CHAPTER 30
Ginny was on the phone a little while later, as Darren all but dozed in Chantelle’s arms, exhausted by his emotions.

“How is he, Gin?”

“Not as bad as he could have been, Annie. I have no idea what they are doing to him, but Eric says the man they’ve got on him is fucking shit hot. Eric’s running a semaphore system, Naomi’s stuck to the bed like shit to a trainer, and Steph is running a tea shuttle. Expect my darling with you imminently, Annie. She’s got the car and the rack, so we’ll all get home”

She actually paused for breath at that point, and I realised how hyper she was, how worried.

“How’s my other darling? Wrapped around her boy?”

“Aye, she is. Doing really well. Is Tabby in place?”

“As required, as expected”

“What did Naomi say?”

“Oh, she understood immediately, yeah, said I was to give Shan all her love for being so generous and clever. Hey, Annie, you’d laugh, yeah, they got some paper and made an old nurse’s cap for her, yeah? Fucking magic!”

Magic was what I was praying for, and if Tabitha could carry the weight of our wishes I would convert. To whatever religion it was that had magic dolls.

“Simon?” was my obvious question at that point.

“Oh, he’s fucked off back to Naomi’s, picking up a bag for the old bugger. Should be with you in a few, yeah. Naomi says Darren knows where everything is, get him on it, make him do something to stop the terrors, yeah?”

I closed up the call and called Darren in to me.

“Time for you to do something, Daz. We need a bag for your Granddad, toiletries, pyjamas, slippers, that sort of thing, aye? Your Nan says that you know where everything is, so I am going to trust you to sort it. Simon the vicar is on his way, so think on this: they wouldn’t need the stuff if he wasn’t going to be fine, aye?”

Darren just nodded, and turned to the girl attached to his hand.

“Do it with me, yeah?”

Shan just nodded, and they went off upstairs. I was starting to find my stride, the old work habits kicking in, and I took the opportunity to give the nick a ring. Den was on, and I ran the events past him.

“Annie, want Kirsty to do anything? She could do with an excuse to get out”

I had to laugh. “Dennis Armstrong, if you knew exactly how many people have already got involved, or offered, aye? If pure friendship could cure the old man, he would be dancing jigs already. Look, mate; it is enough, right now, to know that you are there, the three of you, aye, when we need you. Can you let Jim and co know what the score is. I might need to take some leave”

“Jim’s here beside me, lass. Hang on”

“Annie, Jim. Talking about leave, yeah? Do I remember rightly, is Albert giving you away?”

Fucking right he is. “Yes, Jim, he is, and I will make sure of it, aye?”

“Then as far as I am concerned, and as far as the Super will be, this is a family emergency, so you are off the relief as of now, yeah? The schools stuff is on hold anyway, so all I will say is keep us in touch and, as Den has already said, whatever you need, just call”

“Got to go, Jim, the door. Thanks, really thanks”

“Would we be any other way? Give them all our very best, yeah?”

“I will”

Simon was flustered, but still going.

“How is he?”

“They had him straight in for a scan, and then there’s some procedure or other supposed to clear arteries or something, I know very little about it, but they have him sedated, I think. I’ve been kept out, just Naomi in there. And Tabitha, of course”

“She looked after me for years, Simon. Shan’s idea, aye?”

“Aye indeed, girl. I would like to think that if prayer is effective, Albert has so many people sending them out that it can’t fail”

I remembered my thoughts when talking to Dennis, and realised how very alike Simon and I were, and impulsively kissed him on the cheek. He blushed.

“Please don’t do that, Annie. No, not offensive, nothing like that---oh, no, don’t even think that! You are all girl, I know that. It’s just…you look so much like my beloved I get all unnecessary, if you see what I mean. You and Merry, I need to concentrate, and you two do not make it easy”

I almost grinned then, at his confession. “Naughty vicars…not what we need right now”

His smile was gentler. “No, no naughty vicars here, just one who knows all about being a man in love and keeping his virtue and faith intact. Merry and I will wed next year. That is not too long to wait, not for such a wonderful woman. And I assure you, THAT is the reason I flinched, and the only one”

Again, his tone was gentle. “As I have said, you are all woman. Your work today shows that, and we love you for it. It is just, given my own circumstances, I need to love you from a little further away than other men. Now, has Darren squared away Albert’s bag?”

He was at the door with it.

