Watchers

by Philip Caveney

  SEVENTEEN

  Will got home from his worst ever day at school to find the back door unexpectedly locked. He pulled his emergency keys out from the bottom of his bag, let himself in and was greeted by a frantic Spot, who was clearly unimpressed at being left alone all day. Mum did her cleaning work in the mornings and was generally home before Will, but he remembered that she had said something about going to see Jake’s new house after work, so maybe she was still there.

  Will let Spot out into the garden and put some fresh food in his bowl. Then he went into the kitchen and made himself a cheese sandwich – he didn’t feel particularly hungry, but supposed that he ought to eat something. He ate the sandwich staring gloomily out of the window and washed it down with a glass of milk. It was strange how quiet and empty the house seemed without Mum there and it occurred to him how rarely it happened. She was always there when he got home from school and somehow he’d taken it for granted that she always would be. If something ever happened to her, what would he do?

  Time passed slowly. It began to get dark and still there was no sign of her. Will thought about getting on with his homework, but when he looked in the study, there was his computer industriously keying in an appraisal of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which Will hadn’t actually finished reading yet.

  He went over to the computer, sat down and sent an instant message to Ari.

  WHERE ARE YOU? WE NEED TO TALK.

  He waited several minutes for a reply but nothing came. What the hell was going on? Why weren’t the Watchers returning his messages? They must still be around, because the computer was doing his homework and somebody had to be taking care of that . . . so why couldn’t they let him know what was happening?

  He sighed and returned to the sitting room where he switched on the TV and tried watching some dumb teatime soap opera. He couldn’t concentrate on it; he had so many questions pounding through his head. What were the Watchers up to? Did they know that Lou had been to see him?

  His mobile played its familiar theme and he whipped it from his pocket, expecting it to be Ari, but the display informed him that it was Mum calling.

  ‘Where’ve you been?’ he asked her testily. ‘I’ve been home ages and I haven’t even . . .’

  He broke off as he realised that the voice on the other end of the phone was in tears.

  ‘Will . . . I’m at the hospital.’

  Shock hit him like a punch to the face and for a moment, he sat there stunned, unable to say anything. He just gasped.

  ‘Will? Are you there?’

  ‘Er . . . yeah, Mum, I’m still here. What’s wrong, are you ill or something?’

  ‘No, I’m fine. But Jake . . . poor Jake, he . . .’ Her voice went into a flurry of sobs and for a moment, he couldn’t understand what she was saying; something about a terrible accident. ‘Will, he’s really in a bad way, they say he might die.’

  ‘Christ, Mum!’ In his mind, he could see the image of his dad, holding out his arms for help as he slipped down into a terrible darkness. ‘Where are you?’ he asked her.

  ‘Countess of Chester,’ she told him. ‘Accident and Emergency.’

  ‘I’ll be there as quick as I can,’ he assured her.

  ‘But . . . how will you get here?’

  ‘Don’t worry about that, you just stay right where you are. And Mum . . .’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Everything will be all right. Keep telling yourself that. Ok?’

  ‘Ok.’

  He ended the call and ran upstairs to his room to get some money from his secret hiding place. No time to wait around for a bus, he’d have to get a taxi. He found the yellow pages and rang a cab company. They said they’d have a car there in five minutes.

  He spent the time pacing around in an agony of indecision. He had told Mum not to worry, but what did that mean? Of course she was worried. Jake had arrived from out of the past like a knight in shining armour and now something terrible had happened to him. If he died, Mum would never get over it and Dad’s chances of finding peace and happiness would sink to an all-time low.

  The sound of a car horn blaring outside had him running for the front door. As he made his way out to the waiting taxi, he was thinking something over and over in his head.

  Ari. Help me. Help me. Help me . . .

  Eighteen minutes later, he ran in through the hospital entrance and followed the signs to Accident & Emergency. He found the right doorway and hurried into reception to find Mum huddled in a seat, sipping a paper cup of coffee. She glanced up as he approached and for a moment, her face showed no sign of recognition. She looked pale and anxious and he could feel the despair coming off her like heat.

