Love Lessons (6 page)

‘Daddy-longlegs,' I said.

We laughed though it wasn't a bit funny. Grace looked as if she might cry again any minute.

‘I wish Mum would come back,' she said. ‘Is it lunch time yet?'

It was only just gone eleven but I made her French toast to cheer her up. We had another round each at half past twelve, and finished all the flapjacks in the tin, and ate an overripe banana mid-afternoon.

Mum didn't get back till five. Her eyes were red, and she was clutching a sodden handkerchief.

‘He's dead!' I whispered.

I started sobbing. So did Grace.

‘No, no, he's not dead. There, girls. I'm so sorry – you must have been very worried. I was in such a state I forgot to check I had any change for the phone call. I had no idea they would take so long. It's a nightmare, a total nightmare. Your dad's going to be so angry with me when he realizes he's in hospital. Well, maybe he
does
know. It's hard to tell.' Mum started crying too.

‘Is he still unconscious then, Mum?'

‘Well, his eyes are open and maybe he understands. But he can't speak, you see.'

‘What do you mean? Has he done something to his throat?'

‘No, no. Your father's suffered a stroke, girls. It's affected his speech and he can't use his arm and his leg.'

‘But he'll get better, won't he, Mum?' said Grace.

‘They don't know, darling. It's too early to tell at this stage.'

I went running out of the room. I threw myself on my bed. I couldn't bear it. I knew it was all my fault.

A stroke is such a strangely inappropriate term to describe what's happened to Dad. The word ‘stroke' implies something soft and subtle. Dad looks as if he's been bashed repeatedly down one side. His head lolls, his mouth droops, and his right arm and leg sag as if they're broken.

Mum had warned us but it was still terrifying walking along the ward of the stroke unit and going into Dad's room. The man slumped in the bed was a Guy Fawkes caricature of our father.

We stood on the threshold of his room, all three of us. Dad's eyes were closed, but he mumbled something.

‘Hello, Dad,' I whispered, forcing myself to walk over to his bed.

His eyes snapped open, making me jump. He frowned at me. There was a little dribble down his chin. He tried to wipe it away, looking agonized.

‘Shall I wipe it, Dad?' I asked.

He made vehement mumbles, making it plain he didn't want to be helped at all. He carried on struggling after his chin was dry. He kept flinging his unaffected leg out from under the bedclothes, hoping that the rest of his body would follow.

‘Lie still, dear. Try to relax,' said Mum.

Dad's contorted face was anything but relaxed. He tried again and again.

‘He's trying to get out of bed to go home,' I said.

Dad glared at me, groaning. He resented me talking about him rather than to him.

I went closer, though I really wanted to run away, out of the room, down the ward, right out of the hospital.

‘Dad, you can't go home just yet, you're not well enough,' I said.

Dad wouldn't see reason. He became more and more agitated, and when Mum tried to tuck him back under the sheets he punched her arm. It was the weakest, feeblest punch in the world, but it made her cry.

‘Now, now, there's no need for tears,' said a nurse, bustling in and putting her arm round Mum. She was nearly as large as Mum, but in an exuberant, voluptuous way. She had glossy brown skin and magnificent plaited hair. ‘Mr King's doing splendidly, my dear. Aren't you, lovie?'

She nodded at Dad and then stuck a thermometer in his mouth before he could groan at her. He spat it straight out defiantly.

‘You're a naughty boy,' she said, laughing. ‘You want to have a little game with me? Watch out, though, laddie – I might well stick it somewhere else if you turn awkward on me.'

Dad decided to subject himself to a thermometer in his mouth after all.

‘There now. That's the ticket.' The nurse winked at Mum. ‘We'll soon get him trained, eh?'

Mum simpered uneasily. ‘He hates hospitals so,' she said.

‘Well, we're none of us here by choice,' said the nurse. ‘I'd much sooner be at home with my feet up watching
Corrie
on the telly.'

Dad groaned again, gargling slightly with the thermometer.

‘Hey, hey, watch out or you'll swallow it,' said the nurse. ‘OK, let's see how you're doing.'

‘How's his temperature?' Mum asked anxiously.

‘It's fine, dear, just fine. You're doing well, Mr King,' the nurse said. ‘Let's just tidy you up a bit in honour of your visitors.' She smoothed his pyjama collar and combed his sparse hair with her long brown fingers. He did his best to bat her away, groaning something that sounded very much like a bad swearword.

The nurse seemed to think it was too. ‘Ooh! In front of your wife and daughters! I'll wash your mouth out with soap if you're not careful,' she said cheerily. She raised her eyebrows at Mum, and then shook her head. Mum shook her head back, though she glanced anxiously at Dad.

The nurse smiled at me. ‘So what's your name, dear? I'm Nurse Ray. Little ray of sunshine, that's me.'

‘I'm Prudence,' I said, wincing, because I hate my name so much.

‘And what about you, sweetheart?' said Nurse Ray, going over to Grace. She'd been skulking fearfully in a corner the whole time.

‘I'm Grace,' she whispered.

Dad groaned as if the very sound of her name irritated him.

‘Don't look so worried, sweetheart,' said Nurse Ray, chucking Grace under the chin. ‘Daddy's only grumpy because he's had his stroke. He'll be his usual self in no time, I'm sure.'

Grace stared at her. Dad was very much his usual self, even incapacitated by his stroke. He didn't
have
any other self. He was permanently grumpy.

‘Go and say hello to your dad. It'll cheer him up,' said Nurse Ray.

She encouraged Grace forwards until she was in Dad's line of sight. He saw her approaching. He groaned again.

‘Hello, Dad. I've made you a Get Well Soon card,' Grace said bravely.

