I'VE SEEN HER! (COMPLETE)

Chapter 4

A few days later a knock came to the door during a downpour. I opened it to see a woman soaked to the skin, frail and shivering. It was too dark to make her our straightaway but once she looked up, even for that fleeting moment I recognised her as Emily's mother.

"Did you see my daughter?" her voice weak and drown by the storm.

"Come inside," I said moving back.

She shook her head.

"Did you see her?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Thank you," she mumbled and walked away. She got half way down the path when her feet gave way and she collapsed.

I placed the door on the latch and ran out to her. She began to come around as the rain hit her face.

"Come on, let's get you inside in the warm," I said hauling her in through the door.

I lay her on the sofa just as she passed out again. I contemplated ringing an ambulance but rang the number they had left before first.

"James Cavendish."

"James, it's Melanie. Your sister has just shown up at my door and collapsed."

"What!" his voice full of immediate panic.

"I have carried her into the sofa. Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"Yeah, I am about ten minutes away. Ring me if there is any change."

I rang 999 and was kept on the line until the medic arrived and then an ambulance. They stripped her wet clothes and wrap her in a blanket as they rubbed her down to get heat into her. James arrived just as they were carrying her out. 

"What happened?" he asked.

"She knocked the door and asked if I had seen her daughter, I nodded. She turned and walked away, but collapsed a few steps away," I explained feeling terrible.

His hands went to his head with stress.

"Can you follow us?" the ambulance called.

I nodded.

"I'll drive," James said rushing us over to a van the minute I closed the front door. He spent the entire journey on the phone repeating what I had told him to her husband and driving like a maniac.

When we arrived at the hospital we were taken through to the emergency unit and I was questioned again by the team seeing to her. I confirmed that she had not hit her head, more slumped to the ground and then onto my flowerbed. She had appeared weak before she left the doorway and had come around enough to allow me to bring her indoors before passing out again. Her husband arrived shortly after and passed James a sleeping child as he rushed over to the bed.

"I'm going to get out of your way. If you need anything you have my number," I said feeling out of place and partly to blame.

He nodded and looked back to his sister as her husband covered her face in feathered kisses.

I walked down the corridor as a woman in her fifties rushed past me calling James. As I walked out of the hospital I realised I didn't have my car to drive home so would need to call a taxi. I walked across the ambulance bay to main road and looked up and down to see which way to walk. The rain had luckily eased off.

"Melanie!" James called waving as he ran over to me. "I'll drop you back!"

"No it's ok I can get a taxi. You should stay inside," I said hurrying off down the street.

"At least let me hail you one," he said following me.

"I'm ok."

He whistled loudly and a taxi I hadn't even seen pulled up on the opposite side of the road before doing a u turn to our side. James opened the door for me and I climbed in. I watched as he gave my address and handed the driver some money.