. I didn’t prompt him, he just led into it on his own steam, until he arrived at the moment he found Joe.”

  The nurse nodded her head and smiled. “And he asked you to check on Joe?”

  “Yes… What could I do? I don’t want to get into a discussion about his death.”

  “Leave it to me,” she said, moving back to Martin’s bed.

  He seemed oblivious that she had arrived and focussed his attention again on Kate. “Well…is he all right?”

  Kate glanced at the nurse who shrugged her shoulders in a gesture that obviously meant ‘It’s up to you’. And Kate took the easy course.

  “He’s asleep, dear,” she said. It was a half-truth.

  As Martin settled back into his pillows, satisfied his friend was resting peacefully, the nurse pulled Kate to one side. “The reason I came along was to let you know Jeff was sitting outside. He said if you want a break he would take you to see Miss Gerry, the teacher. Otherwise he could come back later.”

  Kate was beginning to feel a little fragile and thought she could do with a break. She felt guilty leaving him like that, but he seemed peaceful enough.

  She turned to the nurse and smiled a thankful smile. “That’s a good idea,” she said, bending down and giving Martin a kiss. “I’m going outside for a while, dear. I won’t be long.” He looked up at her as if he hadn’t heard a word.