Nurse Juneau's professional composure fractured for a moment. She was fixed to the spot, looking around her, trying to find the source of his distress. Alix hurried to the nurse's side and took the remote control from her hand. She replaced it on the console, then put a reassuring hand on Nurse Juneau's shoulder, as if she were the professional and the nurse the visitor.
'It's all right,' she said. 'It wasn't you. Don't worry. I'll take care of him now.'
Nurse Juneau hurried to the far side of the room, casting a couple of nervous glances over her shoulder as she went.
Samuel was watching the women through his fingers. His eyes were still wide and staring, but he seemed slightly less afraid now.
Alix crouched down by the wheelchair, not wanting to stand over him. 'It's okay,' she murmured. 'You're safe here. No one can hurt you. I will look after you.'
As she spoke, she gently stroked one of Samuel's arms. He gave no sign of understanding what she had said. But her soothing tone and the soft touch of her fingers against his skin seemed to relax him. Gradually he uncurled. Alix kept talking to him, keeping her voice low, using simple phrases.
'Everything's going to be fine, I'm here…'
Samuel seemed more content now. His attention shifted back to the TV screen. He watched in silence for a while, still frowning and scratching and twitching, lost in his own, bleak universe.
Then he pointed up at the picture. 'What's that?' he mumbled through his battered mouth. His voice sounded blank and uncomprehending. 'What's happening?' And then, quite clearly, in a voice that could have been mistaken for that of a normal, healthy man, 'Who died?''
Samuel's brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. 'Did someone die?' he asked, though now the anxiety had returned to his voice.
Alix bit her lip and pressed her eye tightly closed. Then she whispered, 'Yes. She was a princess. She had an accident.'
Samuel thought about what she had said, then turned his attention back to the TV. Alix pulled up a chair next to the wheelchair, and they sat there together in silence. Samuel Carver was watching a line of black cars driving down an empty road. People were standing on bridges across the road. Whenever the cars went under a bridge, all the people threw flowers down onto them. Some of the flowers landed on the cars, but many more fluttered down onto the road, leaving lovely bright colors against the dirty gray tarmac.
He reached out for Alix's hand. She squeezed it gently, letting him know that she loved him. Then Samuel Carver looked at her, a flicker of recognition danced in his eyes, and he smiled.
