“The memory is still so vivid in my mind. You know Sam and I would go to the end of the world for you two. You’re part of us. We love you both to bits. Go, I’ll tend to the dinner, you go and sit with Daniel, he hates to be left alone.”
“I love you so much, Auntie Gail. Don’t ever think I take you for granted because I would never do that.”
“I’m aware of that. Shoo… out of my kitchen; otherwise, you’ll have me spilling my tears in the casserole and we can’t have that, can we?”
Megan hugged her aunt again and returned to the lounge. She sat next to her brother, running the small car across his legs and up his arms, making him groan in delight. She mopped up his dribble again and kissed him on the forehead. Squeezing him lightly, she whispered, “Revenge will be ours soon, sweetie. You might not be aware of what’s going on, but I will never forget what those fuckers did to you… to our parents. I love you so much.”
“It’s always wonderful to see you two together, Megan.”
She spun around, surprised to see her uncle standing there, beaming at her. Shit! Had he overheard what she’d said to Daniel? Judging by the loving expression on his chubby face, she didn’t think so.
Megan met her uncle in the middle of the room, and they hugged tightly and kissed each other on the cheek. “How are you, Uncle Sam?”
“Oh, you know, could be better, but there again I could be worse. We muddle through, don’t we?”
“You know you only need to ring me if you need help with Daniel, don’t you?”
“Yes. Except I wasn’t talking about your brother, I was talking about work. They told me today that they were,” he glanced back at the kitchen door and whispered the rest of his sentence, “cutting my hours in half.”
Megan gasped. “Bloody hell. How will you cope?”
“That’s not your concern, love. We’ll cope, even if we have to apply for extra benefits, we’ll make sure we cope. On the bright side, it’ll allow me to spend more time with my pal here.” He went over to Daniel and fist bumped him. “Hey, Daniel, we’ll have fun spending more time together.”
With that, Gail came back into the room. “Oh, Lord, what are you planning now? The last excursion we took to feed the ducks ended up with you fishing Daniel out of the lake.”
“What?” Megan said, horrified.
Her uncle slung his arm around Megan’s shoulders and tutted. “Don’t listen to her. There was a slope, I took a picture with my camera and forgot to apply the brake on Daniel’s chair. He rolled down the hill and into the edge of the water. He loved it, wouldn’t stop laughing.” He pinched Daniel’s cheek. “Didn’t you, mate? Being up close and personal with the ducks.”
Daniel shared a special smile with them. “Me, Me, duck!”
They all laughed. Megan mopped up the dribble again as if it were second nature. “Maybe we can all go to the park soon and feed the ducks? It’s been a while since I did anything as exciting as that.”
“We’ll see. Right. Go wash your hands, you, horrible lot. Dinner will be ready in five minutes,” Gail ordered.
Uncle Sam raced out of the room and up the stairs to get changed, while Megan wheeled her brother into his specially adapted bathroom in the downstairs extension the council had recently funded. It had everything installed to make Daniel’s life easier. There was a hoist on a rail that led into the box-shaped shower room, so Auntie Gail was able to place Daniel in the hoist and easily transport him to take a shower every morning. She’d told Megan that lately, Daniel’s personal hygiene had intensified as he seemed to soil himself more and more during the day.
It was an anxious time for all of them, caring for Daniel. Although the lion’s share fell on her aunt’s and uncle’s shoulders, she made sure to help when she could.
She wheeled him up to the sink, ran the hot water and added just enough cold to lower the temperature to tepid. She dipped his blue flannel in the water and smothered it in soap. His head juddered from side to side, anticipating what she was about to do. “Now sit still, wriggler.”
“Me, Me, ducks!”
“She laughed. You are funny. I’m not going to wet you that much, just enough to clean you up. Don’t you want your dinner, Daniel?”
“Me, Me, ducks!”
“I’ll take you to see the ducks at the weekend, I promise, all right? Now, be good and stay still for Megan.”
“Me, Me, love you.”
Her heart swelled with joy and love. Her brother truly was the sweetest person she knew. His life had imploded the night of the accident, and now this was what they all had to contend with. While none of them complained about caring full-time for him, there were times when she wished she had her old brother back. The brother she used to go on adventure holidays with, who she loved nothing more than to embark on rock-climbing and windsurfing expeditions with. All that was a distant memory for both of them now, if Daniel even remembered those times.
After cleaning his face and hands and drying them thoroughly, she wheeled him back through the house and into the kitchen. He sat at the head of the oblong table with Megan on one side of him and Auntie Gail on the other. They took it in turn to feed him while trying to feed themselves at the same time. It was a routine they’d come up with a long time ago; it allowed everyone to enjoy their meals while they were still hot, and all four of them ate together instead of enduring staggered sittings. They were a unit, each of them having a role to play in caring for Daniel so his life was as normal as they
