Seven Days There

by Ruth Hay

  To solve the first problem Valerie went off on a shopping expedition to find a lighter, more manoeuvrable suitcase. This involved much hefting of samples and checking of sizes.

  After some time she decided on a very light, full-sized case with wheels that turned in all directions.

  This feature had been demonstrated to her by a helpful assistant. It allowed the traveller to escort the case through any area with a flat surface with only a minimum amount of force. The case almost walked by itself and eliminated the need to haul it behind her back with no clue who might be tripping over it.

  The footwear issue, however, was not so easy to resolve. In the end, she shelved the difficulty and determined to find the required items during her advance survey. If her memory served, every town in the Lake District had a plethora of hiking , camping, outdoor clothing and equipment stores.

  As every necessary item was packed in the new case and the package of print reservations grew in size, Valerie could feel excitement growing inside her. It was a pleasant sense of anticipation and yet, the plan was not complete.

  Nothing had arrived from Corinne or Zoe. She knew the latter invitation had been a long shot right from the beginning but some instinct told her to keep hoping, for Zoe’s sake. Valerie had long suspected there was something wrong in her god-daughter’s life.

  Corinne was another matter. Her connection to Corinne was not based on long association like it was with Sandra. In fact, it was David’s cancer that had brought Corinne into their lives. Shortly after they received the diagnosis of a rare and unusual cancer, David and Valerie discovered there was only one hospital in the world that would accept him for an experimental research program. The protocol required David to be a patient for three days every week over a period of six weeks. As this hospital was in Birmingham, England, they made the difficult decision to leave Canada and stay together in England during the procedure.

  Brian was old enough to supervise his younger brother and they trusted both their son and his sensible girlfriend, to act with responsibility and maturity.

  Corinne was introduced to them as their medical contact person on their first hospital visit. They were still jet lagged from the flight and worried about where they would live and how David would respond to the risky treatment. Corinne immediately took over. She offered them a room in her home, a ride to the hospital and, best of all, she made an instant connection to David’s dark sense of humour assuring him they would become friends in the most personal way during his ordeal but she was not on duty at home should he need his head held over the toilet.

  The laugh that broke the tension at this statement set the tone for the next six weeks. Corinne kept David’s spirits up, called him Dave or Davie, made sure he got to know her husband Arthur and reassured Valerie whenever her hope of a cure faltered.

  It was a very worrying time for Valerie. There was little she could do besides support the workers. She did housework happily as it kept her busy on days David was in the hospital. She cooked healthy meals for all of them and had many long talks with Arthur over the dinner table when Corinne was on night duty. Valerie had asked Arthur why Corinne was so generous with her home. Did she do this for all out-of-town patients? He replied that it was an occasional thing and helped to keep them afloat financially. Arthur was in construction work as a project supervisor and their two children were not living at home at the moment. Carla was at university and Colin was in the army overseas, hence the spare rooms.

  Valerie was always on hand when David and Corinne arrived back from their gruelling days in the hospital. David would be pale and weak but he managed a laugh when Corinne helped him out of the car and threatened to get him a Zimmer frame if he could not manage the front steps by himself.

  Valerie watched the effect of Corinne’s tough-love challenges. David squared his shoulders, took a deep breath and slowly climbed the steps to the top with a grin of accomplishment on his face.

  From these observations Valerie learned not to fuss and fawn over the patient. She kept her worries for midnight hours and her estimation of Corinne grew by leaps and bounds.

  David survived the treatment and returned to Canada with a new lease on life and a new friend for life in Corinne. As far as Valerie was concerned, Corinne was lifesaver to both of them and she remained close to the couple for the next decade until David’s condition deteriorated.

  “So, you’ve made the decision to go, Sandra?”

  “Yes, Corinne. I feel I can’t let Val down but I wish you would come with me. Couldn’t you switch your week off just this once?”

  “Believe me, I’ve been thinking about it. It’s absolute pandemonium in the hospital this month. It’s like every kid with a peanut allergy has descended on us and every adult with a serious illness suddenly moved into a critical phase at the same time. There are beds in the hallways and doctors dropping like flies from the stress.”

  “Corinne, that sounds awful! You must be exhausted! You definitely need this break. Will you promise to try to come and join us if things calm down at the hospital in the next few weeks?”

  “Can’t promise anything but if a miracle happens, count me in.”

  “That’s good enough for now. Please take care of yourself. Give my best to Arthur and Carla.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Much good it will do, she thought, as she put down her mobile phone. Arthur was in a worse state than she was. The summer months were their only chance to get ahead financially. Winters in the building trade were uncertain at best and he was trying to accumulate enough cash to float them through the bad weather periods. This meant long days on construction sites solving delivery problems and searching for proficient workers who could be persuaded to stay. He was always under the gun time-wise and she could see the pressure building up.

  Corinne had no more time to think about Valerie’s offer. She reheated a two-day-old casserole, left a note about it on the kitchen table then went to bed. If Carla wanted to eat she had better do something to turn the mush into a meal. Corinne had eaten something hours before in the hospital cafeteria but was now too tired to put food before her desperate need for sleep.

