[two days later]
“Any luck?” asked Sylvia.

I had been calling around all the local hospitals in the hope of finding where Ray had been taken.

“So far nothing. Or they just don’t want to say because I’m not a relative.”

“You need to get onto the cop shop in Horsham. Sweet talk them and they’ll let on.”

"Yeah, you might be right on that one,” I replied.
“Has any of the local officers been in today?”

"Not yet, but it it’s not quite chocolate croissants or doughnuts time yet,” commented Sylvia.

The topic of Police, and their addiction to all forms of sweet delights had moved from the TV screen into reality. The local Police were no exception in that. A local baker supplied the coffee shop with some 'fancies' two or three times a week. Often, that just happened to coincide with a visit from a local patrol car.

There was no visit from any of the local Police Officers that day or the next. When they did come in for some refreshment, I made a point of serving them myself.

"Now, Officer, I have a deal for you. The coffee and doughnuts are on the house if you can give me some information," I asked with a smile.

“Don’t we normally ask for information from you?”

"This is different. I want to track down which Hospital Ray Thompson was taken to. I've been getting the runaround. I was the one who found him,and he is very much missed around these parts."

"I don't know, but I know someone who does,” replied the Officer.
“I’ll give my Sergeant a call. He collates all this sort of thing just to keep our records straight.”

"That would be great. The next coffee for you, and him are on the house."

He smiled.
“Are you trying to bribe a Police Officer?”

“Not in the slightest. I’m just being a good citizen. One good turn and all that.”

“Naturally.”

---

Two days later, I received a text with the details of the Hospital where Ray was being treated.

“St Georges? Where the heck is that?” remarked Sylvia. She was well known for getting lost in the shops in the nearby town of Horsham.

“Tooting, Southwest London,” I replied.

“How the hell did he end up there?”

"I don't know, but his injuries must be a lot sight more serious than any of us imagined."

“When are you going?”

“Going where?”

"To visit him, silly?"

I smiled back at my assistant.
“The day after tomorrow. That is if you don’t mind working on your day off that is?”

“Nice of you to ask…?”

"If you don't want the overtime, then I'll ask Joanne…?"

“Just joking. Of course, I’ll cover for you.”

I grinned back at Sylvia. I knew right from the start that she'd cover for me, but we have this little game to go through first.

Getting to the Hospital was not going to be easy. It looked like I’d have to take a train into London, getting off a Clapham Junction and then a bus. In my previous life pre coffee shop, I’d grown to hate London. It all became just too busy and smelly for me in the end. That was one of the reasons I left and moved to the West Sussex countryside. The slow pace of life was perfect for me after my last relationship with someone who purported to be a local man, went badly wrong. He was nothing more than a chancer, who was already married and had a family in Crawley. It was thanks to Ray, that I'd been saved from a load of grief.

---

"I'm here to see Ray Thompson," I said to the nurse at the reception desk.

"Third bed on the left, but you will have to wait for a few minutes. The Doctor is with him at the moment."

“Thanks. I’ll wait.”

“You aren’t the first visitor for Mr Thompson today. There were two others here a while ago. As far as I know, they went off to get a coffee. One of them wasn’t too pleased to see the other one.”

“Thanks for the heads up. I’m just a friend from where he lives. I was the one that found him lying on the floor.”

“Well done for that. From his notes, it seems that he was pretty close to breathing his last when the Paramedics got to him.”

Ten minutes later, the nurse signalled that I could go into the main part of the ward. I walked towards Ray’s bed not exactly sure what I would find.

What I found was Ray smiling at me.

“At last… Someone I can talk to without getting my head bitten off. Did you bring me some of your excellent coffee by any chance?"

Ray’s words lifted my spirits considerably.

"Hello, Ray. Not read the racing pages today?"

He shook his head.
“The Nursing Gestapo Obersturmbannführer that runs the ward has decided that I am beyond all hope and therefore in no need of the Racing Post."

I began to feel that things were not as they seemed on the surface.

There was a chair by the side of his bed, so I moved it so that I could see him and sat down.

"Ok, Ray, sock it to me. Why the hell are you in this goddam out of the way hell hole?"

