Downsizing (30 page)

“
There was no luck involved,”
Charles informed him stoutly.

“
Care to have a bet on
that?”

“
What do you have in mind?” Maxine
asked.

He shot her a look that said it was a stupid
question, and that she should know better than to pose it. His
thoughts now were no different to those that had exclusively
occupied his mind for the three months since Maxine’s return to
Colebrook.

He wanted her so desperately that sometimes he
thought he’d lost his mind.

“
Go on, Noah, make a bet with
them,” Ruth said, standing close enough to whisper in his ear. “We
can beat them easily.”

Noah barely heard her and made no response.
His thoughts were all for Maxine. Despite his determination not to
put her under any obligation toward him, when she turned to smile
at some off-beat comment he’d made, it only exacerbated the
hopelessness of their situation. Sometimes the strain was almost
unbearable, compelling him to say or do something foolish to ease
the tension. Right now her capricious mood, her sparkling eyes as
she joked with Charles, could easily be his undoing. He looked away
for a moment before turning back and reaching forward to wipe the
thin layer of perspiration from her brow.

Noah pretended not to hear Cassie’s seemingly
inexhaustible stock of information about the men Maxine dated. It
was only to be expected that she’d take up some of the offers that
came her way, although he did sometimes wonder where that left
Greg. The men in question didn’t appear to survive for more than
two consecutive dates, but that was scant consolation.

He noticed the others looking at him with
curious expressions and realized that he hadn’t answered Maxine’s
question. Their eyes clashed, and he felt himself die a little more
inside as he held her gaze for too long. The spell was broken by
the club secretary loping across the grass, his coat flapping
behind his lanky body giving him the appearance of an untidy crow.
He waved a phone in Charles’s direction.

“
It’s your wife, Charles,” he
said, puffing up to him. “She’s in quite a state.”

Noah and Charles wore identical expressions of
surprise. Madeleine was one of the most self-contained people Noah
knew. She and Charles had co-existed in comparative harmony for so
many years by living compartmentalized lives, and she never
disturbed his activities without good reason. Charles pressed the
phone to his ear and visibly aged ten years when he heard what his
wife had to say.

“
Where have they taken him?” He
listened some more. “All right, sit tight, we’ll be there in five
minutes.”

Handing the phone back to the still hovering
secretary, Charles placed his hand on Noah’s shoulder. Dread seeped
through him, because he sensed something was seriously
wrong.

“
What is it, Charles? What’s
happened?”

“
Noah, I’m afraid it’s Josh. He’s
had an accident and has been taken to the ER at St.
Mary’s.”

The news hit Noah like a punch in the solar
plexus. Unable to find his voice, he gaped speechlessly at Charles.
Maxine stood next to him, and without realizing he’d even done it,
he instinctively reached for her hand. She squeezed his fingers, a
gesture that kick-started his sluggish brain.

“
What happened?” he
asked.

“
They were with Madeleine and
Cassie, playing in the swimming pool.”

“
Dear God!” Snippets of
information about paralysis resulting from swimming pool accidents
flooded Noah’s mind. “Is he alive?”

“
Yes, but he’s unconscious. Come
on, Noah, we’ll find out more at the hospital.”

“
Go!” Maxine squeezed his hand,
galvanizing him into action. “Just go! Call me as soon as you know
something, please. And give Josh and Billy my love.”

Noah looked at her for a protracted second,
and then headed in the direction of his car. Charles had to run to
keep up with him. He climbed behind the wheel and floored the
accelerator, keeping his hand pressed almost continuously on the
horn. He ran red lights, took corners on the wrong side of the
road, and reached the hospital in record time. Screeching to a halt
in front of the doors to the ER, he parked illegally in a doctor’s
space. Without bothering to lock the car Noah headed for the doors
at a run, collared the first nurse he saw, and asked where he could
find his son.

As he and Charles approached the exam room
they had been directed to, the sight that greeted them stopped Noah
dead in his tracks, paralyzing him with renewed fear. Josh, whose
small form was swamped by the full-sized bed, was whiter than the
sheet beneath him. One leg was raised up on cushions, his foot
covered with a thick dressing. There was a further dressing on his
thigh, one on his hand, and a nasty gash to his forehead. A blood
pressure cuff was attached to his arm and a drip fed liquid into
his body.

His eyes were closed, but as Noah’s senses
slowly returned to him, he noticed that he was breathing regularly
and apparently unaided. Madeleine sat holding his hand. Cassie,
even whiter than her son, was sobbing quietly, her hands shaking so
badly that she kept dropping the crumpled tissue she was using to
stay the worst of her tears. She lifted her distraught face toward
Noah, looking as terrified as he felt. Noah touched her shoulder
lightly in a gesture of understanding. She might not be the world’s
best mother, but she didn’t deserve this.

“
What does the doctor say?” Noah
asked.

“
He has a severe concussion,”
Madeleine answered. “He lost a lot of blood before he got here, and
they thought he might need a transfusion, but it hasn’t proved
necessary so far. They want to see if you match his type, just in
case. Cassie doesn’t, unfortunately.”

Noah threw his wife a sympathetic glance,
noticing that she was even paler than before. “What type is
he?”

“
A Rhesus Negative, which is quite
a rare group apparently. Cassie is A positive.”

Charles let out a sound that could have been
anything from a cough to a cry of distress.

“
All right,” Noah said. “If I’m a
match I’ll give him every drop I possess. Anything else I should
know about?”

“
They’ve taken X-rays and done a
scan to ensure there are no internal injuries. We’re waiting for
the results.”

“
How have they managed to assess
him, treat his wounds, and do all these tests before we even got
here?”

