Easy As Forgetting what It's Called.
by: Erm...
part: 186.

I sat with Simon for about an hour. We didn't say much we were both upset, he cuddled me and I fussed him. We both cried. We both held each other. We both spent several minutes staring into space, or found the leaves of a dandelion suddenly very attention holding.

Finally we had dealt with our immediate emotional needs. "Let's go and see how she is." I said to Simon who nodded his agreement.

The walk to ICU took about ten minutes. Henry was sitting next to the bed, Stella hadn't moved. The machines were still bleeping away. Henry looked to have aged about a hundred years since I last saw him, he looked grey.

"Any change?" asked Simon.

Henry shook his head. He looked so sad, I just wanted to scoop him up and hug him to death.

"Henry, why don't you and I take a little walk, just to keep the circulation moving."

He looked up at me and shook his head, no.

Simon went over to him. "Go on Dad, I'll stay with Stella. I have some dirty jokes to tell her anyway, which I can't tell Cathy because she's too young, and I can't tell you 'cos you've forgotten what it's all about anyway."

"I'm not that old," Henry said indignantly, "ninety three isn't that old these days."

It wasn't that funny, but given the stress of the situation we all fell about laughing, tears rolling down faces. I glanced at the bed and Stella was smirking. I gasped and pointed at her. She had heard the joke and tried to laugh at it.

Suddenly the walk didn't seem like a good idea. We all sat and talked to each other and to Stella. The nurse came and changed her drip, she was still receiving blood, this was now the sixth unit, if they had used all four the original doctor called for. That is a lot of blood.

"I think Tom is going to have a car boot sale with all our clothes," I said trying to sound funny.

"Tell me about the visit of the hunt," said Henry.

Simon and I related the story, making it deliberately funny. Especially the punch up at the end.

"So Simon thumped someone who grabbed you and you hit someone who grabbed him?" said Henry verifying his understanding.

"Hit someone, she laid him out with a whack to the chin with a yard brush." Simon emphasised a little too loudly. The nurse came and asked us to be quiet.

"Are they going to repair Tom's fences?"

"Supposedly, but you know what they're like?"

"Yes I do, I used to ride to hounds myself." Henry asserted himself, "So did little boy blue here, Stella didn't, never did really like horses and killing things."

"Well that's something we have in common." I was blushing but stood my ground. "Killing for sport is morally bankrupt."

"A woman of strong opinions eh?" said Henry nodding at me, "I like that in a woman, don't I Stel?" I gasped again as she nodded in answer to his question.

"Can you open your eyes Stella?" I asked.

She moved her head from side to side. Obviously she couldn't. I leant forward and gripped her hand.

"Can you squeeze my hand Stella?" she moved her arm but seemed unable to carry out my request.

I held on to her hand. "Squeeze my hand now, Stella." She did as I instructed.

"Open your eyes, Stella."

For a moment nothing happened as if she was still downloading the instruction, so I repeated it. Her eyes moved from side to side. Then one fluttered open but closed almost immediately.

I ordered her to open them again and finally after several false starts she managed to do so. At first they didn't seem to be connected to her brain, they were largely unseeing eyes not recognising us immediately. Finally they did because she smiled at her father.

"Stella you can talk, talk to your father." I issued the instruction and she eventually managed to garble a message to Henry. He was crying the whole time. She squeezed his hand and he wept with joy. Maybe she was going to make it after all.

We stayed with her and had a very rudimentary conversation during which she fell asleep every few minutes, then she'd wake, say something unintelligible and go back to sleep.

We left her to sleep about half an hour later, she was obviously very tired. Henry wanted to stay but we persuaded him to come with us for a late lunch.

"So how is the Dormouse Queen?" asked Henry, "How is the project going?"

"Unless Tom is moving it, it isn't going very far or fast. There is just so much paperwork to accept any sightings, especially those of unusual sightings. I'm expecting one of a unicorn any day now."

"Are you trying to tell me they don't exist?" Said Simon, pretending to cry. "I saw them in Harry Potter, they exist you know. Just 'cos you're a bloody expert on dormice, don't mean you know everyfink like wot I does."

"I'm afraid they only exist in enchanted forests and we have very few of those in the United Kingdom."

"If you're such a bloody expert why can't you make more forests enchanted?"

"That needs a special permission from the Queen herself."

"Which I suppose is why there aren't too many enchanted forests."

"Absolutely right," I congratulated Simon for his total support during this week.

Stella said something in Double-Dutch that not even Tom Boonen would understand, then went off to sleep moments later.