A Story of Now (23 page)

A tall brunette woman with her hair tied back in a neat bun opens the door. Claire immediately recognises Mia’s brown eyes and clear, not-quite-olive skin. The woman’s face is broader than Mia’s though, with a more handsome, stern brand of good looks.

“Hi!” Robbie steps up and gives the woman a kiss on the cheek. Her serious expression softens into a smile at his embrace. “I brought my camera and these.” He passes her the flowers. “And, as instructed, I brought Claire.” He turns to Claire. “Claire this is Mia’s mum.”

“Hello.” Claire is immediately shy and wonders why he’s been instructed to bring her here. She always gets timid around other people’s parents. They never seem to like her.

Mia’s mother smiles at her, clutching the flowers. “Hello, Claire.” She shakes Claire’s hand. “I’m Tasya. Welcome.”

“Uh, thank you.” Claire blushes and obediently follows Robbie into a large living room. It’s a lovely, alive kind of room, where furniture seems to be an afterthought, forced to work around the brimming bookshelves and leafy indoor plants. It’s such a contrast to the sterile beige wash that is Claire’s house, where it’s always difficult to feel completely comfortable. She likes it already.

Mia appears through a doorway in her jeans and work T-shirt with a dog at her heels. “Hey, perfect timing. I just got home from work.” She smiles at Claire and turns to Robbie. “You found her.”

“I did,” Robbie says. “I’ll admit it wasn’t too hard.”

Tasya walks toward a door on the other side of the room. “I think lunch is close to done. Come into the kitchen when you’re ready.”

Robbie follows her from the room.

“Okay,” Mia tells her and then turns back to Claire. “Sorry for the surprise invite. I told my mum and dad about Cam and how you were there by yourself, and they told me I had to invite you to lunch.” She shrugs as if she is slightly embarrassed but can’t help her parents.

“It’s okay,” Claire says. “It’s…nice.”

“Good. I’m going to get changed. I’ll be back in a minute.” Mia dashes up the stairs.

The dog wanders over to Claire and gazes up at her. It’s a stocky, friendly looking blue heeler, greying around the muzzle and eyes. One of its ears is standing at attention while the other flops lazily onto its head. She offers her hand for it to sniff before she pets the velvety failed ear.

“What happened to your ear?” she mumbles as she scratches his muzzle. “Do you need to be returned to the factory?” The dog licks her hand and leans against her leg. She pets him absently until Mia trots back down the stairs, changed into a light-green top, her hair loose.

“This is Blue.” Mia leans over her dog, clutching his snout affectionately between her hands.

“Is he yours?”

“He’s all of ours, I guess.” Mia rubs the fur across his back. “But he mostly hangs out with me. We got him when I was ten.”

“We got a dog when I was ten too. For Cam, though,” Claire tells her. “A Labrador. He was so stupid. Like, incredibly stupid. My dad took him to a trainer because we couldn’t get him to do anything. And even the trainer said he was dumb.”

Mia laughs. “Did he ever learn anything?”

“Only how to get out through the gate when we weren’t home. He got hit by a car and died by the time I was eleven.”

“Oh.” Mia frowns.

Claire sighs. “Mum said she was surprised he lived that long. We stuck to cats after that.”

Mia takes Claire into the kitchen and introduces her to her father, John, a tall, impossibly thin, bearded man in an apron and slacks. He paces busily between the stove and counter and chops salad on a board laid out next to a stack of dishes.

He stops momentarily and greets Claire. And immediately she sees the rest of Mia that isn’t made from Tasya, her slender, freckled features and her warm, open smile. They are her gifts from him.

They all sit at the table, waiting for John to finish what he’s doing. Claire doesn’t talk much but listens to the conversation as it flows around her. It’s a shock to be suddenly removed from the disinfected whiteness of the hospital and the silence of Cam’s room to the patchwork charm of this large, sunny flat. Jarring, but lovely. She wants to let it wash over her in soothing waves of comforting normality before she has to return to her current reality.

Finally, John places dish after dish on the table, fish and vegetables and a delicate, leafy green salad. “Sometimes we’re all too busy to get together much during the week.” He pours wine into his glass and sits down. “So we always try and eat one meal together on Sunday if we’re home.”

“Then we can remember what each other looks like,” Tasya adds.

