by Corby, Linda
Paul waited for Zaneen’s reply, thinking he had covered the majority of events that had befallen them, knowing that most of Zaneen’s thoughts would be on Tarbra he wondered if she had managed to take everything in that he had blurted out at her, or whether it was going to be too much for her under the circumstances to comprehend all in one go.
“I see Paul, well I’d like you to give everyone my regards and what have you, but there’s just one thing I can’t quite make out and that’s how Tarbra and I weren’t killed outright by the fall we took over the cliff?”
Paul smiled at her as he answered her query, glad that she was there to tell the story to anyway.
“Your fall was broken by an overhanging branch, and then I did say you had more luck than anyone I know, you somehow managed to land on the only ledge around. Tarbra’s fall was softened, by the heavy that went over with her, he died but as she was on top of him she got a broken leg and internal injuries. You should have seen the operation we had to get her out of there. The tide was on its way in and they didn’t realize she was still alive so I went down on the end of a breakdown truck’s cable, when I found she was still breathing I brought her back up with me, they never will know it but the heavy of Sutton’s was still breathing at that point in time, but obviously I put Tarbra first, they will never know the difference anyway, I think you’d agree with me there and I couldn’t give a damn what anyone else might think even if they did know, which of course they won’t.“
Zaneen knew that she would never have forgiven him if he had chosen any life before Tarbra’s and was sure that he knew it. Still she was more than grateful that he had made the right decision in her opinion, even though a lot of people wouldn’t think the same way as she did, she felt her animals were her babies and nothing on earth would have changed her mind regardless of what they did. She laid her head back onto the pillow as she spoke stretching her aching neck.
“Thank you Paul, at least we have got the same ideas even if the rest of the population is quite mental in its outlook on living things, showing sensible moral fibre seems to be a rare thing in the age we live in. When people aren’t being cruel they are trying to blow each other up and leave a load of mutilated creatures behind to survive as best they can. Still let’s hope they disarm all nuclear war heads before it comes to that! Well I mustn’t be morbid with luck it won’t come to anything like that, but I do have my doubts.”
It was gone ten o’clock that night when they brought Tarbra to Zaneen’s room, the surgeon came in with her and explained to Zaneen that she only had a fifty-fifty chance of survival, as he spoke to Zaneen she felt horrified at what he was telling her about Tarbra’s chances.
“I’m Dr. Elorang Mrs Dray, I think I should warn you that it’s very dubious as to whether your dog will live through this or not. We’ve done everything we can but there is a chance if you can keep her from moving about, if the internal bleeding should start up again I’m afraid there will be no more we will be able to do for her. I will be at hand if you should need me of course and we’ll all keep our fingers crossed that all goes well for Tarbra. I hope you don’t mind me being so blunt with you but I think it is best to be that way under the circumstances.”
Zaneen thanked him for his honesty as he placed Tarbra alongside her on the double bed that Paul had arranged to have put in her private room for that reason. Zaneen nursed Tarbra as one would a baby, cradled to her. She could not stand the thought of losing her as she looked at the steel pin jutting out of her right leg, blaming herself for the sorry state Tarbra was in, at the back of her mind she couldn’t forgive herself for sending Tarbra ahead of her to help Reemo, knowing Tarbra would have been alright if she had not, but then she would have felt bad for not aiding Reemo ether way her conscience would have given her hell to pay, she just wasn’t sure if she had been right or not, which was a new sensation for Zaneen who nearly always knew her own mind on such matters. Paul could see how deep her thoughts were as she spoke to him when the Doctor had left.
“I don’t know if I can live with myself if anything happens to Tarbra, Paul, she’s always been so faithful to me, that I don’t think I could stand it. Tell me what’s become of Trevor Sutton and the rest of his pigs that aren’t in the hospital?”
