Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

21. Change of Pace

Kylie had been kept in hospital by four days because her scheduled surgery was postponed by close to two days. Janelle had come in three times to visit her; Amy called in every afternoon on her way home from work and once with Shaz and Alicia, while on her way to pick up Lachy. Loz, Ali and Soph also made routine visits when they could.

The day after Jack visited, Ali and Sophie dropped by and it was only after they had left that she realised she had hastily stashed his get well card under her pillow when she saw them approaching her bed.

When she was finally discharged, Kylie had required nurse Sam's help with the flowers and cards she had received over the last few days. Sam walked with her to the end of the ward, where Loz, Sophie and Amy were waiting to take her home, with Kylie being piled into Amy's car, while Loz drove Kylie's car and Sophie following behind in Loz's ute.

The remainder of the day was spent at home with Janelle, who fussed over Kylie, making her sit down on the lounge while she breezed through the tidy house, doing the dishes, vacuuming the floor and laying waste to the rare flecks of dust in the entire house.

"Mum – Mum! There's nothing to clean, stop cleaning! Please!" Kylie groaned, watching Janelle flit from one corner to the next. She tried to get to her feet, but Janelle stood over her, pointing a duster in Kylie's face, who tried hard not to laugh.

"No – you have to rest up, so sit down and put a movie on if you want."

Kylie tried to continue, in vain, to convince Janelle to stop fussing about the place. She officially gave up when Janelle placed a sandwich on the coffee table for her and selected a random DVD from the shelf and turned on the TV.

Kylie giggled herself senseless when Janelle stepped away from the TV and she saw Stephen Curry's face on the screen, saying "my name is Dale Kerrigan and this is my story ..."

Clutching her stomach, grimacing through her laughter, cried out "oh god, Mum you're killing me! Oh – ow – it hurts – aw damn –"

Janelle hollered from the kitchen, "laughter's good for you!"

They both enjoyed the silence of the house, broken only by Kylie's giggles and the movie. Janelle finally declared the housework complete and sat down next to Kylie just as Farouk appears on screen saying, "a man, he come to my house and he say, 'stop with the court business', if no stop, he have friend who come and beat me and I say, 'you have friend, I have friend, my friend come to your house and put bomb under your car and blow you to fucking sky!'" which only made Kylie howl with dangerously painful laughter.

A few days later ...

Kylie was visited by Jack, dropping in after work to regale her with everything that had been happening and also to ask how she was going. Before he could even ask, his eyes were drawn instantly to her dining table, buried beneath several bouquets of flowers and get well cards – and was stunned to see that his card was front and centre of it all.

Jack cleared his throat and asked, "so ... how are you holding up?" slowly, determinedly dragging his eyes away from her dining table and watching Kylie return to the lounge with a glass of water, curling up on the lounge in her cotton shorts and singlet.

"I think ... I'm doing ok. Like, I'm not in any pain, which is good ... but recovering from surgery, you know, it's no fun."

Kylie sipped her water and eyed Jack for a moment, before adding, "thank you for the card ..."

Jack cleared his throat again, feeling rather put on the spot all of a sudden. "Yeah ... yeah – well – ahem – was the least I could do."

"It's not like you to do the least possible." Kylie said, her lips twitching as if she didn't know whether or not to smile.