“Vicar’s right, Annie, you do look like Merry. You making Simon horny, lahk”

It wasn’t the best joke in the world, but it was a joke, a sign that he was dragging himself out of the black pit he had fallen into, and it was clearly Shan who was helping to give him the strength. He put the bag down to make a quick run to the loo, and I whispered to her, “Doing very well, love, keep it up and we’ll get him through”

She gave me a quick squeeze. “He was there for me, so, it right, yeah?”

Yeah, Shan, it very right, very right indeed. Once more the sheer resilience of the girl put me to shame. Darren reappeared.

“Can I…?”

“Sorry, love, but they won’t let you in, so best you wait here. Quite a crowd already, aye?”

He grabbed a bit of paper and a pen, and quickly wrote ‘Granddad, get better, I love you, D’ and handed it to Simon, who simply nodded, took note and bag, and was gone, almost walking right into Kate, who gave him a quick hug before seizing both children. She was the calmest of all of us, but there was still that tension, as was only to be expected.

“Tea, Kate?”

“Please, then I will ring in. Had to drop some stuff and run, but I said I’d be on the phone if needed. Timescale’s good with Albert, it seems, so depending on the brain scan---look, Darren, this is where you may have saved his life, or at least prevented more serious damage. He’s had what’s called a stroke, which is all to do with blood vessels in the brain. Come and sit down and I will explain”

I busied myself yet again with the kettle, stealing some of Naomi’s biscuits, and when I arrived Darren and Kate were still talking, Shan cuddled quietly into him.

“That’s what killed Jim’s first Mum, yeah”

“No, not quite, Darren. As different as a snowball and an iceberg. From what I have heard, she had…look, you know when you go down the motorway, and you see those bits of lorry tyre that have just exploded all over the road? That was Jim’s first Mum. Albert…Albert is like going to get on your bike and finding the tyre a little soft. Just takes a bit more than a pumping up, though. Thanks, Annie. This is the crucial time, catching it early. This is where having your family round you makes all the difference, right, Darren?”

She turned to me. “I don’t know what the plan is, but I brought overnight bags for all three of us, and I am assuming there will be space somewhere”

“Oh god aye. We have enough rooms between us all, and Den’s offered as well, so no problems. Now, we wait, and perhaps see if we can work out some rota for the hospital. No point in having a hundred people there, aye?”

Polly had been keeping quiet throughout, obviously watching what was going on but letting events and people speak for themselves.

“We need to work out where people will be, where they will sleep and so on. I need to write that up. It also needs to avoid ambiguity or routes for my managers to pull me up, so can I make some suggestions?”

We all nodded.

“Annie, you and Darren here. Assuming that Steph is fine, and I am certain she will be, the girls next door with her. That puts everyone in contact and close by. Now, I have to be off, because I do have other responsibilities, other kids. You have my number, so please, please keep me in the loop. Just one thing, and that is that I am proud of both of you”

And another one gone.

That was a long, long afternoon, until seven in the evening, as we settled down to a Chinese meal Kate had collected, and Eric was on the phone.

“Ginny, Steph and Simon are on their way back, love. He’s out of the woods, it seems, they are keeping him under for a while, but the forecast is quite good. Very, very limited area of damage, according to the scans. Tell you what, love, I am actually proud of my colleagues, they have done bloody well, pulled out all the stops. Naomi’s staying, they’ve got a cot for her, so if you can sort of do the bag thing, Simon will do the run again”

“What are you doing?”

“Going to stay till late, if that’s OK. Just in case. Then Steph will come back overnight. See you later: you stopping at the Woods’?”

“Aye”

“I’ll call by home for our own stuff, then. Love you”

And so it went. Geoff sorted the girls out on his return from work, as we had known he would, and on Eric’s return we headed off to our beds. It took a while, but I was actually asleep when the doorbell went at some stupid time of the morning. I pulled my dressing gown round me, the only one woken, it seemed, and on the doorstep found Merry.

“Well, it was as good an excuse to come back here as any. Is there tea in the pot?”

“Hardly, cuz, it’s two in the morning”

“That was not a question, Annie, it was a hint. Just a bag in a mug will do, and then I will borrow the sofa. The family have been at prayer since the news came, so we shall sleep on this and awaken to a new day which He WILL bless for us, isn’t it?”

I laughed. “Simon does not know how lucky he is, aye?”

An answering grin. “He will, Annie, he will. Now---tea!”