Paul could see the vindictive expression in Zaneen’s sage eyes when she mentioned Sutton’s lot, he knew there was nothing he could say stop to her turning nasty on Trevor Sutton when she got out of the Hospital and hoped she wouldn’t try to do anything silly while she was still in there. Unfortunately he knew only too well what Zaneen’s temper was like and didn’t put anything passed her when she put her mind to it, you could never be sure what she might get up to next. His thoughts flashed though his brain as he replied to the question.
“Trevor Sutton pissed off quick when he heard the Police sirens, Frank Draper has lost one eye and could possibly loose the sight in the other, I don’t really think he‘d be too happy if he was to see the state of his face anyway, Tarbra did a good job of rearranging his features for him rather drastically in fact to say the least. Three of the men died that you hit with Ray’s Granada, the others that came into contact with the car have various broken bones etc. The one that went thought the windscreen didn’t get a blood transfusion in time and died on the way to the hospital in the ambulance. There wasn’t a great deal left of the others once Stephanie had got at them she wasn’t exactly friendly towards them, I don’t know how much you saw of her display but I don’t think she’s quite the one to get on the wrong side of. “
Zaneen was not surprised by what Paul had told her, she had already gathered Stephanie could look after herself, even if it wasn’t in the most moral fashion desirable to mankind. Zaneen couldn’t resist a snigger as she spoke back to Paul.
“You sound dubious of Stephanie Paul; just what did she do to Sutton’s men, out of curiosity that is?”
Paul answered calmly knowing Zaneen couldn’t resist knowing all the ins and outs of everything that he knew about.
“Hmm, I see, you are not too ill to be bloody morbid, are you sure you really want to know?”
Zaneen was aware of the fact that Paul was just being annoying and was tempted to snap at him but resisted it.
“Yes Paul, I would rather like to know what went on, I don’t, really see much else to do stuck in here, that’s if you don’t find it too hard to tell me after wetting my interest that is.”
Paul smiled at her, noting the sarcastic tone in her voice as she had spoken.
“Stephanie had a great time mutilating seven of Sutton‘s heavy’s slicing them up all over the place with glee, five of them died from the stab wounds and the other two are in the intensive care unit, when the Police arrived she was about to do away with Stricker, you’d remember Stricker one of the hardest nuts you could wish find, most men would think twice before taking him on. Not our Stephanie though straight in and threw him to the deck, with one swing, he grabbed her by the leg and that’s how she got her stitches she just calmly chopped of the first two fingers on his left hand as if it was an everyday occurrence and held his head back with the knife at his throat, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look so pleased to see the police as he did. I think it’s been the first time he’s ever been frightened by anyone in his life. God only knows what the Police must have thought when they saw her holding Stricker about five times her weight and built, like a brick shit house, it was virtually funny to see the look on their faces. Poor Stricker will never live that one down, he’ll always carry the scares, he had to come to the hospital and have part of his throat stitched up before the police took him took him in for questioning, he was bloody close to not surviving that one I’ll tell you.”
Zaneen knew Stricker of old and knew he wouldn’t be too happy with Stephanie for showing him up, he told Paul it was a good idea to warn Stephanie to watch out for him as he was likely to wait up a dark alley and pounce out at her the first chance he got. As she knew he couldn’t stand being beaten by anyone
especially a woman, he would find that almost too much to bear.
A gentle taping on the door put a stop to their conversation and Paul went over to answer it and found Reemo waiting there. He found Reemo to be a very appealingly pretty girl and thought it was a great shame to see her face with so many stitches over it; she spoke in her smooth gentle tone as he waited in the doorway.
“Is it alright if I come in, I’d like to see Zaneen and Tarbra? I know it is late but they did save my life and I want to see how they are for myself or I won’t be able to get my rest, the nurses will be along in a moment anyway.”
Paul looked at Zaneen before letting Reemo enter the room but it was obvious that Zaneen didn’t see any harm in her entering the room.
“Sure Reemo of course you can come in, don’t worry about the nurses. I’ll speak to them if they poke their noses round the door. I shouldn’t think they will though the doctor told them not to upset Tarbra as he wouldn’t take kindly to it.”
