The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club(29)
‘Yeah, well, if she didn’t drag me halfway across the country – who knows…’
‘Look.’ Dan stopped the car. ‘Listen to me. I don’t know what’s happened between you and your mum, but I’m telling you this: if you want to come out of tonight without paying back for the next year, you need to be smart and you need to grow up. I know, you’re a kid, but if, like you said earlier, your dad’s not about, that leaves a fairly big space to fill and it’s up to you to fill it.’
‘You don’t know my mum.’ Niall laughed. ‘Sorry, but she’s too busy working to notice who’s the man about the house.’
‘There’s one thing you learn as you get to be an old man like me.’ Dan smiled now at Niall. Old is relative, especially when you’re a teenager. ‘It’s never too late to be the man you can be, nor is it ever too soon.’
They stopped just short of a couple of old fishermen’s cottages, solid and modest. Niall’s house was at the very end. Dan could see two women inside clearly, sitting together, as casually as if they were part of a book club.
‘Wish me luck,’ Niall said gingerly.
‘You won’t need it.’
‘Come in with me, just for a minute.’ Niall looked at him now and even here in the hushed darkness, it sounded more like a plea than an invitation.
‘Okay, but only for a minute. Your mother will want to get back to normal. I’m sure it’s been a nightmare for her.’ He followed Niall and waited while the door was pulled back.
‘Oh, God.’ Niall’s mother grabbed him by both shoulders and clasped him as if she’d never let him go again. ‘Oh, thank God,’ she said, over and over again. ‘I thought you were…Oh, I can’t believe… you’re not,’ she said and the words probably only covered a tiny fraction of the emotions swarming within her. Niall stood there and managed to put his arms around his mother and embrace her in return. Soon, a torrent of tears began to flow without any embarrassment between them.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…’ Niall stood back from her, for a moment; raised his hand to his head. ‘I must have conked out and then…’ he nodded towards Dan ‘…he found me and… Mum, I had no idea that…’
‘Let me see you.’ She walked him slowly towards the centre of the room, holding his shoulders, eying his gait and then, she angled his head to peer at the wound that had almost dried now, the blood caked in spurts around the yellowing bruise. ‘Yes, that could have knocked you out for a while all right,’ she said, but her nostrils sniffed the air and there was no denying the smell of alcohol. She was wise enough to know this wasn’t the time to take on that conversation. ‘I should bring you to A&E, just for a scan, to be on the safe side, but at least you are at home.’ She looked now at Dan. ‘How do I ever thank you…’
‘Dan.’ He stuck his hand out, the introductions to Jo and Lucy, quickly made. ‘There’s no need, I’m just glad he’s safe and well. He’s a good lad. This was just an unfortunate series of events.’ He smiled at that.
‘Ah.’ Lucy smiled now. ‘That was one of Niall’s favourite books when he was younger.’
‘Mam,’ Niall said, obviously embarrassed now.
‘Of course,’ his grandmother said then, ‘you’re here on holidays. I was telling you about him earlier. Elizabeth met him in the supermarket. He’s taking over Victor White’s place,’ she said now to confirm the village grapevine was correct.
‘You’ve got me,’ he said smiling and he liked very much the idea that here, as far as these people were concerned, he was doing just that, taking a break – not running away from the failure that his life in London had become.
12
Elizabeth
The two weeks they had agreed on had turned into a month and now, it looked as if they might make it to two months since Lucy had agreed to take over the practice just to help out. There was energy about the place, something that Elizabeth couldn’t quite put her finger on, but there all the same, since Lucy had arrived. Of course, she was efficient. She had completely reorganised how the surgery was being run within the first couple of days. There was no doubt that they had saved time by simply freeing up Alice to take on house calls to the very elderly who had routine bandage changes, heart and blood pressure checks or simply had come into the habit of popping in for a chat in the waiting room and a brisk check-over with a doctor who barked at them.
Lucy filled Eric’s old medical bag with a blood pressure cuff, a pin light, thermometer, his old stethoscope and a plethora of gloves, bandages and dressings. Elizabeth told her to keep an eye on her mileage so they could set up an expense account and they’d see her at lunchtime. She was armed with little more than a list of house calls on that first morning, her surprisingly able qualifications and the effortless charm of one who knows how to handle patients of all ages and temperaments with ease. Mornings, they’d agreed would be appointment only, with enough space between each to ensure that everyone was running almost on time and there was a brisk movement through the little waiting area so it never had more than one or two patients in the queue.
They had set to – Lucy, Niall and Elizabeth – together one evening, emptying out what had been little more than a junk room off to the side of the practice. It seemed, when they entered it, that it was the kind of space where Eric had never really crossed the threshold. Elizabeth imagined him, standing at the door, then hovering briefly and throwing what he no longer wanted towards the far wall, before turning the key on the little room firmly again. It took two evenings to clear it out and although it was full mainly of junk, beneath it all, was an ancient examination table, a beautiful roll-top desk and a generous apothecary cabinet that mightn’t have a whole lot of practical application but filled a corner and if they’d had the manpower to shift it, would have looked gorgeous in a proper waiting room with a huge vase of flowers on top.