Gino’s Arranged Bride

‘Yes-yes-I’ll be there as quickly as I can,’ she assured someone.

‘What is it?’ he asked when she’d hung up.

‘That was my son. My daughter-in-law has gone into labour a month early, and there are complications. Oh, dear, I need to go to them as soon as possible.’

‘I’ll call you a taxi while you pack,’ he said at once. ‘And I’ll stay here, so Nikki can’t come to any harm.’

The taxi arrived a few minutes later. Gino saw Mrs Baxter into it and waved her off with many expressions of good luck.

Now he could he settle down with his uneaten slice of nut cake. It was delicious. After arguing with his conscience for a moment he decided that he could easily buy another cake for the others, and cut himself a second slice. It was as delicious as the first.

As he mulled over the thought of a third slice, he became aware that something strange was happening. The cake had started to move. Before his eyes it grew larger, then smaller. He reached out to touch it, but it wasn’t where it ought to have been.

A feeling of nausea attacked him. His head was swelling like a balloon, while his throat became tighter.

He couldn’t breathe. Struggling to his feet, he kicked the chair over. He fought for air but only managed to make a horrible noise, and tearing open his shirt gave him no relief. The tightness was inside. Iron fingers seemed to grip his throat as though someone was intent on choking the life out of him.

He wasn’t aware of falling but he knew he must have done when his head hit the floor. Half in and half out of consciousness, he saw the furniture looming over him, menacing.

He must reach the telephone in the hall and call for help. But there were lead weights on his limbs and it was a huge effort to move them. Slowly he dragged himself an inch forward, then another inch. The pounding in his head grew louder, like a drum banging.

He knew now that he was dying.

Blackness swamped him, he didn’t know how long for. He was partly drawn back by a scream.

‘Daddy, Daddy!’

Someone was shaking him. The mist cleared a little, just enough for him to make out a pink rabbit. He stared, trying to make some sense of it, then of the blue rabbit that appeared beside it.

‘Daddy!’

Nikki’s face appeared, frantic and tearful. The rabbits were on her pyjamas, he remembered. Yes, that was it. But why was she here when she should be upstairs, asleep? Laura would be annoyed that he wasn’t doing a better job of babysitting, but he wasn’t going to see Laura again. He was dying. He knew that.

Then he lost sight of her, but he could still hear her from the hall, screaming, ‘Ambulance! My daddy’s dying-’

With every moment it grew harder to breathe. It would be over soon. But Nikki was there again, plumping down on the floor beside him, crying to him.

‘They’re on their way, but they say you’ve got to be calm-if you fight for breath it gets harder. Try to be calm slowly-slowly-slowly-’

She wasn’t making any sense. He couldn’t breathe at all, never mind slowly. But gradually her voice seemed to penetrate his subconscious. Without meaning to, he ceased fighting and lay, his eyes on her, feeling the world slip away from him.

In the distance a bell shrilled-voices-strangers wearing green and yellow coming into the kitchen, kneeling beside him, Nikki talking through her tears. Someone fitted an oxygen mask over his face, and then he really did pass out.

Laura, returning home, found the house empty and a note on the kitchen table. Printed across the top was the word Paramedics. It said, ‘Your husband collapsed and was taken to Canning Hospital. Your daughter came with him.’

The roads were quiet and even in the cranky old car she made the hospital in a few minutes. Entering the Emergency department she saw Nikki almost at once. The little girl threw herself into her mother’s arms, sobbing wildly.

‘What’s happened?’ she asked tensely.

‘We’re not quite certain yet,’ a tired young woman doctor told her, ‘but your husband may have a nut allergy.

‘My-?’

‘Could you let us know his name? Your little girl just said “Daddy” when she called the ambulance.’

‘You did that?’ she looked at Nikki.

‘I woke up. There was a noise downstairs, a big clatter, and I went down. He was on the floor, choking, and he was a terrible colour-’

‘So she did exactly the right thing and called the ambulance,’ the doctor said. ‘Almost certainly saved his life. His throat swelled up so much that he was choking to death.’

‘The woman on the phone said I should try to calm him down,’ Nikki said, ‘and I did try, but I don’t know if it worked.’

‘The paramedics seem to think that it did,’ said the doctor. ‘You helped him a lot. We’ve inserted a tube into his windpipe and he’s breathing through that at the moment.’

‘Is he going to be all right?’ Laura asked in alarm.

‘I think so. I’ve given him an injection and it seems to be working. It would help if I knew the precise nature of the allergy.’

‘But I don’t know-’ she faltered.

‘He was eating the nut cake, Mummy,’ Nikki explained. ‘I know because he still had a bit in his hand, and there’s lots of different nuts in it.’

‘And he wouldn’t have started it if he’d known he was allergic,’ Laura said. ‘So there must have been something in there he’d never had before.’

‘Could I have his name please?’

‘Gino Farnese,’ she said in a daze. ‘Can I see him?’

‘Yes, of course, but I’m not sure that your little girl should see him as he is. He doesn’t look very nice right now.’

At these words Nikki clutched her mother more tightly, and her mouth set in mulish lines.

‘I’m sure he doesn’t,’ Laura said. ‘But I guess he must have looked pretty scary when he collapsed. Nikki didn’t lose her head, and I think she needs to see that he’s still with us.’

Despite her resolute words Laura almost cried out at the sight of Gino lying in the hospital bed. His face was still swollen and the tube in his neck looked brutal, although she knew it was keeping him alive. She bit her lips to keep back her emotion.

At that moment Gino opened his eyes and saw them. His swollen mouth moved in an attempt at speech.

‘Don’t talk,’ she said urgently. ‘I know everything that happened. Nikki told me.’

‘Mrs Baxter,’ he mouthed. ‘Baby-early-’

‘Her first grandchild is due,’ Laura remembered. ‘It came early? She had to go?’

By the way he relaxed she knew she’d got it right.

‘Nikki-’ His lips shaped Nikki’s name.

‘She found you and called the ambulance.’

‘Said-keep-calm-’

Gino’s eyes closed. He looked as if the effort had exhausted him.

Nikki climbed into Laura’s lap, and the two of them sat, arms entwined, silently watching the bed. Now that the first shock was abating, the place where it had been was filling up with horror as she realised how close to death Gino had come.

And it had happened without warning, out of the blue, because of a weakness he had never known that he had. Nothing and nobody was safe, she brooded. Life could snatch everything from you, just like that.

‘Is he really going to be all right?’ she asked a nurse who came in to glance at some charts.

‘His results are getting better all the time. The swelling’s going down and we’ll be able to take the tube out soon.’

‘Then I’ll come back tomorrow.’