Monday passed without incident and was an uneventful day and on Tuesday George Dallas was the nurse of the day and was in a very chipper mood and while he attended to Katie Jack searched in the lounge for the Vicars address book, which only took him a few minutes to locate, and it took another five to find the information he was looking for and he was just leaving the lounge as George was coming down the stairs so he offered him a coffee and after checking his watch he accepted and while they sat in the kitchen he found out the reason for his chirpiness.
Just after George left, the phone rang, and when he answered it, it was Paul Massey asking if, providing she was up to it, he could steal Katie away for a few hours for a Women’s Institute luncheon.
“I’ll ask Katie and call you back”
So he checked with the Vicar and she was actually quite excited at the prospect so he agreed.
After getting her ready he waved her off and then walked down to the doctor’s surgery to see the receptionist Sarah Peters.
After taking her to one side he gave her the names and addresses of Katie’s sisters and asked her to arrange tickets for them.
“I didn’t know she had sisters,” she said
“Nor did we” Jack answered and took his wallet out of his pocket and took a credit card and handed it to her.
“First class open return” he said “and charge it all to this”
“Yes Jack” she said “Leave it to me”
When he left the surgery Jack went across the road to the shop before returning home and that lunchtime while the Vicar was being entertained by the W.I. he had a quiet intimate lunch with Kayleigh.
It was a wonderful interlude and they were feeling very pleased with themselves, they would perhaps have been less pleased had they realized when Katie returned from her Women’s Institute luncheon she would be stepping through his front door for the very last time.
Katie had very much enjoyed her lunch date but she said she was quite tired and would have a little nap.
Jack and Kayleigh were also quite tired courtesy of their own lunch engagement so they fell asleep in front of the TV only waking when George the nurse knocked on the door.
After having attended to Katie, George said goodbye and then Kayleigh left for the day as well and Jack went up to check on the Vicar.
Katie was refreshed by her sleep and was hungry enough for supper though she chose to eat it in bed.
She fell asleep while Jack read her “The Chamber of Secrets”.
As February was drawing to a close the winter seemed reluctant to loosen its grip and as the week went on Katie was in increasing more discomfort and after lunch on a cold damp Thursday afternoon he phoned Doctor Anderson and Carole said she would be calling in the next morning to see if it was time to increase her meds.
Contrary to the old adage March came in like a lamb and gave the inhabitants of the Vale their first glimpse of spring and along with the early spring sunshine the lovely Dr Anderson arrived with an expression on her face that didn’t match the morning.
“I’ll go straight up,” She said
She was upstairs for about half an hour and her expression was no brighter when she came down than it was on the way up and she walked straight over to Jack and hugged him.
“Everything ok?” he asked
“I didn’t think we’d have to go onto the strong stuff for another week or two” she replied “It’s progressing faster than I imagined”
And for the next ten minutes Carole sobbed into is chest.
The new pain management was stronger than before but had a smaller window of effectiveness, which meant the nurse’s visits would increase and within a week or two would necessitate a nurse on duty overnight.
For his part Jack wanted to maintain some semblance of routine with Katie as long as possible so he kept up with the Harry Potter.
Carole gave the midday injection and in the evening Gemma Frost called in at the usual time, they chatted for a while and then as she was leaving she said
“See you at midnight”
Jack was starting to get used to the uncomfortable chair as he read another three chapters from “The Chamber of Secrets” and he only stopped at three, as there was a knock at the front door which he opened a few minutes before midnight to find Gemma standing on the step in the cold night air.
“Come in” He urged her “you don’t have to knock”
Gemma went straight upstairs and when Katie had had her injection Gemma left and Jack turned in for the night.
The rest of the first week of March passed in a comfortable routine in which, day by day saw Katie spending almost imperceptibly more time sleeping and weariness came over her at great speed.
Nothing much else happened though, he saw little of the village and his only contact with the world was through the visitors who came to see Katie and he saw very little of Kayleigh as Carl had pneumonia.
The only significant moment of the week was on Thursday when Sarah called round to see him.
“Any news about the sisters?” he whispered to her in the kitchen.
“Yes” she replied “and no”
“Ah” he responded
“I managed to track down Marion and her husband and they’re flying into Heathrow on Saturday afternoon” she said
“Excellent” he said thoughtfully
“You did mean for me to get two tickets?” she asked doubtfully
“Of course” he said “sorry for being so ambiguous”
Sarah paused for a second relieved she hadn’t over stepped the parameters of her brief.
“Anne on the other hand is proving to be a little more elusive, she and her husband are visiting outlying villages and I haven’t been able to contact her yet,” she said with a sigh before adding “she may not get here in time”
“All we can do is pray,” Jack suggested
After a week without seeing Kayleigh he was very low so Carole suggested he needed to get out for an hour or two, so on Friday lunchtime he left Katie in the very capable hands of Paul Massey, who would relieve him for a couple of hours, and he took a walk around the village and then ended up in the Hen and Chickens and in one corner he found his very good buddies Gemma Frost, Elise Riley, Sarah Peters and her sister Hannah.
“Jack” Elise shouted and the other three cheered when they noticed him as well, it was clear some drink had already been taken.
“Hello darling” Gemma said extravagantly as she stood up and kissed him.
“This is great” he said genuinely “I haven’t seen you all together in one place for an age”
Then Hannah, Sarah and Elise also embraced him.
After all the hugging and kissing Elise was about to go to the bar and get him a drink when Carol Pittman, the Landlady, arrived with a pint of best bitter.
“Courtesy of Bill Abbott” she said
“Thanks” he said and nodded in the direction of Bill and that set the trend for the afternoon as drink after drink appeared courtesy of appreciative villagers.
Jack had to take it a bit steady as it would not have been difficult to get completely shit faced, but eating a big lunch helped.
It was very enjoyable catching up with the girls and what they were up to.
Elise updated him on how things were going with his friend James while they ate, then Hannah talked about how things were progressing with another of his friends Gary Spiers and even Gemma joined in and proudly spoke about her new beau, Toni Vassell, who she had known for years but had only recently got together with him.
Sarah Peters who was the only one of the group as yet unattached though she was in love.
But her heart’s desire, Jacey Linton, another of Jacks friends and colleagues had as yet not done anything about their obvious mutual attraction.
For Sarah’s part she was embarrassed by her drunken behaviour when they all met up in Purplemere before Christmas and didn’t think he would be at all interested in her as she had been so embarrassing.
That was not however how Jacey thought at all, he didn’t find her embarrassing in the least bit, he thought she was lovely, what was holding him back was the fact that because she was so lovely she couldn’t possibly be interested in someone ordinary like him.
However just because Sarah was not in a relationship she still delighted in everyone else’s good fortune, Jack thought it was about time he gave Jacey a stronger nudge in her direction.
“So tell me what you’re all up to this weekend,” he asked
“It’s mother’s day weekend” they all said in unison.
Jack and Gemma walked back up the road together and she said she was being taken up to London for the weekend by her sons but Jack would have a very different weekend.
He spent Friday evening feeling a bit dopey as a result of all the lunchtime hospitality but he still managed to finish reading “the Chamber of Secrets” to Katie and then read the first three chapters of “the Prisoner of Azkaban” before they called it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment