River of Lies (12 page)

“Tilly, Mon?” I heard my dad’s voice call.

I swung the bathroom door open and ran into the hallway and into his arms. He cried out when he saw my bruised, swollen, and virtually unrecognisable face.

“Shit, Mon, what the hell happened” he shouted in panic.

“Tilly” I uttered, it hurt to move my lips.

“Where is Tilly?” he said, panic gripped his whole face.

I shook my head, and pointed at my face.

“Tilly did this?” he said, his eyes changed from panic to overwhelming sadness. “Where is she?”

I shook my head, I didn’t know where she had gone, her bedroom door was open, and so she wasn’t in there, it hadn’t even occurred to me until then that she could have still been in the house. Dad ushered me into my room and told me to pack some clothes into a bag.  I did as he said in a complete daze, my mind had so many thoughts, and they were all jumbled, my head pounded, my face felt like it was going to tear open at any point. Once I had some clothes in my bag, he packed me into the car, and drove me over to Sandra’s house.

Sandra was on the front step when we arrived, and she ran to the car, she opened the passenger door and helped me out of the car.  I saw her look over the roof of the car and give my Dad a look that I couldn’t read.  She helped me inside, and laid me down in Dylan’s bed. I couldn’t smell his scent anymore, because my nose had started to swell and I couldn’t smell anything.

“We should take her to the hospital” Sandra said to Dad.

Dad nodded his head, and the next thing I knew, I was being bundled off into the car again, being taken back to the hospital.  As soon as we walked through the front doors, a nurse looked up from her station, and called out to a man who stood in the corner. The man grabbed the wheel chair next to him and brought it over to me, the nurse and the man guided me to sit down, as they wheeled me into a cubicle. I couldn’t focus on anything, my head hurt so badly. The nurse asked me questions about what happened, but I couldn’t get the words out other than grunts, through my swollen lips.

They moved me up on to a bed, looking in my eyes with small torches and asking Sandra questions about who I was. I closed my right eye and prayed more, I was in so much pain.  The nurse touched my arm and told me she was going to put a drip in my arm and give me some medicine to make the pain ease.  I felt the prick of the needle in my arm and slowly everything went dark again.

In the darkness I turned, I felt like I was in a room, but couldn’t make out any furniture or objects.

“Mon?”

I spun on my heel to the voice that I recognised all too well. It was Dylan’s face that I saw. I almost screamed with delight to see him, he looked down at me a smile that covered his face. I ran towards him, but it felt like no matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t get any closer to him. I felt frustrated and looked to Dylan for answers.

“Stop running Mon, you can’t come where I am” he said.

“But why?” I said in frustration.

Dylan smiled again, and took a step closer to me I could smell his scent and almost feel the warmth of his body as he came to stand next to me. He put his arm out to touch my hair and I winced at the sudden pain that I felt. The pain confused me.

“What’s happening Dylan?” I cried out as he snatched his hand back.

“It’s going to be ok” he cooed.

“How can it be ok if you not beside me?” I cried.

“I’m inside you now Mon, growing inside you, and you will have me again soon”

I smiled and touched my belly, as I felt our baby move against my hand.

“Why did Michael and Shelly do this to you?”

Dylan’s face changed, and suddenly I felt myself being pulled by some invisible force away from the darkness, the sounds of beeping became louder.

When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed, with machines and buzzers connected to me. The room was dark, and I could hear a quiet conversation going on next to me. I opened my eyes, and realised that I could open both eyes. I saw a nurse looking at the machines to my side.  Another nurse stood next to me and looked down at my wrist and the bands.

“Hello, welcome back to us” the nurse that had hold of my wrist said. I smiled weakly at her.

The nurse that was looking at the machines looked down at me and patted my hair.

“Monica? You’re in the hospital, in the intensive care unit, you have been here for two weeks, and we have had you in a special sleep, to help your wounds heal.”

