by Rosie Harris
‘I think they are prepared to send me home in an ambulance because I have been told I mustn’t bend the leg for a couple of weeks because there is some damage to the patella, that’s the knee cap.’
‘Perhaps we had better speak to the Sister and make sure this is what is going to happen and what time we can expect you home,’ Karen suggested.
The Sister confirmed everything Tom had said. ‘He will have to come back in six weeks’ time for a check up and probably need a course of physiotherapy afterwards,’ she added. ‘However, don’t worry about that now. You will be notified when he has to attend. By then he should be able to travel in the normal way,’ she added. We will notify your own doctor but if you follow the advice in the instruction sheet we will give you when you leave here there should be no complications.’
‘So what time on Sunday can we expect him home?’ Karen asked as the Sister turned to leave them.
‘It will probably be in the morning, some time between ten o’clock and midday as soon as a doctor has seen him and discharged him. It all depends on how busy we are.’
Forty-One
Tom arrived home shortly after midday on Sunday. He looked gaunt and seemed to have difficulty in balancing himself on the crutches the hospital had provided. His right leg was in plaster and he had a large black leather splint from just above the knee to the ankle that made it impossible for him to bend his leg at all.
The ambulance men helped him into the reception area of Merseyside Mansions and then left him with Jenny and Karen who were waiting there for him.
It was a beautiful warm spring day and the reception area was very busy with people arriving home either from a walk along the promenade or from church. Others were passing through on their way to have lunch at one of the nearby restaurants.
They all stopped to speak to Tom and said how sorry they were about his mishap and how pleased they were to see him home again and wished him a speedy recovery.
It was well after one o’clock before they were able to get back to his apartment and by that time Tom was almost too exhausted to enjoy the meal of salad and cold meats that Jenny had prepared in readiness for their return.
As soon as they had finished eating Tom wanted to go and look at Jenny’s flat and decide what they should do about finishing off the decorating, but both Jenny and Karen insisted that he should have a rest first.
Although he seemed rather annoyed about this he admitted that he did feel rather exhausted and that he had been awake most of the night anticipating his homecoming.
‘Sit down in your armchair for a few minutes,’ Jenny suggested. ‘I’ll make some coffee and when we’ve drunk that we’ll all go and take a look.’
Before the coffee was ready, Tom was asleep.
‘He looks absolutely worn out,’ Jenny murmured as she fetched a rug and wrapped it round him. ‘I’m sure his hair is a lot greyer than it was.’
‘Probably because of all the pain he has been in,’ Karen murmured sympathetically.
Tom was still sleeping when Bill arrived.
‘I came straight here. I haven’t washed or unpacked my things, just dumped them in the hallway at home,’ he told them. ‘When I checked the times of the trains I found there’s not a full service on a Sunday so I had to make a dash in order to get one right away.’
He listened attentively as Jenny told him about the accident and agreed wholeheartedly that Karen had done the right thing in driving her home.
‘If you’d like her to stay on then I can catch an early morning train home tomorrow,’ he told Jenny. ‘I have to be back at school tomorrow otherwise I would stay on as well and give you a hand.’
‘No, really there is no need for that,’ Jenny said quickly. ‘Tom has crutches so he can get around and we won’t be doing anything of importance for the next couple of weeks.’
‘What about if he has to go to the hospital for treatment or a check-up?’
‘We can always get a taxi.’
Although they kept their voices low Tom seemed to sense that there was someone else there and stirred and opened his eyes.
‘Hello Bill, what are you doing here?’
‘I came to collect Karen and take her home. How are you feeling?’
Tom grimaced as he tried to pull himself upright in the chair. ‘Not too good. Give me a couple of weeks though and I’ll be back to decorating.’
‘Do you think that is wise?’ Bill laughed. ‘I’d give it a miss if I were you. Take that tumble as a warning that it’s time you stopped doing such strenuous work.’
‘Are you suggesting that I’m too old to do DIY jobs?’ Tom scowled.
‘You’re getting that way by the look of things,’ Bill joked back.
‘Got to finish what I started. Have you seen the room? Come on,’ he said abruptly before Bill could answer, ‘I’ll take you and let you see it.’
Jenny held her breath as Tom struggled painfully to his feet and then swayed as he put out a hand to get his crutches that were just out of reach.
No one said a word as Bill grabbed at his arm and Jenny thrust the crutches towards him. Karen raised her eyebrows at Jenny who pressed a finger to her lips.
‘Shall we wait here or go with them?’ Karen whispered as the two men reached the door.
‘Perhaps we should stay here,’ Jenny murmured.
‘It’s Tom’s first walk since he came home from hospital – what if he stumbles or falls over?’
‘Leave it to Bill. Tom will probably be less nervous without an audience. Let’s make a meal while they’re out. Bill must be starving and then you will want to get on the road as it’s quite a long drive home.’
Tom was not a good patient. He resented not being able to do things and became tetchy and irritable. They had plenty of visitors during the first week. Jane Phillips called in most days to ask how he was – unless she had seen him out in the passageway first and stopped him there to interrogate him about his progress.
