care to wait in the waiting room?’
Virginia had thumbed her way through three long out-of-date copies of Scottish Field before Haldane was free to see her. He welcomed her with the same broad smile she’d remembered from the time before. ‘I’m so sorry about this,’ she began. ‘I know this must be causing you all sorts of problems but I’m so worried about Trish and Dr Gault doesn’t seem to take me seriously. I’m at my wits’ end.’ She told Haldane about the school forcing Trish to take gym classes when she was so self-conscious about her skin disorder. ‘They call her names like “Patch” and I know it seems trivial but it’s not to her and it’s what goes on in her head that really matters, don’t you think?’
Haldane smiled and said, ‘It’s all right, you don’t have to make out the case to me. People like to pretend that kids are just mini adults but they’re not. They follow the rules of the jungle until they’re taught differently. I take it you’d like some kind of official letter for the school?’
‘Yes please,’ said Virginia with real gratitude in her voice.
‘Do you think that will be enough or do you think Trish might need some sort of counselling or…’
‘No, really, I think the letter will be enough. If she doesn’t have to expose her “difference” in public, I think she’ll soon start to be seen as one of the herd again and when that happens, who knows, the damn thing might start to fade and we can all get back to normal.’
‘Has Trish noticed any change in the rash since I last saw her?’
‘Dr Gault said it wasn’t a rash,’ said Virginia.
‘And technically it isn’t,’ said Haldane with a smile that conveyed to Virginia some sympathy with her views on James Gault.
‘She hasn’t mentioned anything. Fading, you mean?’
‘No… just anything.’
Virginia shook her head.
‘If she does, let me know, will you?’
Virginia waited again in the waiting room while Haldane wrote the letter and finally delivered it to her in a sealed envelope marked, ‘To Whom It May Concern’. She left the surgery with a lightness in her step. She was going to be late for work again but she had the letter and Trish would be pleased. They could have an evening free of fretting and angst. She started planning a surprise trip to the Dominion, their local cinema. They might even have a burger afterwards — if only to spite the medical profession.
May 2007
‘What’s up?’ Virginia asked Trish in response to her silence.
‘It’s not getting better,’ said Trish.
‘The doctors did say it might take some time.’
‘Mum, they’ve no idea what it is let alone how long it’s going to take to clear up.’
‘But they said it was vitiligo.’
‘I looked it up on the net. They’ve given it a name but they’ve no idea what it is or what causes it.’
‘You don’t want to believe everything you read on the net, love. It’s full of half truths and downright lies.’
Virginia could see that she was not getting through to Trish who seemed to be on a worrying downward spiral.
‘I think it’s getting worse…’
Virginia was alarmed. ‘You mean it’s spreading?’
‘Spreading… and changing… my skin feels funny…’
‘Let me see.’
Virginia examined Trish’s arm but couldn’t see anything different. She didn’t want to say this to Trish so she said, ‘Dr Haldane said we should get back in touch if you noticed any changes. I’ll make an appointment first thing in the morning.’
Virginia couldn’t get an appointment for Trish until the evening surgery session. She hoped to get away sharp from work but it was ten past five before she was finished and she was out of breath from the run home from the bus stop when she opened the front door. ‘Trish, I’m home. Did you think I’d got lost?’
There was no answer. ‘Trish? Are you in?’
Virginia was puzzled. She had expected to find Trish ready and waiting to go round to the surgery. She looked in the living room and then Trish’s bedroom before realising that she could hear a gas burner on in the kitchen. ‘Trish?’ she said, pushing open the door.
Trish was on the floor. She was sitting at a strange angle with her back propped up against one of the cupboards. Her arm was bare and livid flesh was peeling off it from where she had obviously suffered severe burns. The gas flames from a front burner on the hob and the pot lying on its side on the floor beside her told a horrifying tale of boiling water.
Virginia’s throat went into spasm and for a moment she couldn’t speak as she fell to her knees beside Trish, her mind a whirlpool of shock and terror. ‘Oh my God, Trish… oh my God…Trish, speak to me…’
Trish appeared to be in shock. She was staring unseeingly into the middle distance with glazed eyes. She seemed frighteningly calm when Virginia expected her to be writhing in pain. ‘I didn’t feel…’
Virginia completed the sentence in her head… I didn’t feel I could stand it any more… Her daughter had tried to burn the rash off with boiling water… She got up and punched three nines into the kitchen phone on the wall with a shaking forefinger and without taking her eyes off her daughter. She almost screamed her request for an ambulance but the calm voice of the operator talked her into giving all relevant information.
Virginia was only vaguely aware of well-meaning neighbours asking what was wrong as she followed the stretcher bearing her daughter downstairs to the ambulance. ‘An accident…’ she murmured. ‘Trish has had an accident…’
Virginia was an hour into her vigil at Trish’s bedside when she became aware of someone appearing at her shoulder. She glanced up and saw that it was Scott Haldane.
‘How is she?’ he asked.
‘Sleeping. They sedated her. They’re not sure yet about her arm… how did you know?’
‘When you didn’t turn up at the surgery I popped round to see what was wrong. The neighbours told me about the accident.’
‘Accident?’ murmured Virginia bitterly.
Haldane felt his blood run cold. ‘What are you saying?’ he whispered hoarsely.
Virginia didn’t take her eyes from her sleeping daughter. ‘Trish decided to treat the rash in her own way…’
Haldane shook his head in horror. ‘No,’ he protested. ‘Trish is a perfectly level-headed girl. She was upset but she wouldn’t do anything like that…’
‘It’s what she said,’ interrupted Virginia.
Haldane shook his head. ‘Tell me exactly what she said.’
‘She said she didn’t feel she could go on.’
Haldane shook his head again as if unwilling to believe what he was hearing and then a thought seemed to occur to him. ‘Tell me again,’ he said. ‘Her precise words, nothing else.’
Virginia looked at him as if he were making some kind of a mountain out of a molehill but rather than argue she took the easiest course of action and said, ‘She said, “I didn’t feel…” She didn’t have to say any more. I knew what she meant. I’m her mother.’ She looked up at Haldane and saw the questioning look on his face. ‘What is it?’
Haldane behaved as if he hadn’t heard her. He gave her a preoccupied look and mumbled something about having to go.
FOUR
Marlborough Court
London
July 2007
