Beyond the Pain

Beyond the Pain - Chapter Four.

Chapter four.

The next week went by so quickly. One minute the puppies were like tiny mice, the next they were crawling around with their eyes open. They were getting easier to look after, not crying as much and sleeping for longer, although I was still getting up around four am to answer their whimpers. I let them into the living room sometimes when Nick was asleep. I lifted them onto the sofa and cuddled them, sometimes for hours. I liked to feel the warmth of their bodies and the wet of their noses.

Nick seemed quiet that week. I noticed he wasn't as cheery as usual, so I questioned him one afternoon.

“Work stress,” is all he said.

We left it at that. Nick often gets stressed at work. I usually notice a change in him and I've learnt to avoid him at these times. Being a policeman is a very demanding job, but he loves it. He likes to get the 'bad guys' locked up. I think he feels as though he is giving something back in life, doing something for the good of other people. It gives him a buzz.

My mum started chemo on the Friday, so I paid her a visit. She was in bed when I arrived, tucked up under the duvet, asleep. There was a man in the room, sitting by her bed. He looked only a few years younger than mum. He had grey hair, but not much of it; a round, glowing, friendly face; and he was wearing a grey jumper and black trousers, underneath his trench coat. He looked up as I walked in.

“Hello,” he said, “you must be Charlotte.”

“Yes. Who are you?” I asked.

“I'm just a friend of your mother's.”

I nodded. I had never seen him before and wondered what 'a friend' meant. I watched Mum, as I wondered why this man had come to see her. Her face was pale and the usual bags under her eyes had widened. She always said the chemo got worse as it progressed. I was worried about her. She had survived cancer once, but this time she was older and more frail.

“How's she doing?” I asked the man.

“She's coping,” he replied, “better than I thought she would at her age.”

“Are you a Doctor?”

“I was once.”

I was just about to quiz him further, when Jayne came in from work. She works at a florist and always comes back smelling of roses, literally. I heard her dump her bags in the hallway, put the kettle on, then run upstairs.

“Hi Charlotte, hey Frank,” she said, entering the room.

We both greeted her. Charlotte knew this man. I wondered who he was. He isn't a doctor anymore, I thought, so he can't have been looking after my mum. He must know mum pretty well, otherwise she wouldn't invite him over while she was ill. He must be a friend, like he said.

“Mum?” I whispered, as she stirred, “how are you feeling?”

Mum slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. She acknowledged the faces staring back at her and didn't seem surprised to see Frank there.

“I'm okay,” she said, “just very tired and I keep getting these dizzy spells.”

“I've put the kettle on,” Jayne interrupted, “who wants tea or coffee?”

“I'll have coffee,” I said.

“Me too,” said Frank, “you know how I like it.”

“I'm okay thanks,” mum replied.

I hadn't even been in the same room as Frank for an hour yet and already, he was starting to irritate me. What was with all the secrecy? I would have found out all the gossip, had mum not been ill. I would find out later, I thought. Mum needed me at the moment.