The Major brought him some books to read and a bottle of whisky, warning him to have a nip only before bedtime, not during the day, because he didn’t want to be held responsible if Tom fell over again. He invited them to go to his flat for a snifter and to meet Isabel. Jenny thanked him and promised they would do so when Tom was a little more mobile.
‘Who is Isabel?’ Tom asked after the major had moved away.
‘Isabel is his new girlfriend. Surely you remember her. She’s quite flamboyant and caused quite a stir when she first arrived. He thought she was an artist but she explained she was an artiste; not a painter as he’d thought but a lion tamer.’
‘Heavens! She should have some tales to tell. We’ll have to take the Major up on that invitation.’
Sandra Roberts and Beryl Willis saw Tom in reception and wished him a speedy recovery. Dan Grey called at Tom’s flat to wish him well and reminded Jenny that if he or Mavis could help in any way she had only to get in touch.
Despite all the offers of help and assistance Jenny found the first week that Tom was home was something of a nightmare. He was not very adept at using his crutches and seemed to be continually catching them in things.
He blamed it on the smallness of the flat. Jenny took up all the rugs because she was afraid that if he caught one of his crutches in the corner of one of them he might have another fall. She moved the furniture around so that as far as possible he could walk freely across from the door to his chair without having to negotiate any obstacles.
At night he seemed to have considerable difficulty in settling down in bed. The enormous splint on his leg made it impossible for him to lie on his side.
From the spare room where she was sleeping, Jenny could hear the upheaval and groaning as he tried to get comfortable. Once or twice she went in to see if he would like a hot drink but he was so cross because he had disturbed her that after that she tried to ignore the noises coming from his room.
Instead she found a small bell and put it on his bedside table and made him promise th
at he would ring it if he needed help during the night.
Although he promised that he would use it Jenny was pretty sure that he wouldn’t and she spent a great many sleepless hours listening to him groaning out loud as he tried to get comfortable.
After the first few days, because the weather had broken and it was raining non-stop, Jenny encouraged him to walk up and down the passageway outside his flat.
‘It will give you some exercise and help you to get used to using your crutches,’ she told him.
At first he was reluctant to do so because he kept meeting other residents who wanted to know how he was and questioning him about how it had happened and precisely what he had broken.
‘Perhaps I should put up a notice on the desk in reception giving them all the details,’ Tom grumbled. ‘They make me feel like a prize idiot.’
‘Never mind, as soon as the weather is better we’ll go for short walks on the prom,’ Jenny promised.
She was quite annoyed when one morning Jane stopped her and told her that she had just seen Tom going into her flat.
‘I thought you should know, Jenny, because with those dust sheets all over the floor he could easily get those crutch things caught up in the folds of cloth and have another fall,’ Jane told her.
‘What on earth do you think you were doing,’ Jenny asked him crossly when he came back to his own flat.
‘Looking to see what work still remained to be done,’ he explained rather sheepishly.
‘Really! I thought perhaps you were going to try and do it today,’ she told him sarcastically.
‘I’m worried about how long it will be before I can finish it. It’s one hell of a mess at the moment.’
‘There’s no point in brooding about it,’ she told him. ‘Rest until that leg is better and you can walk again and then we’ll decide what to do about my flat. We can always pay someone to come in and finish it.’
‘No, I want to do it myself. I started it so I’ll finish it,’ he stated firmly. ‘I don’t want a professional criticizing my efforts. He’d probably insist on doing it all over again and that would cost us a mint of money.’
‘As you wish,’ Jenny compromised, ‘only don’t take risks and don’t try and do it too soon.’
‘Until that is finished we can’t get on with our wedding plans,’ Tom pointed out.
‘Until your leg is better and you can walk again we can’t get married anyway. I’m not walking down the aisle with a man on crutches,’ she told him.
‘I wasn’t thinking of a big slap up do,’ Tom said with a sigh. ‘That doesn’t seem to work for us, it always ends up that we have to cancel. This time I thought of a quiet register office wedding with just Karen and Bill there and then the four of us going for a meal afterwards. Nothing else; no big party here next time.’
‘That suits me perfectly,’ Jenny agreed. ‘As soon as you can walk without crutches then we’ll go ahead,’ she told him firmly.
Forty-Two
Jenny spent the worst week she could ever remember after Karen, Bill and baby Angela left. She had never known Tom to be so irrit-able or short-tempered.
He complained all the time that he was bored, and nothing she did seemed to please him. He said that his leg was hurting and that he couldn’t get comfortable in his armchair or in bed, but he wouldn’t take the painkillers the hospital had prescribed.
‘I don’t believe in them,’ he stated. ‘You take pills for one thing and you then have to take some other pills to counteract what the first lot did. I’d sooner grin and bear it.’
‘Well then, I wish you would try grinning,’ Jenny told him. ‘At the moment you are scowling all the time like some old gargoyle.’
Tom gave her a withering look. ‘Thank you for being so understanding.’