Ray laughed.
“Hell hole? I like that one.”

He wiped the smile off his face.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve been here. I’m terminal.”

“What do you mean terminal? Are you going to die tomorrow or something?”
He shook his head.

"Not quite but it all started back when I was in the Army, I was injured while we were doing some jungle training in Malaysia. I was airlifted out of there and back to Hong Kong, which where I was stationed at the time. This is all before the 1997 handover naturally."

Ray closed his eyes as he remembered back to that time.

"I was clobbered on the back of my head by a large branch. I had all sorts of tests when I was in the Base Hospital. The result was that they found that the branch hadn't done any permanent damage."

He looked me right in the eye.
“There was something else wasn’t there?”

“Yes, there was. Several years later, the doctors found a small tumour growing right at the base of the cerebral cortex. Inoperable naturally.”

“You sound … so relaxed about a death sentence?”

“Time… Time my dear Alex. Time is a great healer.”

“When I left the Army, the doctors referred me here. There is a clinic here that is part of the Royal Marsden. That is one of the top cancer hospitals in the country.”

“That’s one bit of the mystery solved. What happened at your home?”

“The cancer is growing. I’ve been falling a bit recently, but nothing very serious until this last time. The tumour is strangling the bits of the nervous system that control my limbs. I fell when my legs stopped, and my body didn't. I knocked myself into next week."

“But the heating? It was turned off?”

“Force of habit. My late wife always complained about the heating bills so I got into the habit of turning it off before I went out. I was about to head out to the Post Office to collect my Pension when… I woke up in Worthing Hospital lying on a bed of warm water. When I'd properly warmed up, and they'd gotten access to my medical records, I was transferred here.”

“It is a good job that there are people who care about you then.”

“I owe you a lot for finding me when you did.”

Then a voice from behind me said,
“Just who the hell are you then?”

I turned around and saw a younger version of Ray. I’d seen him before, it was his son Phillip.

“I’m Alex. I found him and called the Paramedics.”

"You had better sling your hook. You are not getting any of my Father's money. I know what people like you are after, and that is money."

“I think that you are mistaken. I run the coffee shop that your father goes to almost every day. We were worried that we had not seen him for several days.”

“Yet you came all this way out of the goodness of your heart? Bollocks. I think that you should leave right now before I get the nurse to call security. You are not wanted here.”

The angry look on his face plus the throbbing of a vein in his neck told me that my time was up.

“I’ll see you soon Ray. There are people back home ,who do care about you despite what this conspiracy theorist says.”

"Thanks, Alex," said Ray as he sank back into the copious pillows that filled the end of his bed.

As I left, I glared at Ray’s son. I knew from what Ray had said over the months that he was not the best of friends with his son but seeing him in person again for just a few minutes made my flesh crawl. I’d forgotten just how awful a human being he was.

As I walked out of the ward, my mind was still wondering why Ray’s son was such a PITA. There was no need to be so obnoxious. I would not stay in business for very long if I ran my Coffee Shop with that sort of attitude toward my customers.

As I waited for the lift a voice behind me said,
“Alex, have you got a minute.”

To say that I was startled would be the understatement of the week.

I turned toward the source of the voice. It belonged to a young woman of Chinese descent.

“What…?”

She smiled at me.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I heard my half-brother, Phillip, go off at you just now.”

“Half-brother? I don’t understand?”

She smiled again.

“Can we go somewhere to talk? There is a lot you don’t know about Ray.”

I wasn't sure if I wanted to know more about Ray, but I didn't want to argue.

“Shall we go to the coffee shop or whatever it is called?”

She shook her head.
“I thought that the Chapel might be more private? Besides, my half-brother will not think of looking for me there. He seems to take great delight in throwing verbal insults at me.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

"I'm Jade, by the way."

Her name fitted her green eyes perfectly.
We followed the signs for the Chapel.

The place seemed so peaceful when compared to the hustle and bustle of the hospital that was just a few yards away.

“I expect that you have a million and one questions. Dad would often write to me about his life in Ashurst. He told me about you and how you looked after him in your shop."

