Clopwyck River - revised version

Chapter Nine

I didn't see Ruby again until lunchtime. I had to fend for myself in the school canteen as she was on a different lunch hour to me, but I found her sitting in the library afterwards nestled in a pile of bean bags in the fiction section. I was happy to flop down with her and flick through a book about vampires she recommended to me, until the bell went and we agreed to meet at Chancellor's after her shift so we could go to the hospital together.
​I'm waiting in the same seat I chose the last time I was in Chancellor's, and feel like its squishy cushions are starting to mould themselves to my shape. I'm floating on a chocolate high from a gorgeous brownie Ruby insisted I try, and I'm slurping on a strawberry milkshake just as she appears to my side.
​"Hey, the brownie was a good choice then?"
​"Mmmmm," I reply smiling around the straw, the thick ice cream weaving ecstasy down my throat and into my grateful belly.
​"Look, Nigel says I can go early, but he wants to meet you first."
​I almost choke on my milkshake. Haven't I met enough grown-ups already?
"What!? Why?"
​"He just likes to know who's who around here."
​I push my empty glass away and fold my arms.
"Fine."
​Ruby tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and waves someone over. "You'll love Nigel, he's really cool. I'll go take my apron off and I'll meet you out the front in a minute, yeah?"
​I nod, just as a pair of squeaky shoes bustle around my chair. I look up at a tall man with jet black scruffy hair, balancing a tray of cups and saucers on one hand, and a tea towel clutched in the other.
​"Greetings, young person!"
​His booming voice makes me jump in my seat, and I take a moment to look him up and down, deciding that a man wearing a green apron over a bright blue checked shirt tucked into red trousers can't really be described as 'cool'.
​"I'll leave you to it. I'll see you in a minute, Demi." I glare at Ruby as she scuttles off, leaving me alone with Nigel.
​It's my turn to be looked up and down as Nigel narrows his eyes at me, and then speaks again, a decibel quieter.
"So you're Demi-Louise Darnell, Daria's sister." To my alarm, he puts his tray on my table and plants himself in the chair, crossing his legs and clasping his knee with both hands. "The folks of Clopwyck River have been chattering about you since your arrival. It's all I've heard in this little establishment of mine. I understand you had a rather unpleasant episode on your first night here. You've had quite the start in this little town."
My mum used to say you could tell a lot about someone by their shoes, so I look down at Nigel's feet, smiling at his bright blue suede shoes. Surely anyone that matches their shirt to their shoes must be harmless?
"I guess so."
"It's hard being the new person in town, everyone wanting to know your business. I was born here, but I've been lucky enough to live all over the world, but whenever I returned I was made to feel like I was an outsider."
I lean forwards. "So, why did you keep coming back?"
"Oh, I ask myself that on a daily basis, dear girl." He chuckles, his eyes twinkling. "Clopwyck is my home. It just fits when I come back, until my next adventure comes calling. Tell me, how are you finding it so far? Have you seen much of Clopwyck River?"​
"It's okay, I guess. Is there really that much more to see?"
He leans forwards, putting his elbows on the table, and clasps his hands together. "Oh, my darling girl, there is always more to see. Much, much more, if you know what you're looking for."
I blink, wondering if my sugar high has made everything seem more cryptic than it should be.
"What do you mean?"​
He pushes his chair back, flicking his tea towel over his shoulder and picks up his tray.
"I'm sure you'll see, soon enough."
He walks away, leaving me with a puzzle, but not the pieces to complete it.
***
After Andrew and Daria argued whether I should go and see Ben at the hospital or not, Andrew won out and we've just pulled over in the car park opposite the entrance. He ducks his head, squinting at all the people milling around.
​"Can you see your friend?"
​I look at the faces of all the people coming and going, carrying flowers, smoking cigarettes, and spot Ruby, jumping up and down and waving her hand in the direction of our car.
​I stifle a smile. "Yeah, I can see her."
​"Okay. Well, be careful and just prepare yourself for how Ben might look." I swallow and stare at Andrew, who puts his hands up. "I just want you to be ready, that's all. It's not nice seeing people in hospitals, Demi."
