A Daughter's Duty

Chapter 13

"Is she going to wake up soon?"

"Mr. E, she's lost a lot of blood! It'll be a miracle she wakes up today."

"What about Mrs. N?"

"She's fine. She woke up after we bandaged her head, and is now asleep."

"Where is Ms. R's grandma?"

"Ms. E is trying to calm her down. She thinks Ms. R is dead. She is old, child, like me. She needs to rest."

"But how to we tell Ms. R about what happened? She'll be horror-struck!"

"Aren't we all, Mr. E?"

I managed to open my eyes as Mr. I left. I was in my room, at home, at Hampstead village. I saw my homey purple walls filled with the hundreds of quotes I had written beautiful handmade frames. I saw my old wooden bookshelf, the histories and classics arranged on one shelf, the fiction and romances on another. At the other end, near the door, I saw Michael sitting on a chair, his eyes closed and head resting on the wall. I could tell he was in deep thought.

I wanted to get up, but then I remembered what the Mr. I had said. I had lost blood - a lot of it. And that was true. I tried lifting myself up a bit, and I felt like I had lost ten kilos I couldn't afford to lose. I realized that my chest was heavily bandaged and ached dully.

Excellent. I was bedridden.

Michael opened his eyes and looked at me. "Finally," he said grinning. "You've been unconscious for the past three days."

"But -" my voice sounded so hoarse. "How - what - ?"

"We were able get you and Mrs. N some first-aid before we boarded a train back to here. Somehow we managed not to get you hospitalized by the train conductors. When we reached here by five o'clock, Mrs. N woke up and was sent back home to her husband. You, here."

"Did we manage to find out-?" He shut me up in the middle of my sentence by pressing a plastic glass of water to my lips. I obliged.

"Mr. A, Mr. O, Ms. M and I went to the other Dunaway's office after you - you fell." He looked at me sheepishly, and continued. "We found lots of stuff - Mr. Hiden was right. Arthur Dunaway is selling unmanufactured oil to Iran, and refined jet fuel to Iraq for their military jets."

"What?" I growled through gritted teeth.

"Yeah." He said. "We collected all the evidence we could against him, and his brother. We made it to Mr. I as fast as we could, but..." he paused, his eyes far away.

"You said that something horrible happened, and I would be horror-struck if I found out. What was it?"

He looked at me, surprised. "You were listening?"

"Only that much." I said, then, with a playful smile, "Why?"

"Oh, err..." he seemed to hesitate. "I made a phone call earlier, to my mum... I hope you didn't hear me calling her 'mummy'."

I laughed, then winced as my chest hurt. Michael leaned closer.

"Take it easy, will you?" He said. "Why on earth did you open that hatch anyway?"

"Jessica Horton was supposed to do that." I said. "Apparently, people drop from heights a lot, because no one even asked me how I was. They were barely looking at me."

"No, they weren't, because Mrs. N set fire to the pipes just then. They were more concerned about themselves than you." He shook his head. "I think you were unconscious for fifteen minutes before she did. And why were you stupid enough to go after her in the fire, Eve?" He was suddenly angry. "What, were you trying to become a hero? Trying to show how brave you were and how you could save lives and how you would have save your parents' lives if you were there? Do you have no concern for your friends and family?"