I tried to answer her, but I couldn’t speak, I reached up and felt the plastic tube that protruded from my mouth. The nurse took my hand and patted it as she nodded.

“We put that in there to help you breathe while you were asleep, we will take it out soon”

I smiled at her as best I could. They told me that they were going to go and get the doctor.  I took her hand, and pointed to my stomach. The nurse smiled and patted my hand. And then pointed at one of the machines that had little lines running across this.

“You see this?” she said “this is measuring your baby’s heartbeat. Baby is fine, healthy and strong”

I smiled again, and rubbed my belly, I felt the straps that rang across my stomach; I noticed how it felt bigger. I looked up again at the machine with the lines, and watched as my baby’s heartbeat moved across the screen. I remembered Dylan’s words that he was growing inside me now, but I wish that he had been able to answer me as to why Michael and Shelly had taken him away from us. I lay there watching the baby’s heartbeat for some time, until a lady came into the room, smiling at me.

“Hello, Mon, my name is Doctor Denise, I’m glad to see you awake, you gave us all quite a scare for a bit there” she said. “I’m going to take that tube out now ok?”

She wheeled over a trolley, putting on some gloves and opened up a sterilised packet, she untapped the edges of the tube and told me to cough as she pulled.  The tube slid out of my throat which made me gag. She reached over and wiped the edges of my mouth with a cloth.

“Thank you” I croaked, glad to be able to talk again.

Doctor Denise smiled down at me and patted my hand. As she left the room, I saw my Dad and Jessica come into the room. Jessica ran to the edge of the bed, and put her arms across my chest. Dad leaned over and kissed my forehead.

“I’ve missed you Mon, I was so worried” Jessica said into my chest, I reached up and patted her hair.  “They wouldn’t let me see you while you were asleep, only your dad could come”.

“Every day, I came and sat with you” Dad said.

I smiled and held his hand. Even though I had been asleep for two weeks, I was still so tired, and for the next couple of days I slept heavily.

Finally I was being moved out of the intensive care unit and into a normal ward in the maternity section.  All the monitors had been taken off me, and I was able to get out of bed. I was sick of being in hospital and was looking forward to going home.  Dad, Sandra and Jessica visited every day.  Jessica brought me something she had made with her with every visit. I loved it; I loved having them come in.  My belly was beginning to protrude quite a lot, and it felt like the baby was fluttering like a butterfly inside me.  Dad said that the police charged Tilly with assault; she had been released and was home, but would have to go back to court in a few months’ time.

When I was finally released from the hospital, Dad had organised for me to stay at Sandra’s house, she said that I could have Dylan’s room, which I was thrilled with. She told me that no one had slept in it, since I did after his funeral. Sandra said that I could do what I liked with Dylan’s things, but I had planned to leave them in place, right where he left them, it would be like having him there still.

Chapter Fifteen.

Everyday seemed to go faster than the last and my belly was growing in girth, the doctors were happy with the size and kept telling me my baby was healthy.  Sandra told everyone that her daughter in law was simply glowing.  My belly had outgrown my normal clothes and my back was aching. 

We still hadn’t heard anything about the trial of Michael and Shelly.  Tilly had been to court over my assault, the lawyer said that I wouldn’t have to attend, but I still wanted to be there. I sat in the back row and listened as the magistrate gave a long speech to Tilly about family and the issue of drugs.  Tilly sat in the front row, her head bowed and shoulders shaking under the weight of her sobs.  My dad sat next to her, stiff backed looking directly at the judge.  She had pleaded guilty and the judge had sentenced her to community service and a five year good behaviour bond.  The magistrate said that Tilly wasn’t to come near me or the baby in that time, and she was to enter a drug rehabilitation program.  I couldn’t tell if the tears were all a show, as when she walked past me out of the court room, she smiled at me with hate filled eyes.