​"Uh, thanks, Andrew."
​"Text me when you want picking up."
​I open the door and get out, saying thanks before I close it and make my way to Ruby who is still waving at me like a maniac.
​"Hey! You came!" The automatic doors open with a whoosh, and Ruby loops her arm through mine, leading the way into the hospital. "I can't stay long I'm afraid, I've got to get home and help my Mum with dinner."
​An unexpected lump rises in my throat at the mention of Ruby's Mum, reminding me of a time when I would sit at the kitchen table chatting with Mum or peeling some veg to help her with dinner. I will the lump back down so I can speak.
​"That's okay, I'm just glad you came. Don't fancy finding Ben on my own."
​Ruby's eyes widen. "Do you think he's really badly burned?"
​"I guess so. Leo said that he got quite badly burned, but I don't know if it's on his face, or his body or...."
​We let the sentence hang in the air. The fact that we're here to see someone who set themselves on fire makes the extent of Ben's burns kind of a moot point.
​Ruby squeezes my arm and I draw strength from her proximity. I can't remember the last time I was so close to someone, not counting all of the forced hugs from distant relatives I had to endure at Mum's funeral. Relatives who became even more distant when the subject of who I was going to stay with came up.
​"God, it's cold in here." Ruby wraps her arms around herself as we move along the corridor.
​We see someone in a dressing gown walking in the same direction as us, a few steps ahead. Ruby nudges me and I nod at her, following the person who has bandages wrapped around their head, tufts of hair standing up from angry red skin at the base of their neck. We head down the luminescent corridor where our lead disappears through some double doors. ​
Looking at each other, we tiptoe down the corridor, my stomach doing flip flops the closer we get to the unit, then pause in front of the desk, where there is no sign of any staff on duty.
​I look around, hoping to see an adult who can tell me to go back the way we came, that we can't speak to Ben and that this is none of our business.
"We can't just go in, can we?" I ask.
Ruby puts her hands on the desk, lifting herself up and peering over the mess of computers and clipboards, as if a nurse or a doctor might be hiding under the chair. Satisfied, she drops back down.
"Well, there's nobody here to stop us, and I can't see any signs telling us we can't go in so...." She shrugs her shoulders and pushes one of the doors open. "Ready?"
She doesn't wait for me and heads through the doors. I take a deep breath and follow her lead, thankful once again that she's here with me. I'm pleased to see that the room is small, and not a cavernous ward of people who have suffered burn injuries. Not all of the beds are occupied, and those that are aren't as frightening as I imagined, patients bandaged up like B movie Mummys, sitting up looking at iPads or talking to visitors.
Ben is lying in the bed furthest away from us. Ruby has already spotted him and picked up speed, trotting towards his side, but my legs feel like jelly as I take him in, motionless in the clinical white sheets of the hospital bed.
Ruby gets to his side and turns to look at me, frowning when she finds I've frozen in the middle of the room. She glares at me, beckoning me over like a disobedient dog, but I can't move my feet.
She walks over to me, her arms wide in question. "What's going on? I thought you wanted to see him?"
"I....I....I do. I just.....I can't believe that's the same person I met when I arrived here. I mean, look at him. One minute he's flirting with me in front of his girlfriend, and the next I'm trying to talk him down off a bridge. Unsuccessfully talking him down. What on earth happened to him?"
Ruby moves to my side and grabs hold of my hand, squeezing it gently. "That's why we're here, remember? To find out what happened to him. To find out what he did that was so terrible. We might be able to help him."
She looks at me expectedly, and I finally nod, deciding this is the least I can do seeing as I failed to stop him hurting himself so badly. We walk to the bed and Ruby points at the visitor chair, motioning for me to sit down. I appreciate the gesture. My legs still feel like they're on backwards.