Dad made little attempt to look at it.

‘Hold it up above Daddy's head so he can see it properly,' said Nurse Ray.

Grace waved her card around in the air above Dad. He moaned, his eyes swivelling, as if a vulture was circling above him. He made another attempt to get his leg out of bed. He heaved himself halfway up with his good arm, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead.

‘Oh Bernard, don't, dear, you'll hurt yourself,' Mum flapped, patting at him.

‘I'm sorry, Mr King, you're stuck with us for a while,' said Nurse Ray, expertly flipping him down on his back and tucking him in firmly. ‘It's not going to be for too long. Believe me, we need the beds. We just need you to be a bit stronger and start getting more vocal and mobile. That makes sense, doesn't it?'

Dad groaned feebly, but lay still and shut his eyes.

‘That's it. You have a little nap.'

We said goodnight to him and backed out of the room. Nurse Ray came with us, smiling encouragement.

‘How long will my husband have to stay in hospital?' Mum asked.

‘It's up to the doctors, dear. It'll depend on what sort of progress your husband makes.'

‘Will he get better?' I asked. ‘Properly better?'

Nurse Ray hesitated. ‘He'll get a lot better, I'm sure.'

‘Will he be able to talk again? And walk?'

‘I dare say. Some people make complete recoveries.'

‘But some don't?'

‘Your daddy's a fighter, cussed as they come. His type generally do the best.' She seemed keen to change the subject, concentrating on my hideous red-checked dress. ‘Is that your school uniform?' she said sympathetically.

‘I don't go to school,' I said, blushing.

‘They're home-educated,' said Mum. ‘My husband teaches them.' She stopped short and put her hand to her mouth. She didn't say any more.

I wondered what on earth was going to happen now.

Mum made us beans on toast when we got home, which was quick and comforting. We listened to the radio while we ate, and then started sewing our quilt. I'd designed the overall pattern and cut out all the little hexagons, Grace tacked as best she could, and Mum sewed. It was so peaceful listening to quiz shows on Radio Four without Dad's incessant interruptions: ‘
Don't you know that, you fool?' ‘Come on, come on, speak up!' ‘Fatuous idiot, who does he think he is?
' He addressed the radio speaker, as if all the performers were actually inside, little tiny men, listening.

We knew we had to talk about Dad and what was going to happen, but none of us could bear to spoil the peace. Grace and I went up to bed at our usual time. I was in the middle of reading a biography of Queen Elizabeth I for my Tudor project but I didn't feel like history.

I knelt down by my bookcase and fingered my way through all my favourite old books. I found my big battered nursery rhyme book wedged right at the back, with weirdly worrying pictures of jumping cows and blind mice and girls with giant spiders. I flicked through this surreal world where pigs went marketing and children lived in shoes and the moon was made of green cheese.

I remembered Dad's pedantic voice enunciating, ‘Ring-a-ring-a-roses' and ‘Hey diddle diddle'. I'd never been invited to sit on Dad's lap when he read to me, but I'd sit cross-legged at his feet.

‘Do you remember Dad reading us nursery rhymes?' I asked Grace.

‘I didn't like them because they were scary. He poked me hard and told me not to be so soft,' said Grace.

I hesitated. ‘Grace, do you love Dad?'

‘Of course I do!' Grace said.

‘But sometimes don't you hate him too?'

‘Never,' said Grace, sounding shocked.

‘Not even when he's being particularly horrid? He's much meaner to you than he is to me.'

‘Yes, but that's because I'm thick.'

‘No you're
not
! Listen,
I
hate him.'

‘You can't say that, Prue, not now he's ill.'

‘But it doesn't make him any nicer, does it? Weren't you embarrassed, him going on like that in front of that nurse?'

‘She was so lovely,' said Grace. ‘That's what I'd like to be now, a nurse. I could look after people and make them better and have them think me special. If I can't pass exams to get to be a proper nurse maybe I could go in one of those big homes and look after old folk.'

‘Are you going to help nurse Dad then?'

‘Oh! No, I couldn't! I mean, he wouldn't let me.'

‘So who
is
going to nurse him?' I said.

I felt terrified. What if it had to be
me
?

I stayed awake hours after Grace nodded off. I heard Mum go to bed, but when I got up to go to the loo her light was still on. I put my head round the door. She was still wearing her pink dressing gown, sitting on the end of the bed, staring into space.

‘Mum?'

‘Oh Prue!' She had tears trickling down her face.

‘Don't cry, Mum.' I went to sit beside her, reaching up and putting my arm right round her large shoulders. ‘Maybe Dad will make a complete recovery, like that nurse said.'

‘Maybe,' said Mum, but we neither of us believed it. ‘I'm just trying to figure out what to do. I don't know what's the matter with me. I don't know if it's living with your dad all these years. He's always told me what to do, and now it's as if my mind won't work. Not that it ever did very much. I was never a thinker, not like you and your dad. I was always in awe of your dad whenever he came in to buy his pie and his sausage roll from the baker's where I worked – you know, where the Chinese folk are now. He knew so much, and he had all his books. He lived in a different world.'

‘Well, he obviously fancied the pretty young girl in the baker's or he would never have asked you out,' I said, patting her.

‘I wasn't ever pretty, dear. And it wasn't your dad made the first move, it was me. I got up the courage to ask if he'd like me to do any dusting or tidying in the shop. Then I cooked him a meal. That's how it all started.'

‘And you've been dusting and tidying and cooking ever since,' I said. ‘It's going to be all right, Mum. We'll sort things out together.'

‘I don't know where to start. I don't know how I'm going to cope when your dad comes out of hospital.'