  He sat beside her and they hugged each other. Her body trembled against him, making him think of the way Spot’s little body had trembled in Lou’s powerful arms and he knew that she was close to crying again, but she was holding it in. He pulled away from her.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked her.

  She shook her head.

  ‘It was all so sudden,’ she said. ‘We were up at Neston Hall. Jake said he’d show me around, remember?’

  He nodded.

  ‘There were all these builders there, some of them working up on scaffolding. Jake gave me his hard-hat to wear, but there didn’t seem to be another one, so he didn’t bother. The place is amazing, but there’s such a lot of work to do . . . it’s going to be really . . .’ She gasped and lifted a hand to her mouth, her eyes filled with fresh tears. ‘We were . . . walking under this scaffolding and . . . this big piece of stone . . . I don’t know where it came from, but it just fell and hit him . . .’ She indicated the back of her head with her free hand. ‘He went down and for a moment, I thought he was joking around . . .’ She grimaced. ‘Then I saw the blood.’

  She grabbed Will’s wrists and her eyes burned into his. ‘They think he’s in some kind of a coma, Will. He’s having trouble breathing, he might not make it!’ She nodded to the open door of a small side ward. ‘The doctors are with him now. They sent me out while they examined him.’

  Will nodded. He didn’t know what to say to make things any better.

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ he said. ‘You have to keep telling yourself that.’

  ‘But we don’t know that, do we? Will, I can’t stand this. He turns up in my life after all those years and I was so happy to see him. I thought . . . I really thought . . . that the two of us would . . .’

  She started crying now, sobbing like a child and all Will could do was put his arms around her and hold her until her grief subsided. When he looked up next, the doctor was standing there, a thin, grey-haired man in a white coat and he had this grim expression that told you it was not good news. A badge clipped to his top pocket announced that he was Doctor Williams.

  ‘How is he?’ gasped Mum, getting up from her seat.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said the doctor. ‘Are you a relative?’

  ‘I’m his . . . his partner,’ said Mum.

  Doctor Williams nodded.

  ‘I have to tell you,’ he said, ‘I am extremely concerned about his condition. The trauma to the head was considerable, but I would have expected him to have recovered consciousness by now. As you know, we scanned him when he was first brought in and we found no bleeding in the brain, which is usually a positive sign. And yet . . . it’s getting to the point where we may have to accept that he’s in a coma.’

  ‘But he will wake up, won’t he?’ prompted Mum.

  ‘That’s impossible to say. He’s certainly lost all cognitive neurological function . . .’ He looked at Mum’s puzzled expression and attempted to put it in something closer to plain English. ‘He’s not responding to external stimuli in any way,’ he said. ‘He doesn’t register pain, sound or light, all the basic tests we’ve tried so far. We will need to implement more extensive ones to try and establish just how deep this coma is.’

  ‘You’re saying he could be like this for a long time?’ sobbed Mum.

 
; Doctor Williams shrugged. ‘At this moment, I cannot commit myself to any kind of view, I simply don’t know enough about his condition. A coma can last for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks . . .’

  ‘. . .a few years,’ said Mum bitterly. ‘That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? He might never wake up!’

  Doctor Williams smiled but there was no real warmth in it. It was obvious that he didn’t really know what to tell her.

  ‘You mustn’t lose hope,’ he said. ‘We’ll do everything we can for him. Now, I must go and arrange for some tests.’

  ‘Can we go in to see him?’ asked Mum.

  ‘Of course. And keep talking to him, it’s quite possible that he can hear you but can’t respond.’

  ‘Thank you, doctor.’

  Doctor Williams turned away and moved off along the corridor. Mum took Will’s hand and they went in to Jake’s room.

  Curtains were drawn around a bed and Mum pushed through them. Will followed, reluctantly. He had never liked hospitals.