Pretty much every part of Ben that isn't covered by the bedsheet is covered in bandages. His arms are down at his sides, and are tightly encased in the grey protection of bandages from above his elbows down to the tips of his fingers. His chest is also covered, the sheets hiding the rest of the bandages that wind down around his torso. His face and head are the most shocking though, the only part of him that's not wrapped up, but exposed to the harshness of the hospital lights that make his skin look all the more red and tender. I lean in closer, looking at the tiny bristles where his eyelashes and eyebrows got singed.
"You okay?"
I forgot Ruby was with me, and the sound of her voice makes me jump in my seat, scraping it across the shiny white floor. The rest of the patients and visitors look our way, frowning at the girl making all the noise around all these sick people.
I flush red and ask her. "Now what?"
"I have no idea. I thought seeing him would give us some sort of clue, or maybe he'd wake up and.....hold on." She walks around my chair and puts her hands on the bed, leaning in close to Ben's face. She can't be about to do what I think she's going to do, can she? "Ben?....Ben?....BEN?!"
Shouting in Ben's ear is exactly what she does, her voice starting off as a whisper then building up to a full on bellow.
"Ruby!" I hiss, yanking her away from his side. "Jesus, what's the matter with you? Keep your voice down!" I look around at everyone in the room who thankfully don't seem phased by the crazy shouting. What do I know? Maybe this is a tried and tested method people use all the time to communicate with the unconscious.
"I thought it was worth a try." She shrugs her shoulders, both of our eyes lingering on Ben's face just in case her approach has an effect on his state. I breathe out after a few beats – it doesn't. "Is there anything in those drawers there? Maybe his phone or something?"
"We can't look at his phone!"
"Jeez, what can we do then? What was the point in even coming?" She turns away from me, first opening the draw and then the cupboard beneath it, both of which are empty. "Nothing." She looks at her watch. "Look, I've got to go now really. Do you want to walk back with me?"
I shake my head. "No. I think I'm going to stay here for a bit."
"You sure?" I nod, my eyes still on Ben, willing some kind of motion from him after Ruby's stupid stunt. "Okay then. Do you want to meet up later?"
"I was thinking of going for a run later. I'm feeling pretty wired."
"Really? Your first run here wasn't eventful enough?" she asks.
"Ha, yeah, good point."
"Okay, well I'll just see you when I see you then, I guess? Let me know if he wakes up."
She zips up her jacket and trundles towards the double doors leaving me alone with Ben. I sit back in my chair, watching his chest rise and fall, almost in rhythm with the machines that beep and hum next to his bed.
Why is he here? What could he have done that was so bad that the only way out was to do this to himself?
I sigh as I reach out to touch his bandaged hand. "What did you do, Ben?"
"I don't think he can hear you."
Leo's voice makes me jump, screeching my chair across the floor again and earning a few more glares from all the visitors and patients. I think I'm starting to outstay my welcome.
Leo doesn't seem to think so though as he towers over me, his eyes warm and inviting. Jeez, his brother is lying in the hospital bed right next to me and all I can think about Leo's eyes. Get a grip, Demi.
I clear my throat. "I just wanted to come and see him." I turn back to look at Ben's poor face. "I feel kind of responsible."
Leo puts a large hand on my shoulder, and I could leap out of my chair from the jolt of electricity his touch has sent through my body.
"You are responsible for him, Demi. You're responsible for him being alive, I told you that before. Who knows what would have happened if he was alone."
I shake my head. "I should have stopped him. I should have found out what he'd done and tried to help him."
I say the words to myself more than to Leo. I remember the last time we were in the hospital together and how he snapped at me when I asked too many questions about Ben. I don't want that to happen again.
He gives my shoulder a squeeze, sending a few more volts through my body, then walks around the bed and pulls up a spare chair. He puts his hands over one of Ben's, then stares at his face for a few moments, his eyes becoming watery as they absorb the contours of Ben's features. I feel like I'm intruding on this private moment between him and his brother, and look down at my hands, trying to give them some privacy.
Leo's voice emerges from the silence. "So, how're you finding Clopwyck so far? Apart from what happened on your first night here, obviously."
"It's okay, I guess. It's only been a couple days."
"How was your first day at school?" He asks.