“And I sometimes get lucky enough to be a recipient of such feasts.” Robbie grins as he spoons potatoes onto his plate.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Claire says.

“You’re so very welcome. I’m sure you need some time away from the hospital.” Tasya serves herself some salad. “And probably a break from the food.”

“True.” Claire takes beans from a dish and thinks of all the crappy stodge she’s been eating lately, all washed down with endless cans of Coke and terrible hospital coffee.

They ask her about Cam. And as Claire answers their questions, she can tell Mia’s parents are concerned and maybe even a little bit disturbed by the fact her parents aren’t even in town. And part of her agrees. But that other small, defensive part of her, that relentless Pearson pride—the loyalty that never will budge, no matter how much they drive her nuts sometimes—wants to defend their absence. She’s tempted to explain how the pressures of their jobs keep them away, but she doesn’t.

They each drink a glass of wine during the meal. John toasts to Cam’s newest reprieve. Feeling the warm glow brought on by the wine, Claire blushes at their generosity and at the easy compassion of these people she’s only just met. After lunch they stay seated at the table and talk. Once again, Claire is confronted with the contrast to her own family, who only stays at the table long enough to eat or finish an argument.

Later, when the dishes are stacked and they’ve drunk a pot of tea, Mia and her father walk Claire back to the hospital. Blue pads next to them on a leash he doesn’t seem to need. Mia and John are on their way to the university. John works in the physics department, a part of the university Claire has never visited. Mia is going to the library.

“Will you be okay?” Mia asks her at the entrance to the hospital.

Claire thrusts her hands in her pockets. “Of course. I’m fine.”

Mia smiles. “You do like to say that. How long can you stay today?”

“Just a couple of hours. They close visiting hours at four on Sundays.”

Mia nods. “Well, see you later. And call me if you need anything, okay?”

“Goodbye, Claire.” John leans in and gives her an unexpected kiss on the cheek. “Lovely to meet you. Let us know if you need anything, okay?”

“Sure. Thank you.” Claire blushes and ducks into the hospital.

* * *

After a couple hours of watching Cam sleep and preparing for her French exam, Claire leaves the hospital.

When she gets to the nurses’ station, she finds Mia.

Claire frowns. “What are you doing here again, weirdo?”

Mia gives her a bashful smile. “So, this is embarrassing, but Mum
made
me come down here and get you on my way home.”

Claire narrows her eyes. “Why?”

“She says you should stay at our place tonight. I think she’s freaked out by the idea of you being at home by yourself.”

“I’m
fine
.”

“I know you are, sort of, but Mum’s…” Mia sighs, as if she can’t explain it. “Besides, you know, it would be easier for you. It’s really close, and you can just stay with us and come back here tomorrow. And it will shut Mum up.”

Claire bites her lip. Part of her wants to accept, but she feels kind of dumb too. The thought of going home to the empty house for yet another silent night is pretty depressing, especially after the soothing lunch today in Mia’s lovely flat. She glances at Mia, chewing her lip.

Plus, she wants to hang out with Mia. She has this way of making Claire feel closer to normal, closer to okay. She takes in a breath and wonders how to say yes without feeling needy and clingy and dumb.

“We can study together.”

“Ooh, exciting,” Claire teases, thankful that Mia took the pressure off her in that easy, casual way of hers.

“Oh, what were you going to do? On a Sunday night? Go clubbing? Come on.”

“Um, okay, I guess.”

“Good, let’s go, then.” Mia turns and leads the way out of the hospital.

CHAPTER 30

Claire stretches out at the end of the bed in a pair of borrowed leggings, her arm under her head, and reads her French textbook. Mia sits cross-legged at the other end, hunched over her notepad. Blue is prone on his side, snoring quietly on the rug between the bed and the door.

It’s cosy in Mia’s room with the lamps on and the heat set low as the sun makes way for the night-time chill. For the first time in a long time, infected by Mia’s ferocious studiousness, Claire is able to concentrate. Every time she glances over at Mia, she’s greeted with the same sight, Mia’s gaze glued to what she’s reading as one hand scribbles notes. Her glasses repeatedly make the slow, intrepid journey down her nose until she pushes them back with a finger and flicks over a page. It makes Claire smile. Mia’s so cute and nerdy and utterly focused. How is it the two of them have managed to become friends?