  Jake lay on his back on a metal trolley. His eyes were closed and he had some kind of breathing mask over his mouth and nose. He was connected by wires to a whole series of monitors which were emitting various beeps and clicking sounds. There was a chair at either side of the bed and Mum sat down and put her hand on Jake’s. Will went to sit at the other side and he just watched, not knowing what to do or say. Mum leaned really close to Jake and started talking to him.

  ‘I’m back, Jake. Will’s here too, he rushed over as soon as he heard what had happened. I’ve just spoken to the Doctor; he said everything is going to be fine, he says you’re going to wake up soon . . .’

  Will stared at her. That wasn’t what Doctor Williams had said at all, but he supposed she was lying to Jake for a reason. ‘I never really got a chance to tell you, Jake, your new house is beautiful; it’s going to be so lovely. And what we were talking about last night? I’ve thought it over and I think I’d like to give it a shot. I think we could make it work. But that means that you have to wake up, Jake, you have to get better. I want us to have years together, not just a couple of days, so please, Jake, if you can hear what I’m saying, you have to be strong now . . .’

  Will shook his head. He couldn’t take this any longer. He muttered an excuse and went out of the room and into the corridor. He stood there, staring blankly at the floor.

  This was awful. His mum would never be able to handle this and his dad . . . his poor dad was surely doomed to be thrown into the deepest pits of hell for the rest of time. And what had happened to the Watchers? Where had they gone? A deep conviction settled within him. He remembered how scared Ari had been when he’d heard the sound of that motorbike in the high street. He and the other Watchers had gone. They’d run off with their tales between their legs. The cowards! The dirty, rotten cowards.

  At that moment a hand settled on his shoulder and he almost jumped out of his skin.

  EIGHTEEN

  Will turned in surprise to see another doctor standing beside him; or at least, a man wearing a doctor’s long white coat. The coat seemed oddly humped at the shoulders and when the man winked at him slyly he almost cried out with relief.

  ‘Ari! Where’ve you been?’

  ‘Here and there,’ said Ari, grimly. ‘Trying to sort things out. But Lou managed to get to Jake while we were concentrating on other things. How is he?’

  Will shook his head. ‘Not good. The doctors say he’s in a coma.’

  Ari frowned. ‘Well, I think it’s time for a second opinion,’ he said. ‘Follow me in there and back me up.’

  Will nodded nervously. Ari opened the door and stepped into the room. He moved to the opening in the curtains. Mum glanced up for a moment and then returned her attention to Jake. Ari went to stand at the foot of Jake’s bed and picked up the chart, pretending to study it but Will noticed that he never took his gaze off the unconscious man’s face.

  ‘Do you mind if I just examine him for a moment?’ he asked Mum.

  ‘Who are you?’ asked Mum.

  ‘I’m Doctor . . . Foster,’ said Ari. ‘I’m a . . . brain specialist.’

  ‘What happened to Doctor Williams?’

  ‘He’s . . . er . . . running some tests, but he asked me to stop by and have a look at Mr Kirby.’

  ‘Of course.’ Mum moved her seat back from the bed a little and Ari leaned over the unconscious man, placing the palms of his hands on either side of Jake’s head. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

  ‘Excuse me,’ said Mum. ‘What are you doing exactly?’

  ‘Just . . . assessing his condition,’ said Ari. ‘I’m using the er . . . holistic method. It’s a speciality of mine.’ Ari was unaware that the action of leaning over Jake had made his white coat rise up at the back, revealing the tips of his wings. Will noticed, but luckily, Mum couldn’t see it from her side of the bed.

  The monitors plugged into various parts of Jake’s body started to make strange noises, the beeping rhythm seeming to increase in speed. Ari continued to press his hands hard against either side of Jake’s head. Now he was muttering something under his breath, something that Will couldn’t quite make out. It sounded like a chant.

  ‘I need everyone for this,’ Will thought he heard him say at one point.

  ‘Are you sure this is helping him?’ cried Mum.

  ‘Trust me,’ said Ari. ‘I’m a doctor.’