Her English was faultless.

"I'm studying… well, was studying Art History at St Andrew's. With Dad so ill, that will have to go by the board for now. Neither of his other children wants anything to do with him, other than to get their hands his money when the cancer kills him. It has never been that way for me."

“Why haven’t you visited him?”

“That’s easy to answer. There is a busybody who lives a few doors from him. She keeps my half-brother informed about who visits him. That’s how he knew about you before he came to the village. For some reason, he thinks that everyone is after Ray's money. They aren't, but he won't be told by me or even Ray."

“That nosey parker would be Mrs Anderson, I presume?”

Jade nodded her head.

Mrs April Anderson was well known as a spreader of gossip, rumour and what we now call fake news in the village.

Jade opened her large shoulder bag. She took out a photo album and handed it to me.

The photos were mostly of her and Ray in various locations. I recognised the Minoan site on the island of Crete. The two of them were together and enjoying themselves. It was either very real or a very, very good fake. I remembered Ray going to Crete on Holiday the previous year, so I began to feel these there were the real thing.

“I know Ray went to Crete. He sent us a postcard.”

Jade smiled.
“I know. I was the one who posted it in Chania.”

Jade pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to me.

The wording on the top told me that it was a birth certificate that had been issued in Hong Kong. It was dated April, 1996. I could see Ray’s name and occupation. The mother was listed as a domestic servant. Then I saw the sex.

“This is for a boy?”

Jade’s eyes dropped to the floor.

“That’s me. I’m trans. Ray told me to tell you should this moment arise.”

“What moment?”

“Dad is dying. He has four to six months left at most. The tumour is growing. He’s known for a long time that his time left was limited. The latest fall just confirmed that.”

"He's had other falls?" I said, still a bit suspicious of her.

Jade nodded.
“He had two over Christmas. Not serious, but enough to send him to the floor. This time, he hit his head badly. They will only get more frequent."

Her voice told me that she was very sad at the prospect of losing her father.

"I'm going to drop out of University to look after him for what time he has left. Phillip is an angry person. He's angry at me for simply being alive. He can't grasp what it means to be trans, so he rejects it in its entirety. He'll address me in the third person or worse and calls me ‘him’ in a loud voice. I don’t mind. When Dad has gone, I can get on with my life and forget all about him.”

“What about your half-sister? Elizabeth?”

“She does what big brother says. She threw a mega wobbly when Dad introduced me. She could not take that he’d been unfaithful to his wife. It didn’t matter that their marriage had been over in all but name for years. She just refuses to admit that I exist. She has her life, and I won't interfere. Dad taught me to be an independent soul. It is hard. Coming from a big family, and social network back in Hong Kong, but I have learned to stand on my own two feet. Dad… was always there for me when I needed him. I "am just sad that he won't get to see me graduate.”

"Jade, I hate to ask, but why are you telling me all this?"

"Dad told me when he was hospitalised like this that I was to give you this.”

She pulled out an envelope from her bag. It was addressed to me.

“He wanted to explain in his own words before he couldn’t.”

“Do you want me to read it now?”

"Please. I don't know what it says, but there might be some questions that you have. If I can't answer them, then I'll get dad to do that when Phillip has left to go home.”

I opened the envelope and read the letter. It was written in Ray’s beautiful script, the script that I saw almost every day when he made notes about the form of various horses in his notebook.

I took my time and read it twice before speaking to Jade.

“He wants me to be the executor of his will. Why me?”

Jade smiled.
“He trusts you. He does not trust Phillip.”

“Where is the will?”

"In the bank for safekeeping. I expect that Phillip will be looking for it at Dad's home. He told me that he's going down there tomorrow. I'm going to stay with Dad until he is discharged. That could be in a few days. They want to run some more tests."

“How do you know all this?”

Jade smiled.
"I was listed in the Hospital records as Dad's next of kin. When they phoned, I dropped everything, packed a bag and caught the next train down here. I was here several hours before Phillip came barging in, and wanting to know why I’d been let into the building or words to that effect. Like what he did to you, he wanted me thrown out. That’s Phillip all over I’m afraid.”