  The next two days at the hospital were even worse. A doctor actually screamed for help in frustration at not being able to move a patient’s bed into the elevator by himself. Two nurses ran to his aid and Corinne, sensing a melt-down on the way, gave the job of monitoring her patient’s drip to the nurses’ aide beside her and fled out into the corridor closing the door behind her. It would do no good for patients to hear the staff freaking out.

  The doctor in question was one of the new batch who had been working unconscionable hours all week.

  He saw Corinne approaching and yelled at her to get down to A&E immediately. The elevator doors closed before she could ask exactly where in Emergency she was needed. She took the stairs for speed. As soon as the heavy fire door clanged shut behind her she stopped and dropped down on the top step. The sound as the door echoed in the empty stairwell had hit her like a bad omen of some kind. It seemed to signify an ending. Didn’t they say a door closing in life meant somewhere a window was opening? She was too exhausted to examine that saying.

  Folding her arms across her knees, she bent her head for a moment and prayed for strength. She inhaled the disinfectant on her arms and rested her weary eyes on the bright pattern of her uniform trousers. The cold from the stone step soon seeped up into her skin and she would have cried if she had any tears left.

  “I can’t keep doing this,” she told herself. “I am getting too old for this madness.”

  The moment’s pause gave her back some small fund of energy and she sped down the flights to Emergency on the ground level. The situation there was no better. Porters and aides were scurrying around while doctors barked out orders and handled the machines that would save lives or at least delay life-threatening damage.

  Corinne pumped some sterilising foam onto her hands and headed to the first of the screened areas.<
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  It looked like a woman in early labour. There was blood on the bed but the nurse signalled to Corinne that everything was in hand.

  The next booth held a boy with a bad case of hives. The doctor by his side, glanced over at Corinne and gave her a strange look. She knew Dr. Drew well but could not interpret his meaning.

  She moved to the next station where there was a lot of noise. This patient must have been admitted recently as the flurry of activity around his bed had not yet settled into the calm state indicating everything had been done to keep him, or her, stable. She saw legs thrashing around so she went forward to hold the legs and steady the patient for the oxygen mask that was about to be placed over his face. For a split second, the nurse and doctor turned toward Corinne and froze in place. She got a sudden instinct of danger of some kind, then they resumed their work on the patient and as they moved away from him, the feeling of danger merged into panic. The figure lying on the bed was her own husband Arthur.

  It was her worst nightmare come true but training took hold very quickly and she pushed her emotions aside until she could be sure her husband was all right.

  A nod to the doctor in charge assured him she was able to cope. He handed her a syringe pack and she automatically ripped it open and prepared the injection. At the same time she was assessing the patient’s injuries.

  Broken collar bone and shoulder.

  Blood and swelling.

  Possible fractured pelvis

  Semi-conscious.

  Serious accident. {Was anyone else involved?)

  “What happened here?”

  The ER nurse was feeling Arthur’s legs for further bruising or fractures but she replied at once.

  “He was brought in about ten minutes ago by ambulance. We tried to contact you.

  Scaffolding collapsed on the building site and your husband was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The morphine will soon cut the pain then we’ll set the shoulder and put a cast on his arm.

  All standard stuff. It looks worse than it is. Go off and get a cup of tea. Sugar for shock; you know the drill. He’s going up to X-ray now. Check back in half an hour.”

  The nurse gave her a push in the direction of the exit doors. Corinne stumbled away and felt herself shaking inside and out as the shock hit. Arthur was hurt. Her brain knew it was not a life-threatening injury but it was entirely a different feeling, emotionally, when the hurt person was someone so close. Visions of what might have happened to him flooded her mind and she had to turn it off to navigate the short distance to the cafeteria.

  Word had spread quickly, and one of the cafeteria women reached her before she was two steps inside the doors.

  “Lean on me, Love. I’ve got a nice quiet table for you over here. Just sit down for a bit and I’ll have tea and a pastry over to you in a jiffy.”

  Somehow this kindness was the undoing of Corinne. She began to shake again and knew she was on the verge of breaking down. Have to keep strong till I’ve seen Arthur, she murmured over and over like a litany as she clung on to the metal strip along the edge of the table. She focused on the cake crumbs scattered on the table top and tried to make a pattern out of them. Some were dark like chocolate, others were creamy. What kind of pastry could they have come from?

  Fran, a nurse colleague of many years, found her there with the tea cup in front of her trembling in its saucer. She took in the situation immediately. It was not the first time she had had to comfort staff members when disaster overtook them. Nurses were a tight-knit group, like buddies on the front line in a war zone and Fran thought that was an apt description for the current situation in the hospital.

  “Right, Corinne! I am here to help. I’ll put this blanket around your shoulders. Just get this tea down you and we’ll go and find Arthur and soon the two of you can go home in a taxi.”

