She forced her tired eyes open and looked and saw that it wasn’t yesterday the man visited her, it was today, now, and ghost or not he was indeed her Theo. Her tears fell and ran in streams through the creases of the pillows. He carefully lifted her up and held her and they stayed like that until the doctor came and interrupted them.
‘Don’t go,’ she said as he got up.
‘I won’t go far — I promise,’ he said.
Edie, Paul and Gracie were visiting later than they intended because Edie had been longer than normal getting back from her weekly drive with Virgil. Paul and Gracie were ready to go when she walked in the front door.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ she said. ‘I forgot the time,’ and she thought of how she had spent the afternoon wrapped in Virgil’s arms on the rug in front of the fireplace in his lounge room. She got the motor vehicle keys and drove them to the hospital in their lovely Morris Crowley. It was sky blue, like Virgil’s, and when it had just been polished you could see the stars in the night sky in its reflection and during the day it looked like it had been painted with clouds reflected from the sky. Paul sat in the front seat and held tight to the glove box in front of him. He didn’t like being in the car when she was driving. No matter how many times she told him that she’d never intentionally hit anything, he always sat braced for an accident and said, ‘There’s always a first time.’
They walked through the front doors of the hospital. Edie nodded to the nurse at the nurses’ station and headed down the corridor to Lilly’s room. Young Doctor Appleby stepped out of nowhere into the corridor, giving them all a bit of a start.
‘Can you follow me, please?’ he asked.
‘All of us?’ asked Edie, thinking he might want only Paul.
‘Yes, all of you would be best.’
He held a door wide and Edie followed Paul and Gracie into an empty consulting room. The room was stark, with just an empty wooden desk and two chairs. The only other furniture was the examination gurney covered in a white sheet. It’s an omen of what is to come, Edie thought, and hoped Paul was prepared. Doctors don’t take you into a quiet room for good news. They all waited politely while Paul used his umbrella to ease himself down into one of the chairs. When Paul was settled Edie looked at Young Doctor Appleby to let him know Paul was ready for him to begin. The doctor leant back against the gurney and it moved, making him lose his balance. He righted himself and folded his arms over his chest.
‘She’s not improving. We think her heart has been damaged too severely. It’s most likely time to say goodbye.’
‘Goodbye,’ repeated Paul.
There was silence. The doctor didn’t offer anything further and Paul got up out of the chair. His face was set. Edie could see he was making it clear he didn’t need to hear any more.
‘I’d be just as happy to see the real Doctor Appleby, you know. I’m sure he would be just as good as you, it’s only the mind not the body that matters,’ Paul said as he made his way out the door. Young Doctor Appleby looked at Edie for help and she shrugged. He was her father and everyone knew that when Paul Cottingham was set on something there was no use arguing. If he thought Young Doctor Appleby wasn’t a patch on his father, then what could she do? Every time they saw Young Doctor Appleby her father said this to him. But the real Doctor Appleby had been retired for a good ten years and only went into the practice to make sure his son hadn’t moved anything and get a cup of tea from the nurses. Gracie was smothering a smile and Edie looked at her severely. She better not break into a giggle. Gracie thought it was hilarious that the man was called Young Doctor Appleby given he was bald, fat and forty.
Paul was already several paces down the corridor when Edie and the others emerged from the room. Paul turned and walked back to them. He put his finger against Young Doctor Appleby’s chest and said, ‘You should know her heart has survived far worse than this.’
Edie thought he said it as if he was reprimanding a six-year-old. Young Doctor Appleby must have felt it because he blushed. Paul then turned to Gracie and said, ‘His father, the real Doctor Appleby, said you wouldn’t survive, you know,’ and she looked at Edie.
‘It’s true,’ said Edie. ‘He said you were too weak to survive. But you were stronger than he thought and you proved him wrong.’
‘You can’t trust them. They’re all quacks.’ Paul turned his back on Young Doctor Appleby and stalked off to Lilly’s room. Edie took Gracie’s hand and followed her father. Young Doctor Appleby had said Lilly had suffered a heart attack and there was nothing to be done, but Edie didn’t believe that for a moment and read everything she could find about healing the heart. She scoured the chemist for the latest treatments and she finally came across belladonna. She read that nothing regulated the heart like belladonna.
She had already been treating Lilly for a number of years with coca-wine, a wonderful mix of cocaine and wine with the alcohol cleverly removed so as not to cause drunkenness. Without it, who knew, Lilly might have been in worse shape than she was. Goodness,