“
Well,” Madeleine said. “I wanted
to call you immediately but was more concerned with finding someone
to look after the other children and getting here to be with
Cassie. She traveled in the ambulance with Josh. Then we couldn’t
get either of you on your cells—”

“
It’s club policy to turn them off
while on court,” Charles commented.

“
Yes, but we were too anxious at
the time to think of that. Besides, once we knew Josh was probably
going to be all right, Cassie thought it best to let them get on
with the tests. It was some time before we had the presence of mind
to think of calling the club’s landline.”

Noah, glanced at his wife. “How did the
accident happen?”

It was Madeleine who answered him. “I wasn’t
there, Noah. I’d gone to a meeting at the church, and only rushed
back when I got Cassie’s call, just as the ambulance arrived. She
says the boys were playing boisterously round the pool, pushing one
another, but that’s nothing unusual and they’re both good swimmers.
She was upstairs attending to the baby and the first she knew of
the accident was when she heard Billy screaming. Josh had fallen in
the shallow end, hitting his head. Billy, thank the Lord, had the
presence of mind to pull his head clear of the water and prop him
on the steps before Cassie even reached them.”

The first stirrings of suspicion hit Noah in
the solar plexus. There was something not quite right about the
explanation. It was too pat.

“
Cassie?” he said
suspiciously.

She shook her head and cried even
harder.

“
Why all the dressings?” Noah
asked. “How could he have cut himself and lost so much blood just
by falling in a pool?”

“
He fell on glass,” Madeleine
said.

“
That’s not possible.” Noah
frowned. “We don’t allow glass anywhere near the pool.” Again he
looked toward his wife, waiting for her to set the record straight,
but she just slunk lower in her chair and carried on
crying.

“
The shock of stepping on broken
glass would be enough to make him topple over and fall in the pool,
I should imagine,” Charles said.

“
Yeah, I guess.” Noah frowned and
addressed another question toward Madeleine. “Has he come round at
all?”

“
He’s opened his eyes once or
twice but then drifted off again without speaking.”

“
I see.”

Noah took Madeleine’s place at his son’s side.
Josh’s hand was like ice, and Noah rubbed it gently between his
own, attempting to infuse some of his own strength into his son. He
was unable to tell if he had succeeded before being interrupted by
a harried doctor and efficient-looking nurse. Obviously Josh being
Charles’s grandson carried some weight.

“
Ah, Mr. Fenwick, you’re here. I’m
Doctor Fraser. Mr. Turner,” he added, shaking Charles’s
outstretched hand. “It’s a privilege to meet you, sir.”

“
What can you tell us about my
grandson’s condition?”

“
Basically, it’s good news. The
X-rays and scan don’t show any indication of internal head
injuries.”

“
Thank God!” said several voices
together.

“
But he’s lost a lot of blood, and
we might need to give him a transfusion if his pressure remains
low.” He frowned as he peered over the nurse’s shoulder while she
took a reading.

“
Test me,” Noah said, holding out
his arm.

“
In a moment or two.” The doctor
offered Noah a professionally competent smile. “He’s in no
immediate danger. His brain has received a nasty shock, so it’s
closed itself down for a while as a means of self-protection. But
it’s a resilient organ, and we’re hoping he’ll wake up shortly with
nothing more than a nasty headache and a few gashes to show for his
misadventures. The one on his foot is the deepest. It must have
come as a hell of a shock to the poor chap. Shouldn’t have glass
anywhere near a swimming pool, you know,” he added in a tone of
mild censure. “Anyway, we’ve stitched it up, and the ones on his
thigh too, but he may finish up with a few scars, I’m
afraid.”

“
That doesn’t matter,” Noah said.
“Just so long as he suffers no lasting effects.”

“
He very likely won’t. There’s no
hard and fast rule with concussion, but we’re hopeful that he’ll be
back with us within the hour.” He made notes on Josh’s chart and
then smiled at Noah. “All right, Mr. Fenwick, if you’ll go into the
next room with the nurse, she’ll do a test on your blood. It would
be helpful if you’re a match because our supplies of the rarer
groups are always limited.”

“
If I am, I’ll become a donor
after this.”

A short time later Noah returned to his son’s
room, shaking his head.

“
No dice, I’m afraid. I’m just a
plain old Group O, along with the majority of the population.” He
looked at Cassie, but she still wouldn’t return his gaze, fueling
his fledgling suspicions. There was something wrong about this.
Something important about blood groups that he ought to be able to
remember, but couldn’t.

“
Bad luck.” Charles too was
looking straight at Cassie, his expression grim.

True to the doctor’s prediction, Josh woke up
not long after that. His voice was groggy, and his battered face
displayed signs of confusion and disorientation, but he was a
resilient kid and regained his senses remarkably quickly. After
that, he appeared to enjoy being the focus of attention. Once Noah
was sure he was in one piece, he excused himself on the pretext of
needing the bathroom, when all he really needed was a moment to
regain his composure. It wouldn’t do to let Josh see just how badly
shaken he’d been by the whole affair.

He hadn’t taken two steps away from the room
before he was accosted by an official-looking man wearing a rumpled
suit and a harried air.

“
Mr. Fenwick?”

“
Yes. And you are?”

“
D.C. Anderson.” He flashed his
badge. “I gather your son is recovering.”

“
Yes thanks, he is. But what’s
your interest?”

“
I just wanted to ask you, sir,
for your account of what happened.”

“
I don’t know what happened, I
wasn’t there. You’ll have to ask my wife.”

“
We tried to earlier, but her
mother said she couldn’t be disturbed while her son was still
unconscious.”

“
Understandable under the
circumstances, I should have thought.”

“
Quite so, and this is purely
routine, but we always have to follow up on suspicious 999
calls.”

“
What was suspicious about it? My
son had an accident, and my wife phoned for an ambulance. End of
story.”