Penny Vincenzi - The Best Of Times

“Patrick… it’s me, Maeve. How are you feeling now?”

“How you’d expect. Dreadful.” And he did look it, back on all the machines and drips, propped up on high on the ICU bed, grey-white, his skin somehow transparent, his eyes sunken in his thin face. “Maeve, I keep telling you, stop coming here, for the love of God. Just leave me in peace.”

“I know, Patrick, but… but I have some news for you. Some very important news. You… you know you said you thought you could remember someone in the van with you? Just before the crash? Well… she’s here. She’s come to see you. A young girl, name of Georgia.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to see anyone. There’s no point-”

“Patrick, there is. It’s going to make all the difference, because she says she saw what happened.”

“She saw me going to sleep? Is that what she saw?”

“No, no, Patrick that’s exactly what she didn’t see. She says-Will you see her Patrick, please? Just for a moment.”

“Maeve, I’m too tired for girls with fairy stories. Why should I believe what she says? She’d have come before if it was true. I just wanted an end to it; they’ve robbed me of that. Now leave me be, will you?”

He closed his eyes; Maeve left the room and made her way along to Linda and Georgia.

“He… oh, God, he says he doesn’t want to see you. He says how can he believe you were there; why… Oh, it was good of you to come, both of you, but I’m afraid there was no point. Not with Patrick, anyway. Maybe if you talked to the police again…” She looked utterly defeated, her eyes swimming with tears. She tried to smile and failed totally; her mouth trembled and she bit her lip.

“Oh, dear. Oh, this is dreadful. Um… Maeve…” Georgia started rummaging in her bag. “Maeve, do you think this might make a difference? Here…”

She put a small box into Maeve’s hand.

“It’s a watch. It was a birthday present for your mother. Patrick showed it to me, and then he gave it to me to look after. I’ve had it all this time.”

Maeve took the box, opened it; a small watch lay inside. It was very pretty indeed, set in a diamanté bracelet. She sat staring at it for a moment, then said, “I’ll take it in to him. Thank you, Georgia. Thank you so much.”

Five minutes later she came out again, smiling, her small, tearstained face radiant.

“He remembered it! Could you come in with me? Would that be all right?”

“Of course it would,” said Georgia. “It’d be absolutely all right.”

Alex Pritchard decided to go home. A tedious day with nothing to do in A &E was beginning to look even worse than trying to find a corner he could call his own at home. He’d just go up and make sure Maeve was all right and then leave.

He went into the relatives’ room and found the red-haired woman sitting alone, talking into her mobile. She looked up at him, half smiled, and went on talking.

“Just tell them tomorrow that you haven’t had any formal voice training, but you can sing well enough for the chorus. Yes, I’m pretty sure. You can put them on to me, if you like. Yes, of course. I’ll be in the office. Now if you want me again this afternoon, just ring my mobile. Sure. Ciao.”

She rang off and was clearly ready to make another call; it annoyed Alex. There were several notices in the room asking people not to use mobile phones.

“Sorry,” he said, making a conscious effort to sound polite, “but you really are asked not to use your mobile on hospital premises.”

“Oh, I know,” she said. “I also know that it’s a load of nonsense. It can’t really interfere with equipment; it’s just so you don’t have patients rabbiting on all day in the wards. Which I completely sympathise with.”

“Oh, you do?”

“Yes.” She smiled at him. It was a very nice smile. Didn’t make up for a considerable arrogance, though. He didn’t smile back.

“I’m afraid you’re wrong,” he said. “If everyone used their mobiles on hospital premises, especially an area like this, where we have extremely sensitive equipment, it would be very bad, so please stop using it. Or go outside.”

“I…” She stared at him, then stood up, switching off her mobile. “Then I shall go outside. This is a very important call, actually, to Georgia’s mother. She wants to know where she is.”

“And Georgia is…?”

“The girl who’s with me. I’m her agent. Look, we’re wasting time. Or rather you’re wasting my time. Good afternoon.”

She stalked off down the corridor. He looked after her. She had rather good legs. And an arrogant walk. She was a very arrogant woman altogether. He hoped this would be his last encounter with her.

As he stood there, Maeve and the girl came out of ICU; Maeve’s face was literally shining. Georgia was swollen eyed and tearstained.

“Oh, Dr. Pritchard,” said Maeve, clasping his hand. “I’m so glad you’re here. Patrick’s so much better, so much happier. Georgia here really has turned things round. Bless her heart!”

She smiled radiantly at Georgia, who managed a very watery, wobbly smile back.

“Yes, Georgia saw everything that happened, Dr. Pritchard. She was up in the cab of the lorry; Patrick was giving her a lift to London. And it wasn’t Patrick’s fault at all; something hit the windscreen and shattered it, so he couldn’t see. Georgia has told him again and again that he was as good as blinded; there was nothing he could do. Now, isn’t that the most wonderful news? And he’s sitting in there, just… just happy.”

“Maeve, I’m so pleased for you. And good for you, Georgia, for coming forward.”

“Not… not really,” said Georgia. “I mean, I… well, I should have done it earlier.”

“What matters is that you did it at all,” said Maeve. “When I think of the state Patrick was in…”

“Exactly,” said Georgia. “I’ve just been a total wimp right from the beginning. I feel so ashamed of myself. But I have told the police everything now, so maybe…”

“Well done,” he said. “That doesn’t sound too wimpy to me. No doubt they’ll be along to talk to Patrick again. I’d better warn the patient liaison people, Maeve. They may well have been on to them already.”

“Um… do you know where Linda, my… my agent, went?” said Georgia, looking around. “I thought she was going to wait here.”

“Ah…” Alex Pritchard looked rather uncomfortable. “She’s… she’s gone outside. My fault, I’m afraid. She wanted to make some calls and I… I suggested she did it outside the hospital. Look, why don’t I take you down to the café, and you can wait there for… for Miss… Miss…”

“Di-Marcello,” said Georgia. “But she won’t know we’re there-”

“I’ll tell the people up here to redirect her when she gets back.”

“Oh, OK. That’d be very kind. Sorry, we’re taking up a lot of your time.”

Alex was disproportionately touched by this. Here was this girl, not much older than his own daughter from the look of her, actually aware that people other than her had pressures on their time. Extraordinary.

“That’s perfectly all right,” he said, and guided them towards the lift. “And Maeve, I’ll wager Patrick wants to see those boys of yours now. Am I right?”

“You are indeed, Dr. Pritchard. He said to bring them tomorrow, to take them out of school.”

“Excellent.”

He smiled at her; he was obviously very fond of her, Georgia thought. What an amazingly nice man.

Linda was walking up the broad hospital steps, finishing a call when she saw him walking towards her. She scowled at him, rather exaggeratedly switching her phone off.