  Fran secretly thought her friend looked as if she, rather than her husband, was the patient. She had that drawn, unconnected look of shock setting in. Fran had heard all about Carla’s lack of cooperation at home and hoped the young woman would see that she now had to step up to the plate with both parents needing help for some time. She also hoped Corinne would stay at home and get some rest. She was much too conscientious about her job and lately, there had been a few mistakes which were not serious but demonstrated that this nurse needed some TLC of her own.

  Five.

  Valerie Crestwood was waiting for the cab to take her to the airport shuttle service when her phone rang. She had already spoken to Brian and John, stopped the newspaper delivery, hired a gardening maintenance company to attend to the lawn and flowerbeds, left reminder notes with her neighbours and notified the bank that she was going to be spending money overseas.

  Who could be calling at this late date?

  “Valerie where are you?”

  “Corinne! What’s happened? How is Arthur? I am flying to England today. I thought I wouldn’t hear from you again.”

  “Everything has changed, Val. Arthur is doing very well. His construction company boss has claimed his insurance for accident coverage and Arthur can stay at home with pay until he’s fit to work again.

  There’s also the chance of compensation for neglect by the scaffolding firm.”

  “Good news, Corinne! I am so glad for you and Arthur. I know you were worried about money.”

  “The best part is, I am coming to join you in the Lake District! Arthur says Carla will look after him and he says I need to take a proper break. The hospital switched my week off for me and I am coming!!”

  “Oh, Corinne, I can’t tell you how happy I am about this. I’ll see you there in a few days. Sandra will be pleased too.”

  “All girls together again. Just like the old days.”

  “Wonderful! Oh, there’s my cab. Have to run. Bye for now.”

  “Bye, Val, and thank you.”

  The happy news kept Valerie going during the long night and morning of travel. She arrived in Manchester Airport, collected her luggage from the carousel and trudged through the airport to the train station connector line that would eventually take her to Kendal and the car hire firm.

  It was more like a slow commuter train than a high speed service but as she had entered early on the route, she was able to settle into a window seat and ignore the comings and goings of students, workers and shoppers who stayed on for only a few stops. It was good to catch her breath and begin to relax. She looked out of the window and saw fields dotted with white sheep. There were farms and rivers and green, green grass. When the train stopped in a small town, she was able to look along the main street from the railway bridge and see the comings and goings of rural life that spoke to her of a more measured way of living, close to the land.

  Kendal lay in a valley. She remembered that from this point all roads climbed upward until all the other Lake District towns were found amidst the mountains. She longed to look out and see those mountains wherever she looked. Ontario was mostly flat and there was something about the protective effect of heights around one that gave you a sense of security.

  “I to the hills will lift mine eyes, from whence doth come mine aid.” The old hymn sang in her head and soon she felt the fatigue drop away. She was here and it was all coming together perfectly just as she had hoped. David would be pleased.

  A driver from the car firm loaded her luggage as soon as she stepped into the small parking lot just outside the Oxenholme station. By the time the train had roared off on its journey north again, she was heading to Kendal where she signed the car hire rental papers, received a quick run through of her rental car’s features and then she was in a stream of traffic heading uphill out of the town. Driving on the left was not a problem when she merged into the busy road but she was aware she would have to be alert on some occasions when entering a road without other traffic to remind her.

  All was going smoothly so far. After a few kilometres she was onto the familiar road to Ambleside skirting Windermere town. Soon Lake Windermere was on her left and s
he was smiling widely as each remembered sight came into view and vanished behind the car.

  The day was bright and the air fresh with moisture from the expanse of blue water. She travelled on to Grasmere to the hotel that had been their favourite, set beside the lake of the same name. The parking was in front of the hotel and she had to claim two spots since she was not yet used to the dimensions of this new, large, vehicle which handled well and gave the driver an excellent view of the road ahead; a major advantage on these older winding roads.

  The receptionist welcomed her like a long lost friend from Canada which Valerie thought must be the result of a database of guest names, rather than an excellent memory.

  The hotel was of the comfortable and slightly old-fashioned variety much favoured by repeat customers from parts of Scotland and Yorkshire as well as further south in England. The rooms were warm and clean with all the necessary amenities but the features that made this hotel exceptional were the food, always of a high standard and beautifully presented, and the large dining room with windows on two sides displaying amazing views of mountainside and lake.

  Valerie had a quick wash and unpacked just enough to see her through two days. Then she made her way into the lounge where tables and chairs were ready for more casual meals. If she had been less tired she would have eaten lunch on the wide terrace and enjoyed the fresh air but she promised herself that treat for Saturday. A pot of coffee, served with a jug of hot milk in the English style, wakened her up and a delicious ham sandwich full of English mustard and shredded salad greens amply satisfied her hunger.

  She was relishing her second cup of coffee when she noticed two women seated nearby. She did not feel nosy about watching them as the women were so involved in their conversation that they were unaware of anyone around them. Their voices rose and fell interspersed with laughter. Valerie heard the word ‘Vancouver’ and surmised that one of them must be from British Columbia. A closer look convinced her that the two women were related. It was not too obvious at first. The younger one had dark hair cut close to her head while the older one’s hair was mostly grey. The resemblance was more about the shape of their faces and the way they reached out to touch each other when they were sharing a laugh.