‘I do understand and I know you must be in pain and discomfort with that splint contraption on your leg. That’s the reason the hospital recommended those painkillers. They will help to reduce the inflammation as well as make the pain more bearable,’ she added as she took away the pills and glass of water she’d brought for him.
Even though he was in pain Tom was restless. He couldn’t sit still for a minute and mooched round the flat picking things up and putting them down and constantly dropping one of his crutches in the process. Often he was unable to pick it up again for fear of overbalancing so Jenny had to stop what she was doing to go and help him.
On Tuesday the weather improved. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky so Jenny suggested a walk.
‘How do you think I can go for a walk with this lot,’ he said, struggling to lift up his leg encased in its splints.
‘Well, I thought we could take a short stroll along the promenade, sit in one of the shelters and watch what is happening on the river.’
Although he scoffed at the idea, after they’d had lunch he said he thought a walk along the prom might be a good plan.
Their walks became a regular feature of their day.
Sometimes they took them in the morning, sometimes later in the day. A lot depended on what Tom wanted to do. His confidence about walking improved rapidly and by the end of the week they were taking some really long walks along the promenade and his mood was slightly improved.
When they returned on Friday morning, Jenny opened the door to Tom’s flat and saw that someone had slipped a note under the door.
She waited until Tom had flopped down into his armchair before going into the kitchen to switch the kettle on and read it.
To her astonishment it was from Bill.
‘I’m in your flat finishing off the decorating,’ it said. ‘Don’t let Tom know. Pop along when you can manage to do so.’
She wanted to rush and see him right away but an inner caution made her carry on as if nothing had happened. She had left their midday meal in the oven and, as soon as she had cleared away after they had eaten, she went along to her own flat on the pretext of taking the rubbish out to the bin.
Tom was so tired after their walk and a good meal that he only grunted. He had switched on the television and was engrossed in one of his favourite programmes.
Jenny gasped when she let herself into her flat. All the dust sheets had disappeared and the steps from which Tom had fallen were leaning against one wall. The ceiling had been freshly coated and there was a strong smell of emulsion paint.
She found Bill in the kitchen making a cup of coffee.
‘Bill, this is a tremendous surprise. How did you manage to get in?’
He grinned as he gave her a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek. ‘I used Karen’s keys.’
‘Why didn’t you let us know you were coming? I would have had a meal waiting for you. Are you on your own? What on earth made you come? Are Karen and baby Angela all right?’
Jenny’s questions tumbled out in such quick-fire succession that Bill had no chance to answer any of them.
‘Coffee?’ he asked.
‘Well, yes, why not.’
‘Why not indeed. After all it is your coffee. I’m afraid you’ll have to drink it black because there’s no milk.’
‘If you wait a minute I can pop back to Tom’s flat and get some,’ Jenny said, moving towards the door.
‘No, don’t do that. I don’t want Tom to know I’m here, leastways not for the moment. I don’t want him to discover I’m finishing off the job he started until it’s all completed, in case he starts to protest and make a fuss.’
‘He probably will make a fuss,’ Jenny said ruefully.
‘By the time he finds out it will be too late for him to do anything about it though,’ Bill said, smiling. ‘I take it he’s dozing at the moment?’ he added.
‘Either that or he’s engrossed in something on TV, but he won’t be for long if he finds me missing.’
‘Well, you get back to his flat and make sure you keep him occupied. I’m planning on getting everything down here completed and all cleaned up by tomorrow evening.’
‘You mean yo
u are staying the night?’
‘I am and what’s more I’m sleeping in your bed, so I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Not at all. What about food and everything?’ she asked.
‘Don’t worry about me. I brought sandwiches with me and I intend to pick up some milk when I go out for a pub meal this evening.’
‘That hardly seems right,’ Jenny protested. ‘At least let me feed you.’
‘If you do that then Tom will know I’m here and we both know he will protest strongly about me working on your flat.’
‘So you are going to sneak off tomorrow as soon as you’ve finished and leave me to face the music are you?’ Jenny said with a laugh.
‘Not a bit of it. When I’ve finished I’ll let Tom know I’m here and keep my fingers crossed that when he sees the results he’ll be so pleased that it’s all finished that he won’t be annoyed.’
‘Well, I suppose there’s not much I can do in that case except say thank you, Bill. One thing I must insist on though is that I go out and shop for you tomorrow morning.’
‘I see. You don’t want me wasting any precious time on such frivolities as eating or shopping.’
‘You are quite right,’ she agreed, her eyes twinkling. ‘Don’t worry,’ she added as she moved towards the door. ‘I’ll be very discreet and I won’t let on to Tom what you are doing. I’ll leave you to tell him when you’re finished.’
She was still smiling to herself as she went back to Tom’s flat. It was such a relief to know that the work on her place was being finished and that there would be no need to argue with Tom about who was going to do it. She couldn’t get over the fact that Bill had made his way into the building and been in her flat since early in the morning without her ever knowing.
By mid-afternoon the following day Bill had finished his self-imposed task and knocked on their door. Jenny had been waiting for this moment all day and her heart pounded when she heard him there.
