The Surgeon’s Family Miracle

‘I must.’

‘You can’t.’

‘Then will you do it for me?’ she said wildly. ‘Please…Find…Ben.’

He’d thought she’d been talking about her son. What was she talking about now? ‘I’m here,’ he said, but she was staring straight through him.

‘Please.’

‘I’ll look for your son,’ he told her, figuring she was verging on the delirious. ‘I’ll have the men start a search. Tell me about him. How old is he?’

She was focusing on the point where the canvas had been pulled aside to form a door, as if she was expecting any minute that someone would appear.

‘He’ll be with Jacques. He must be.’

‘Jacques?’

‘Benjy,’ she whispered, and the effort she’d made was too much and it was too much effort to hold her eyes open a moment longer. ‘My Ben. He’s six years old,’ she said, defeated. ‘He’s six years old and he looks like you. His name’s Benjy. I called him after his father.’

She slept. Just like that she faded, sinking into a sleep that was almost unconsciousness. Ben stared down at her, incredulous, questions crowding his mind.

The silence stretched out. He stared at Lily as if staring could elicit information, but of course it couldn’t, and the longer he stared the more questions formed.

A six-year-old boy called Benjy…

Could it be?

No. They’d always been careful. They had been medical students, not a pair of uninformed teenagers.

She hadn’t meant it. He said that to himself, thinking there were more Bens than him in the world. She could have been referring to anyone.

He thought suddenly of the last time he’d seen Lily, seven years back. He’d been excited about the life ahead of him, and he’d thought she’d been just as excited about returning here. But at the last moment she’d clung and wept and then closed her eyes and pushed him away. There’d been half an hour until her flight. But…

‘Go now,’ she’d whispered. ‘Go.’

‘Lily-’

‘I can’t bear it. If you stay I’ll break. Please. Go.’

And suddenly, finally, he knew in his heart that what he was thinking was right. Somewhere in the chaos outside, in the dark and frightening rainforest or worse, in the midst of the hostage situation, was a little boy who was his son.

I called him after his father.

He felt…ill.

There was nothing more for him to do here. Dazed, he made his way back through the triage station to the entrance to the island’s permanent hospital. Sam was sitting out on the steps, smoking.

‘That’ll kill you,’ Ben said, but he said it almost automatically, with no passion behind it, and Sam took a couple of drags on his cigarette and ground it out under his heel.

‘Don’t I know it. But seeing I only smoke when I lose a patient, I’m not likely to die any time soon. Damn, the kid had been left too long.’

‘Another kid?’ Ben said, and his heart missed a beat. ‘Who…?’ It was suddenly hard to ask the question but it had to be asked. ‘Not a six-year-old boy called Benjy?’

When Sam shook his head his heart started again but only just.

‘A ten-year-old girl called Sophia,’ Sam said. ‘Head injury. She was hit with shrapnel. We drilled a burrhole to try and alleviate pressure but she died under our hands.’ He shifted his foot and stared at his stubbed-out cigarette as if he regretted extinguishing it. ‘What were these bastards thinking?’ he exploded. ‘This isn’t like any sort of military coup I’ve ever seen. They shot anything that moved. Kids, women… I’ve even seen a couple of shot dogs.’

‘They’re mad,’ Ben agreed.

‘I don’t like our chances of negotiating,’ Sam said morosely. ‘God help the hostages.’

‘No.’ Ben hesitated and then sat down on the step beside Sam. Sam cast him a look that was suddenly concerned and moved aside to give him room.

‘Do we know how many are being held hostage?’ Sam asked, and Ben shook his head. He was trying to think straight and it wasn’t working.

I called him after his father.

‘I need to get a search party together,’ he said and rose.

Sam rose with him. ‘There are search parties from one end of the island to the other,’ Sam reminded him. ‘Looking for injured islanders and rounding up anyone remotely connected to a gun. Why do you need another? Are you still looking for Lily?’

‘I found her,’ he said. ‘Her son’s missing. She’s just passed out on me-she’s been operating for thirty-six hours straight and she’s closer to being unconscious than asleep. I promised I’d look for the kid.’

‘A littlie?’ Sam asked, concerned, and Ben took a deep breath, knowing it had to be said. Knowing it had to be acknowledged.

‘A six-year-old boy,’ he managed, and took a deep breath to give him strength to say the next few words. ‘A six-year-old boy called Benjy. Lily named him after his father.’

The next few hours passed in a blur. At headquarters the officers listened to Ben’s story-the local doctor’s son was missing, as was her fiance-a man called Jacques-and they consulted lists.

‘We’re searching for them already,’ the captain told him. ‘Others have reported them missing. Jacques is the island’s financial administrator. His bungalow’s in the compound and he hasn’t been seen since the uprising. He’s either a hostage or dead. And Dr Lily told us about the little boy. He was sent to the beach at the first sign of trouble but he would have found his great-aunt dead and everyone gone. Maybe he was forcibly taken to the compound. Or more likely…’ He didn’t need to complete the sentence. ‘I’ve pulled the searchers back now. We’ll search again in the morning.’

‘Why not now?’

‘You know why,’ the captain said patiently. ‘There might still be armed men in hiding, and I’ll not risk our team being picked off. If I knew for sure the kid was there and alive then I’d risk it, but I know no such thing and neither do you.’ His voice softened. ‘Hell, Ben, you know the rules. Is this doctor putting pressure on you?’

‘She’s an old friend,’ Ben said heavily. ‘And she’s been a hero here. In the last two days she’s performed medicine that’d put us to shame.’

‘We’ll comb the forest again at first light,’ the captain promised. ‘I’ll double the contingent to that area. I can’t promise more than that.’

‘And the hostage situation?’

‘There’s no communication,’ the captain said grimly. ‘So we sit and wait for them to make the first move. The last thing we need is another bloodbath.’

‘There’s nothing anyone can do?’

‘For the moment I’m guessing the best thing for you to do is get some sleep,’ the captain said, studying his friend’s face and seeing a strain there he’d never seen before. ‘Hell, Ben, it’s not like you to get personally involved.’

‘It’s not, is it?’ Ben said.

‘Go to bed,’ the captain said, roughly concerned. ‘If there’s any news, I’ll let you know.’

‘Thanks.’

‘And, Ben?’

‘Yeah?’

‘This lady doctor…’

‘Mmm?’

‘How well did you know her?’ And there was suddenly a hint of an understanding smile behind the captain’s bland enquiry.