I hadn’t seen or heard from her since the court date, and I had no interest in it either. I was seven months pregnant, my belly was well rounded and the baby was the right wriggle worm.  Dylan’s room, that was now mine, was filled with baby clothes and furniture, and I knew that I had to make a start at removing some of Dylan’s belongings in order to fit the baby in.  Slowly I began to remove his clothes putting them into a box, Sandra had said that I should give them away to someone who could use them, I knew she was right, but I struggled with the thought of someone washing his smell from the clothes, not that his scent was overly present still. But there I sat on the floor as I touched every inch of fabric of his jumpers, shirts and jeans. 

In one of his jeans I felt something folded in the pocket, I reached in and could feel a piece of paper.  When I opened it up I could see a phone number handwritten in blue ink, in the centre.  The number didn’t look familiar, and neither did the handwriting. I went to the hall and picked up the handle of the phone as I pressed the buttons of the number written on the page I heard the line begin to ring.

“Hello?” a man’s voice, a voice I didn’t recognise.

“Hello?” he said again, he sounded agitated.

I cleared my throat.

“Uh yeah, hello, sorry, I found your number” I stammered.

“Yeah, so what do you want?” the voice sounded increasingly more irritated with me.

“I want to know who you are. The phone number, your number, it was on a piece of paper in my boyfriend’s pocket, but he died four months ago”

“Whose yer boyfriend?”

“Dylan, Dylan Calder”

There was silence on the end of the line and I wasn’t sure whether the voice had hung up on me.

“Hello? Are you there?”

I heard the man clear his throat.

“I dunno him” he said before he hung the phone up with a clunk.

I didn’t believe him; his silence told me that he knew Dylan. I raced back to the room, and started to rummage through all of Dylan’s belongings as I looked for something that would give me a clue as to who this man was.  Maybe he would be the answer as to why Michael and Shelly had killed Dylan. 

There had been a feeling that gnawed at my stomach since the day that I found out that Dylan had been killed, probably even before that, but I had pushed it aside, but now it niggled at me, like an annoying bug biting at me.  I couldn’t answer it, but why did Dylan even go with Michael and Shelly that night, it didn’t make any sense.  Sergeant Renee said it when I spoke with her, it was April, it was getting cold, why would he be swimming, and he didn’t even really like Michael and Shelly that much, they were my mum’s friends, he only knew them through Tilly, so why would he go with them.

I didn’t want to think that Dylan was getting himself into something that wasn’t right, he wasn’t a drug taker, and he hated drugs.  The coroner’s report had said Dylan didn’t have any drugs in his system, so it wasn’t drugs, but what other reason would there be.  I wanted to ask Michael and Shelly why, but my dad wouldn’t let me anywhere near them, and the judge had told Tilly she wasn’t allowed near me, so I couldn’t ask her.  But I wanted answers; I just had to find a way to get them.

I picked up the phone to Tilly; I hesitated before dialling the number. I hadn’t spoken with her since she attacked me. The court had ordered her to not to have any contact with me, and I knew that by contacting her that it would open up an avenue for her to attack me again. I punched in the number on the phone, and listened to the rings.  After the third ring, I heard the familiar voice of my sister, and felt the sting of tears prickle at my eyes.

“Hello?”

I couldn’t find words, my mouth was dry, and I didn’t know what to say to her, I felt like not only was there a distance in time between us but the wedge that had formed was irreparable.

“Hello?” Tilly said again, this time with an air of irritation.

“Um Tilly, its Mon” I stammered, this time there was silence on her end of the line.

“Are you there?” I asked. 

“Yes, why are you ringing, the court said I couldn’t speak to you” she sounded suspicious.

“I know, I just wanted to ask you something, I wanted to talk to you, can we speak, somewhere?”

The conversation only lasted a few minutes, but we had organised to meet up at the playground. I felt comfortable with that, because they were visible from the road. I knew she wouldn’t hurt me there.  I had butterflies swimming around my stomach and I wasn’t sure whether I would vomit or faint with anxiety.