  All at once, Jake’s body began to shudder as though an electric current was being passed through it. The covers slipped off his feet and Will could see his heels hammering against the white mattress. He looked like he was performing a horizontal jig.

  ‘What are you doing to him?’ protested Mum. ‘Stop it, stop it now!’

  Suddenly, Jake’s eyes fluttered open and his mouth moved beneath the facemask to utter a muffled bellow. All the monitors seemed to go crazy, shrieking, beeping and generally making a commotion. Ari let Jake go and he flopped back onto the pillows, his eyes still open, a bewildered expression on his face.

  ‘There now,’ said Ari, stepping quickly away from the bed. ‘Seems to have done the trick. Well, I must get on with my rounds.’ He stepped quickly through the curtains and beckoned for Will to follow him. Will glanced back. Mum was staring open-mouthed down at Jake who was reaching his arms up to her. The expression of sheer joy on her face was magical.

  ‘Be back in a minute, Mum,’ Will called to her. ‘Just need to . . . go to the . . . toilet.’

  If Mum heard him, she didn’t show it. She was too busy throwing her arms around Jake and weeping with relief. Will sighed and followed Ari outside.

  As they headed towards the exit, they passed a nurse and a doctor who were running towards Jake’s room in alarm, responding to the din of the monitors. As they went by the nurse threw a puzzled glance at Ari, but he just kept right on walking and Will had to quicken his pace to keep up with him.

  They turned a corner and strode along the corridor beyond. Ari took off his white coat and without slowing his pace, he dumped it in a laundry trolley.

  ‘Slow down!’ urged Will, but Ari shook his head.

  ‘Can’t, kid. Places to go, things to do!’

  ‘Why haven’t you been answering my messages?’

  ‘Been tricky, what with Lou getting so close and everything. We had to move camp and we all had to do some cloaking.’

  ‘Cloaking?’

  ‘Yeah. It’s where we put our minds together to put up a kind of shield that his lot can’t penetrate. Don’t bother looking for us down by the river, by the way, we’re not there anymore.’

  ‘Well then, where are you?’

  Ari shook his head.

  ‘Can’t tell you that. You don’t know how to cloak your thoughts, Lou could read your mind in a moment and find his way right to us.’

  ‘Tell me about it! Lou turned up at my place this morning. He had our dog, I thought he was going to kill him. And then later on, he sent a text message threatening Sophie.’

  ‘So
phie?’ Ari gave him a puzzled look. ‘Oh, yeah, the girl you fancy.’

  ‘I don’t fancy her! She . . . well, never mind that right now. He said something about hurting her. I had to turn her down for the Halloween Ball . . .’

  Now Ari looked worried.

  ‘You’re going to a Halloween Ball?’

  ‘I was planning to. Why, what’s wrong with that?’

  ‘It’s just that it’s Lou’s night, the time of the year when he’s at his strongest − the time when your dad will be at his most vulnerable.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I wouldn’t worry. I turned her down and now she’s not talking to me.’

  ‘That’s bad news, Will.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘Well, if it’s something you wanted to do, then we have to find a way to get it for you . . . otherwise . . .’

  Ari broke off as two uniformed security men came marching around the corner and barred their path.

  ‘Hold it right there,’ snapped the first of them, a heavyset man with a shaved head and a face like an angry bulldog. ‘I must ask you to accompany me back to Accident & Emergency.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said his companion, who was thin and weedy and probably the least scary-looking security man that Will had ever seen. ‘They want to ask you some questions, pal.’

  Ari smiled. ‘I bet you’re after the guy who said he was a doctor, aren’t you?’ he said.

  Bulldog-Face nodded. ‘Yeah, that’s right. Now . . . you gonna come quietly or do I have to get rough?’

  Ari turned and pointed along the empty corridor ahead. ‘Quick!’ he yelled. ‘He’s getting away! I think he’s heading for reception!’

  The two security men stared along the corridor for a moment, expressions of alarm on their ugly faces. Then they raced off as fast as they could go, shouting for whoever it was they thought they could see to stay where he was. Will gazed after them in disbelief.