Reemo past Paul and went straight over to the bedside kneeling alongside Tarbra’s head, Tarbra had come out of the anaesthetic and Zaneen was amazed that she didn’t go to snarl at Reemo.
Reemo had knelt at the bedside so quickly that Zaneen had not had a chance to warn her of Tarbra’s dislike of anyone close to her face other than herself. But as Reemo had put her face next to Tarbra’s with her cheeks still tear stained and her eyes still red from crying, Tarbra knew that Reemo meant her no harm and was not a threat. Zaneen felt the overwhelming warmth that protruded from Reemo’s person towards Tarbra, she wished it hadn’t been Reemo’s face that had to be so cut up, she felt bad that it had to happen to one with so much inner love, she shouldn’t have had to suffer like that. She listened fascinated as Reemo spoke softly to Tarbra as though she were another human being.
“‘Poor baby, what have I done to you, God, I’m sorry I’d rather have died than caused you this pain, what did the doctor say Zaneen? Will she be alright? Is there anything I can do? What a bloody mess I could fucking kill the bastard, if I could lay my hands on them there would be bugger all left if I had it my way. How dare they do this to a defenceless animal? Who the bloody hell do they think they are? I can’t think of words to describe what I’d do to them, I just can’t stand it when pigs like that get away with it, and they bloody well won’t if I lay my hands on them.”
Zaneen knew how Reemo felt; she herself had been very much the same at that age, for that matter she still was, she told Reemo what the doctor had said about Tarbra’s condition and asked her if she had always had a way with animals or not. Reemo’s big expressive eyes surveyed Zaneen’s sage ones as she answered her question, Reemo’s words were like a replica of her own feelings and were close to home on some points of view. Zaneen knew she had found a like minded spirit which baffled her in a strange way, she couldn’t understand quite how she felt about the situation, she didn’t feel she wanted to be responsible for forming any characteristic’s in Reemo that wouldn’t be complimentary to her and knew it would not be hard for her to do so by accident.
“I’ve never been without animals around me, my last dog died of old age only a few weeks ago. You’d have loved Minty that’s my dog; she had a lovely soft cuddly nature, and one of the most elegant mannerisms you could find anywhere exceptionally feminine in her ways. I mustn’t talk about her though as I still get upset inside at not having her with me. we were never apart you see not even for a moment in sixteen years, she didn’t like to be left alone as she had been ill treated before I had her, the previous owners didn’t know how to look after an Afghan hound and unintentionally didn’t give her the right food or exercise.”
“I don’t think they intended to be cruel it just happened that way. I’m sorry I forgot to ask what the doctor had said about your condition in my fluster over Tarbra it went out of my head you must think me very rude I hope you don’t think it’s intentional or anything I promise you it wasn’t.”
Zaneen smiled at her, it had never entered Zaneen’s mind that Reemo was being rude by not asking after her health, and in fact she hadn’t even noticed that she had not asked in the first place. Zaneen didn’t really think about her own health a great deal it was more important to get Tarbra right as far as she was concerned. Tarbra came first and she told Reemo just that. Zaneen stated that she was feeling much better with Tarbra by her side; she had been badly bruised internally and had put her hip out of place on her left side. She explained to Reemo that she had been lucky enough to not break any bones but had some stitches in her arms where the windscreen had shattered into them as she’d flattened some of Trevor Sutton’s men. Apart from that she just felt, sore all over which was of course to be expected under the circumstances she’s lucky to be alive at all, she didn’t think it was a very good idea to moan about her own condition anyway if it hadn’t been for the fact that she was double jointed things could have been a lot worse. Now at least it wouldn’t be too long before she could sort out Trevor Sutton for what he had coming to him, it wasn’t a good idea to let him get away with in Zaneen’s view. Reemo agreed completely with her in fact they seemed to see eye to eye in most things, which made a change for both of them. She informed Reemo of how Tarbra had to be kept quiet until the danger of her hemeraging was well passed Reemo wanted to know if it was alright for her to stay with them until Tarbra was on the mend properly and Zaneen stated that she thought it would be for the best as Tarbra had taken a liking to her and that way it wouldn’t matter
if she occasionally dozed off by accident if Reemo was with them. Zaneen put things that way as she knew Reemo wouldn’t feel happy any other way and it was far better for her to be doing something useful rather than just moping around worrying and fretting about things. Zaneen asked Paul if he could find out how everyone else was getting along and to make sure that no one came bursting into the room as it might upset Tarbra, he knew that if anyone upset Tarbra they would regret it in more than one way.