They eat soup and toast that Mia makes for them and return to their work. Then they study in complete, unbroken silence until Claire’s phone rings.

“Sorry,” she mutters, grabbing for it.

Mia looks up from her book. “Don’t be sorry.”

Claire answers, “Hello?”

“It’s Lorraine, hon.”

It takes Claire a second to work out who Lorraine is. Then it hits her. Lorraine, the nurse. Her heart starts to beat a little faster. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course it is. I just rang because I tried your mother, but I couldn’t get through. This is a sneaky call to tell you that they have decided to send Cam to the wards in the morning.”

“Really?” Claire leans forward.

“Yes. Good news, isn’t it?”

“It is.” Claire sits back as she feels the rush of relief. The worst part is over. Now Cam is just a patient in a hospital, a patient with parole instead of a sentence.

“Tomorrow morning when you get in, come and see us and we’ll tell you where they’ve put him, okay? And you know what? It’s just my guess, but I think he’ll be out of here in a week or two.”

“Really?”

“Really. He’ll have physio, of course, and need lots of rest when he gets home, but I can’t see it taking much longer. The doctors might see it differently, but I doubt it. Don’t tell anyone I told you that, okay?”

“I won’t, I promise. Thank you, Lorraine,” Claire says breathlessly. She has no idea how better to express her gratitude to this warm, generous woman.

“And then I don’t want to see you two ever again, okay? In the nicest possible way.”

Claire laughs. “Okay.”

“Night, sweetheart.”

“Good night. And thank you so—” Claire starts to say, but Lorraine has already hung up. Claire smiles and stares at the phone in her hand.

“News?” Mia asks.

Claire nods. “Cam is definitely going to a regular ward tomorrow.”

Mia leans against the wall. “That’s great.”

“It is.” Claire sighs, feeling almost gleeful. “I better call Mum and Dad.”

She sits on the edge of the bed and dials her mother’s number. It goes straight to the clipped, officious cheeriness of her mother’s voice mail. Claire sighs and tries her father’s number. This time she gets his short, polite message.

She checks her watch. They should be well and truly done with work for the day. Where are they?

She feels the glee dissipate as she tries her mother’s number again with the same result. Frustrated, she tries her father one more time. No answer. Claire clicks her tongue. She feels as if she’s heard the sound of her parents’ recorded voices more in her life than she’s actually heard them in person. Why does her mother always veer between being irritatingly in her face or entirely, depressingly absent?

She lets out an annoyed breath. She just wants to be able to tell them the good news. Why can they never, ever just pick up their freaking phones when she calls?

“Hey, what’s up?”

Claire sighs. “You know, Mia, I can’t even remember the last time I called my parents when I really needed to talk to one of them and they actually answered the phone.” She tosses her phone onto the bed in front of her. “Why are they never there?” Against her better judgement, she picks up her phone and tries again. Voice mail again.

She throws her phone onto her bag on the floor. She’s done. As she sits there and stares at the deep blue of Mia’s quilt, the anger she has kept locked down bubbles to the surface. It makes her throat ache. Why do they get to just leave all this? To leave Cam? To leave her?

Until this moment, she hasn’t had room to dwell on her anger at their departure. Her need to focus on Cam has taken up all her emotional real estate. She used to be grateful for her parents’ perennial absence. But she never thought it would happen at a time like this. She takes a deep breath and tries to stem the tears she can feel coming. But it’s too late. She erupts in a frustrated sob.

Mia slides down the bed until she’s seated next to her. She doesn’t say anything, though.

Blue’s paws clack across the wooden floor as he comes to investigate this change in arrangement and mood. He sits down on the floor in front of them, his one good ear suddenly alert. He rests his snout on the edge of the mattress and stares dolefully at the two of them.

“I’m just so tired and so sick of it.” Claire swipes at the tears making a break for it and then strokes the comforting velvet of Blue’s smooth head. “And I wish they’d just be here and deal with all this. My mother thinks because she calls me a million times a day and calls the doctors and interrogates them and sends her police friends down to the hospital to check on me every five minutes that it’s okay that she’s not here.” She shakes her head angrily and wipes her nose on the back of her sleeve. “It’s not.”