Anna slipped away; she knew she had to put in the call to Hope, but she really didn’t want to.
Meanwhile, in a small hot room next to the ITU, Lee held his new daughter in his arms and his soft tears dripped on to Bean’s little brown fingers. He’d never been so grateful or so scared. ‘Don’t die, Min. Please. You mustn’t die.’
Hope
Aunty Betty heard Hope’s profuse gratitude as she stood next to her by the phones in C Block. Aunty Betty was leaning her considerable frame against the cold wall to relieve the arthritis in her knees.
‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Anna. I hope you know how much I appreciate … yes … thank you.’
Hope replaced the phone. Her allotted time was up.
‘C’mere. It’s not easy,’ Aunty Betty said as she gathered Hope into a hug, during which she furtively smuggled the contraband Hope had bought from her with her commissary money across from under her prison-issue blue tracksuit top to under Hope’s. All the while, Aunty Betty kept her eye on the CCTV camera at the end of the corridor.
Aunty Betty was the biggest-hearted ‘bossiest bitch’ on her wing. She and Hope had become firm chums in the time Hope had been inside. She was the only woman Hope confided in.
To all others, Hope was a mother figure.
To Aunty Betty, she was a sister.
It was only Aunty Betty who knew Hope’s deep deep fear of not coping for so long a stretch. Hope told her that she couldn’t imagine making it to the end, couldn’t picture ever walking out, couldn’t see it.
‘Thanks, Aunty. So. Ten past eight. On the dot. OK?’
‘All right, m’duck, will do,’ Aunty Betty replied. ‘Love you.’
Hope squeezed Betty’s hand and, keeping her secret purchase carefully hidden, made her way back to her cell. Once in, she sat down with her notepad and pen quietly, to write to Minnie. This letter would be very important. It was going to be mother to daughter to daughter.
Heart to heart to heart.
When she finished it, she put it in the envelope. She kissed it and licked it closed … She wrote another note and left it open. She watched her small clock. At 8 p.m., she retrieved the smuggled lighting flex from under her mattress. She climbed up on the stool and attached it to the window fastener. She prayed it was sturdy. She tied the flex around it, and around her neck. She thanked the air for all the good things in her life, and she kicked away the stool.
In her cell, Aunty Betty was watching her own clock through a mist of tears.
At ten past eight, she shouted out to alert the guards to an emergency.
All hell broke loose as they rushed to Hope’s cell, where they found Hope, only just dead, with a sealed letter and an open note on her bed.
The note read:
I am Hope Parker. My daughter is Minnie Parker. She is in hospital in Bristol. She needs a new heart. I want her to have mine. Please, please do this AS SOON AS YOU FIND ME.
Beneath this, Hope wrote the details of:
The hospital where Minnie was
The address of the clinic where she’d had all her tests: blood group, tissue-type, etc., to be sure she could be a suitable match
The details of all that testing
The sealed letter had ‘For our daughter Minnie’ written on the envelope.
Minnie’s Heart: A Week Later
Lee was doing all he could to physically hold on to Minnie while she shrieked, and beat the ITU bed with her clenched fists. It had only been a week since her operation, and she was still so fragile.
‘You selfish bitch! How could you?
‘I hate you! You left me – you promised you never would! I need you!
‘I. Hate. You!’
It hurt so much when she cried, but she had to, she had to. She couldn’t believe the awful news Nanna Doris had told her. Lee placed Bean on her, and, because she didn’t want to upset her daughter, Minnie gradually calmed down.
Anna, Isaac, Doris and Glory were all there when Anna handed her the letter.
‘Do you want us to leave you alone?’ Anna was trying to be sensitive.
‘No. Never.’ Minnie was still whimpering; she hurt so much, so much. ‘Please, Anna, can you read it out?’
‘Oh God, Minnie, are you sure?’
‘Yes. Please.’
So she did:
‘My darlin’ daughter, Minnie, the extraordinary ray, the everything that mattered in my blessed life, when you read this, I will be gone, and if they all do what I ask, my heart will be ticking away inside you. I so hope this is what has happened, and that your body has accepted part of mine.
I know things will seem very dark right now, but believe me, the sun will come out soon and it will all change and brighten up, and little Bean will be a huge spark in the darkness to light your way.’
Minnie held Bean tight and looked up at Lee for reassurance.
‘My biggest regret, my only regret, is that I won’t know her, but I’ve accepted that. I didn’t want her to visit me here so … it’s OK.
Here’s the thing, Min. I took you. I shouldn’t have, I know, but you brought a love into my life like I’ve never known. You are made of goodness and beauty, and the world is lucky to have you, and I have been the luckiest mum of all. Anyone who meets you automatically becomes a better person. I did. Thank you for that.
So, my lovely daughter, as you enter your next chapter, there are some things to say:
Know that your father Isaac is the very best of men. Go to Africa to visit him and know his family, and his ancestry, your ancestry
Keep a watchful eye on Nanna Doris and Glory. They are your family, your tribe and they love you
Be curious