Paul made his way to the passageway outside the intensive care unit of the hospital where the rest of the family were waiting for news of how Antony and Philip were, Ray looked exhausted and the others didn’t look much better as he plonked himself down on the seat next to Ray’s. He suggested that Ray should take Lora back to Brialdigc, Ray agreed thinking that Paul was concerned for Lora’s sake. Being tired he didn’t twig that it was Paul’s crafty way of getting him to take things more easily which was probably a good thing. Paul promised to let Ray know straight away if anything happened, Stephanie needed her mother with her or if there should be any change in their condition, they left after Paul had filled Ray in on how Zaneen and Tarbra were getting on and Paul felt quite glad to see them go to get some rest, he didn’t like to see Ray looking under the weather as he found it upsetting.
When the police sergeant came to question Zaneen the following afternoon she told him that apart from seeing her dog go over the cliff edge the day before she couldn’t remember anything that had happened, she had no idea who the men that attacked them were or why they attacked them in the first place.
Sergeant Edwards looked at Zaneen and couldn’t imagine her innocent expressionate sage eyes lying to him, when he left he was totally convinced that she had been telling him the truth. Sergeant Edwards had come to the conclusion that Ray’s property had been attacked in order to steal Ray’s valuable antiques and things had gone wrong when the thieves came up against more than they had bargained for in the form of Ray’s family and friends instead of two older people alone. He couldn’t prove anything else anyway even though he thought the artillery had been more than a little heavy in the form of a machine gun he could not find any other explanation that fitted. After all they had contacted the policed saying they had burglars on the property, so he had to fill his report in with the information that he had managed to acquire. His doubts kept nagging at the back of his mind as he filled in his report and he thought he’d have to keep an eye on the goings on at Ray Colts and the parties connected with the inci
dent in general. When Ray had been interviewed by Sergeant Edwards he had put it over as diplomatically as possible that he thought it was for theft and had been exceedingly lucky to have had his family and close friends about at the time or he wouldn’t have survived the incident, had it been the day before for instance he would have been alone with Lora and they would have found a totally different situation on his hands to look into. In fact they had all told Sergeant Edwards’s competent stories, but none of them had come up with any ideas that satisfied his curiosity as to how they were so capable of handling the situation, in such a manner without having any prior warning of what was to come, but he knew that put into a situation like that everyone reacts differently.
It was just after five fifteen am the following morning that the nurse wheeled Philip Long out of the intensive care unit, moving him to the private room next to Zaneen’s. Ray had organised a complete floor to cater for his family’s needs knowing that a close guard would have to be kept on them until they could all be moved to a safer quarters or were all well enough to look after themselves whichever came first. Paul went along with him to his room and checked it out letting Reemo know how he was before phoning and to let Ray know he was out of intensive care, as he could fill Philip in on their stories before the police arrived. They were all relieved Philip was going to be alright, it was obvious that they would need everyone they could get, apart from personal feeling that was. It was a sure thing that Trevor Sutton wasn’t going to let things go by without another try. He was sure to think their side weakened at that point in time and would be preparing some sort of back up as soon as he could.
Zaneen suggested that they should keep up an appearance of worse injuries than they had and keep on the private wing to imply that, more of them were injured than had been. Ray had considered this to be a good suggestion and had picked the Rose Ward for this purpose.
