A short one tonight. I have to work, but this is at least an offering.

CHAPTER 67
“Yes, Sarah, I have been speaking to my Bishop. We have a sort of way out, that will actually keep me in employment, and keep me in the Church. He wishes me to become a sort of lay brother. I will work on the administration of the Diocese, do some teaching….and be released from my vow of celibacy”

“What about the one of poverty?”

He laughed. “That’s not a vow, that’s a fucking permanent state, these days! No, seriously, I believe this woman has been sent, just as Adam was given his. “It s not good that the man should be alone”, He said, and I will take Him at His word.”

I went over and kissed them both. “Alice will be there for you, if there is any justice, any at all. Let’s get her better first, and then we can do all the celebrating we want. I’m not ignoring you, or putting you down, but I’m just a little bit stressed to make a sensible comment beyond ‘congratulations’ “

We settled eventually on a rota, where one of us would be there at all hours in case she returned from wherever she had gone, and to my frustration I wasn’t allowed to pass the first night there. Enid took that, insisting that she didn’t want to rattle round an empty house, and besides, I was injured. Pat and Janet would take the morning, and Bev would be round as soon as she got out of work. I booked the following night. With some juggling, Jim could be cared for, Janet and all the others offering their help.

Four days later she was still out. The machines beeped and hissed, her chest rose and fell, and various liquids drained in and out of her. I came in one afternoon from work with Arwel to relieve Enid, and found her playing some old 60’s pop songs by Alice’s bed.

“Herman’s Hermits, love, her favourites, just thought I’d try. The doctor says he’s reduced the sedation, as the swelling has gone down sufficiently, and if she’s coming back, this is when she will start ,so I thought I’d have a go…you read the stories, sometimes they work.”

Arwel grunted. “Never liked them, all flounce and frill they were”

Alice just grunted. It was over five seconds before we realised, and I ran to the nurse’s station. Ten minutes later, the doctor was there.

“So what was her level of response?”

I talked him through the conversation, and Arwel’s comment, “And then she just grunted round the tube”

He checked the various drips, and then leant down by her. “Alice, it’s Doctor Matthews, you’re in hospital and you are safe. If you can hear me, please squeeze my hand. Alice…please try…good girl, good girl. In a few minutes I am going to remove your ventilator, OK? Squeeze if you understand…that’s good. Do you hurt? Right, one squeeze for a little, four for a lot, can you see how that works…two squeezes, you are doing well”

All three of us were crying. I could see what he was doing with the numbers, trying to get her to show that she could still think. Enid left to make some phone calls, and a little after that a nursing team pushed us out while they did medical stuff with the tubes and hissing thing, but we were soon back in.

Alice groaned. “Eeni’?”

I held her good hand. “Making some phone calls, Alice, people were worried about you.”

“Sar?”

“Yes, my love, it’s me. Arwel’s here as well”

“Gray dar mah”

I got it immediately. ‘Great dark man’, her term from Quentin Crisp, and Arwel was indeed great, and dark, and weeping. I looked at him, and he took my place with her hand.

“You had me worried, girl, who’s going to do my back at the beach if you bugger off? The son’s too rough”

Her eyes flickered. “Tide, luh. M ver tide. Arm hurts, n head”

The doctor was back. “Alice, you have a broken arm and leg, but they will heal splendidly. You had a little problem with your head, but that seems to be OK as well. I will leave you with your family, but there is a buzzer by your left hand if you need anything”

I followed him out. ”What do you think, Doctor?”

“I am very optimistic, Mrs Hall. I have tried to make my comments progressively more complex, and she is responding rationally and sensibly. A couple more days, and perhaps another scan, and then we shall know more. She has good support from you all, and that can make quite a difference. Just stick with her, if you can.”

As the news went round, we had a steady stream of people stopping by, and I had to put my foot down hard before they wore her out. Her eyes were opening and shutting, searching for anything or nothing. I leant close to her at one point and whispered “The surgeon did your little operation while he did the other stuff”

“Cuh my baws off?”

“Yes, Alice, exactly”

“Guh ri’ans, nev wand fugn thigs firs place. Mwummn no man”

“Yes, Alice, we know you are a woman. We just want you to be a well woman. Enid’s brought your music, Herman’s Hermits, do you want to listen for a while?”

“Pleez”

I put it on softly, on the stand by the bedhead, and after a while I realised that she was singing quietly along to it, and a tear was rolling down her cheek. I wiped it away, and as clear as she could, she just said “I love you” and stopped breathing.

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I hit the big red panic button, and in less than a minute we were physically thrown out as a team of medics charged in with a trolley, and from outside heard the whine and thump of a defibrillator.

Ten minutes later they had her stable, and Enid had stopped shaking. Doctor Matthews was back, pale and drawn.

“It happens, sometimes, when we take them off the ventilator for the first time, but she’s stable again, and I will have a nurse on bedside duty till we can be sure. You are not losing her, not now. Go and get a coffee or something, this is going to be a long night for you; I do take it you will be staying the course?”

Arwel just nodded, and Enid hugged him and went to make some more calls.

She lasted till the morning ,then till lunch, and then…then she was awake again, and talking, and I realised I had been asleep for some time and Tony had laid me by the bed on a camping mat under a blanket. I got up, groggily, and Alice LOOKED at me, and smiled, and Enid sort of fainted as Alice said “Thank you, Sar”

Enid spent two nights in another bed with exhaustion. They moved Alice in next to her on the second night.

Jim had his aunty back.