From the little I’d seen of Phillip; I could see him acting like a bull in a china shop.

“I saw the consultant not long after I arrived. Because I was listed as the next of kin, he gave it to me straight. He told me that when you came to visit as he knew that you would once, he’d found out that it was you who found him, I was to take you to one side and speak to you. Yesterday, I went to the bank in Central London and took out the things I have shown you today. I have access to his safe deposit box. His will is in the bank. Only Dad, me and his solicitor, a Mr Gerrard, can get to it.”

“Won’t Phil start making complaints when he can’t find the will? He seems that sort of person?”

“He is. I will give him the business card of the firm of solicitors who drew up the will, and that's who Mr Gerrard works for. Dad said that they have been instructed to give Phillip a letter from him, but they are duty bound not to discuss the contents of the will until the reading of it after his death."

“This sounds all very melodramatic?”

"It is, but Dad is just being Dad. You know how much he is a stickler for detail. Everything must be in its place and only in its place.”

That I could agree with. Ray was always very particular about where we put his coffee on the table. He was always immaculately dressed when he came into the shop. Nothing that Jade had told me was out of character for him.

The more I interacted with Jade, the more it became apparent that she was the real deal. Most of the albeit few trans people I’d ever met had either huge chips on their shoulders or were very good at hiding themselves in the crowd. Jade seemed to be just a normal woman who was two to three years younger than me even if as she’d said, she was even younger than that if she was a student. Kudos to her for that.

OTOH, her half-brother was in my eyes, a nasty piece of work. Talk about chalk and cheese.

---

When I got back to the coffee shop, as expected, I was deluged with questions about Ray.

“Hold on a moment there, people. Let me catch my breath and have some coffee. Then I’ll tell you all at once.”

The place went silent. The only noise was from Sylvia who was making me a coffee.

After a sip of the brew, I put the cup down and turned to face a sea of expectant faces.

“I saw Ray in the Hospital. The diagnosis is that he is terminally ill. An old injury from his time in Malaysia with the Army has developed into a tumour. As it is located at the top of his neck, it is inoperable. He thinks that he has at most six months left. The tumour caused the fall in his home. It was not the first one recently. That’s about it from a medical point of view but there is more.”

I took another sip of coffee.
“While I was there, I met his son. A nasty piece of work, as many if not most of us already knew. His first words to me were… and, I quote, 'Just who the hell are you then?' which was followed up by 'You had better sling your hook. You are not getting any of my Father's money. I know what people like you are after, and that is his money.'"

I heard a sharp intake of breath from several people. Then there was an ‘ouch’ from Sylvia.

“That is not all. I also met his other daughter, Jade.”

That got everyone’s interest.
“Ray had a fling with someone when he was stationed in Hong Kong just before the handover to the Chinese. Jade is a student in Scotland. If you can remember back to last summer, Ray went to Crete for a holiday. There is a postcard from him somewhere on the wall.”

I pointed to the wall on the left of the counter. It was almost completely covered in postcards.

“Jade was there with Ray. She had some photos of both of them at the Minoan palace of Knossos. Jade, is clearly a very different person from the brother."

After another sip, I carried on.
“I won't say any more, but suffice to say, we have a traitor in our midst. Jade is Ray's nominated next of kin, but a neighbour tipped off the son about him going into hospital and also which one he was at. I know that he will be visiting in a day or so, and will be turning Ray's home over looking for his will. Ray, has appointed me his executor, which will make the son mad, but that is Ray's wish, and before anyone asks, I don't know the contents of his will. Ray’s son Phillip, and Jade do not get along. No surprise there really.”

“As the cartoon says, ‘That’s all folks!’ for the time being.”

Sylvia asked,
“Is this neighbour… you know who?”

“Yes. No surprise there then.”

There was silence in the shop while everyone digested what I’d said. I decided to break the ice.

"Ray is going to need some visitors plus plenty of help when he comes out of the hospital. Who's up for it? Can we set up a rota for visiting, and doing his shopping until he is more mobile?"

There were no dissenters amongst the regulars in the coffee shop. In the village at large, I was not so sure…

[to be continued]