"It was fine thanks, Andrew."
He smiles at me, and lifts both of his hands in surrender. "Sorry, sorry, I'm giving you the third degree. I just feel....I feel kind of responsible for you, now." He nods his head towards Ben. "Because of all this. I was hoping I'd see you at school but I didn't spot you anywhere."
"Are we in the same year?"
"No, I'm in the year above you." He flushes red for a moment then grins at me. "I guess that would explain why I didn't see you. None of the same classes."
​"Guess so." I'm pleased to see that he's feeling just as awkward in my presence as I am in his."
​"I thought I'd at least see you waiting for registration. Or at lunch. Unless of course you were hiding in the toilets. Or the library."
​My turn to blush.
​"Have you met anyone else? Besides me." He looks at his brother. "And Ben."
​"I met Ciara with your brother when I first got here."
​He smiles. "Lucky you. What did you think of her?"
​"Um.....nice."
​He chuckles. "That's one word I've never heard to describe her. Look, she's okay, can be kind of a bitch, but she loves my brother and she's good to him so I can't really have a problem with her. Anyone else?"
​"Ruby." He looks at me blankly and I realise I don't know her last name. "Um, she works at the Chancellor's? She's kind of new, too."
​He shakes his head. "No, don't think I know her."
​"She said you wouldn't know who she is."
​His eyebrows prick up and he puts his elbows on the bed, clasping his hands together. "So my name has come up, has it?"
​"What?"
​"Come on, spill the beans. What were you saying about me?"
​"Nothing. I....I....she just....oh, shut up."
​He chuckles at me again. "I'm just teasing. You said she works at Chancellor's?"
​I thank the lord for that cue and steer the conversation away from me gossiping about him with my friends.
​"Yeah, she does, and actually, that's where I met your Dad."
​He wasn't expecting that, and he sits up in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, really?"
​"Uh-huh. He seemed really nice." I wish I'd never said anything now as Leo is now looking away from me, biting the inside of his cheek. "I mean, he just came over while I was in there to say thanks for what happened the other night. That was it really."
​Leo nods his head but I'm not sure he's really listening, and the fact that I've lost his attention pains me more than I'd like.
"You don't look like a vicar's son."
​As soon as I blurt the ridiculous statement out, I wish that the white floor would crack open and swallow me in one go. I've got Leo's attention back, and he's regarding me, a smirk spreading across his gorgeous face as he puts his hands behind his head and leans back in his chair.
​"And what does a vicar's son look like exactly? Or, let me put it another way, whose son do I look like? Maybe George Clooney's? Or Brad Pitt's?"
​I shake my head, now more annoyed at him than at myself for saying something so stupid.
"Whatever. You know what I mean."
​"No, I really don't."
​"It's time for me to go." Panicking, I look at my wrist and am mortified to find that I'm not wearing a watch. I stand up and grab my bag. "I mean, I just, I have to get going."
​His eyebrows furrow together and he stands up too. "No, you don't need to go. Sorry, I was just teasing again. I do that. It makes all this easier to deal with."
​"I'm not leaving because of you. I want to go for a run later so need to get home."
​"Well, shall I walk you out, then?"
​"I don't need an escort thanks." My words hit him like a slap in the face and I instantly feel like a prize bitch. "I mean, honestly, I'm fine. You stay here with Ben. Will you let me know if anything changes?"
​He nods. "Course I will. Hopefully see you around?"
​"Guess so. Bye."
​I hurry towards the double doors, desperately fighting an urge to look back at him as though not acknowledging the massive crush I am rapidly developing on him means that I can outrun it, even though I know deep down it has already caught up with me and is beating its fists against my chest.
​I pull one of the doors open and make it into the safety of the corridor and lean against the wall, closing my eyes and breathing in and out. I don't even notice the middle aged nurse who is sitting at the desk, until she speaks.
​"Are you alright there, my love?"
​I nod my head, taking a few deep breaths and then answer. "Yeah, I'm fine."
​"Just catch your breath. It can feel pretty intense sometimes."
​She's telling me.