Sleepwalk (4 page)

And then they moved her. An empty bed was brought in and the girl was wheeled away in her bed; the dark haired man in hot pursuit.

Ellie stared across at the empty space.

‘Lunch is on its way’ said a cheery voice. Anita was on duty and was writing something on the clip chart at the foot of her bed.

‘Where have they taken her?’ asked Ellie.

‘To an observation room a little farther up; closer to the desk so we can keep an eye on her.’

‘It was touch and go last night wasn’t it? I saw them rushing her away.’

Anita looked puzzled.

‘You must be mistaken Ellie. She’s been quite stable since they brought her in............

And they certainly haven’t rushed her off anywhere. Now you try and get some rest dear. Doctor will be round after lunch.’

Rest! Rest was what she hated the most. Ellie sank back into her freshly ‘plumped’ pillows. Had it been a dream?

‘Anita?’

‘Yes dear?’

‘Please .......... keep an extra special eye on Sarah. I have this feeling about her.’

The nurse looked shocked initially, then smiled and went about her duties.

That night while Ellie slept, Sarah went into cardiac arrest and the dark haired man left the hospital, never to return.

Ellie had been in hospital fo
r two weeks
. She could walk now, but only with the aid of crutches and even then she needed help. She couldn’t put any pressure on her right leg at all so it came as quite a surprise
when Nurse Helen Dawson on the n
ight shift saw her hobbling unaided through the ward intent on reaching the double doors at the end of the corridor that led to freedom.

‘Ellie!’ She
rushed to her
patient’s
side and reached f
or her
arm
... ‘What are you
doing?’

‘Get off!’ Ellie turned on her and Helen saw that her beauty had vanished beneath a wide eyed vacant
expression and an
angry veil of bitterness
as she pushed using both her arms with some force until Helen felt herself falling backward in the corridor and felt her back jar as it hit the wall.

‘Bloody well lemme ……bloomin – derrer
…
Bitch!’

Ellie turned and began to hobble falling occasionally against the walls and then smashed into an empty trolley
and hung onto its rail for a few seconds
, still mumbling nonsensically
. Helen could do nothing but watch. She felt her heartbeat quicken with the shock of what had just happened.
After a few seconds Ellie seemed to have a renewed strength and took off again
back the way she had come.
The nearest phon
e was the other side of this patient who at least now was
heading in the right direc
tion
.
She
seemed to know exactly
where her bed was
and was using her broken limbs with some ease.
Once Ellie was safely past the desk the nurse called security
and sent for the duty d
octor then followed her at a safe distance
;
watched her climb awkwardly into bed and curl up in a ball with the exception of her plastered leg which was hanging over one side.
She
was sound aslee
p before reinforcements arrived, a picture of innocence.

‘At least we now know the
probable cause leading to
your wife’s injuries and we can look at ways to treat her problem and
help
pre
vent any further injuries’ the d
octor was saying. ‘Somnambulism or
sleep-w
alking as it is
known is not very common in adults. Children and adolescents
are more likely candidates. I’d like to carry out some tests on Ellie to rule out certain causes. I have booked her in for another CT scan
. T
he
re are no further signs of any infection, i
nternal bleeding or clotting but we would like to check for any other abnormalities.’

‘What, like a tumour or something? Is that what you suspect Doctor?’

‘
It’s
too earl
y to say at this stage but there are a number of things we need to rule out before we can proceed with any treatment. Now how long have you been married… or rather, living together? Does your wife have any history of this kind of behaviour?
Have you ever woken up at night and found that she had left the room for example? I want you to think back, anything…. anything unusual?’

‘Well……..
We’ve been married for two years and together for just over four but…
not really. I mean, yes I’ve
woken up and she’s been to the bathroom or
t
o the k
itchen to get a glass of water but……. That’s quite normal isn’t it? I mean I do that myself, often
. She…. often talks in her sleep
but really I don’t see the relevance
.
She’s never gone long and she always comes back to bed.’

‘I understand you have recently moved house?’

‘Yes. Yes….. Now I wish we hadn’t. We wanted a garden for Ollie you see. We lived in a ground floor flat before. This wouldn’t have happened there would it?’
Oh Jesus Ellie. How could I have doubted you? Oh please God don’t let them find anything….

The sun was high in a
cloudless sky when Felicity woke up and drew back her curtains.

‘Another day, another dollar’ she spoke softly to the cat with no name. She’d never given him a name. It didn’t seem right. He was so territorial it was like he had more right to be there than she did. He got called all sorts of different names like ‘nuisance’, ‘tabby’, ‘tiddles’ or just ‘cat’. Today he was ‘cat’ and either way he didn’t seem to care as long as he got fed and got the desired amount of affection whenever he so required it. People could learn a lot from cats. She ate a light breakfast, showered and set off for work.

She had t
wo
letters
.
One from a client
looking to buy and the
second
was from her man
aging director, Charles Denton.

Dear
Felicity
..
….
She read…..
After giving a lot of th
ought to your proposals for an internet advertising c
ampaign at our recent meeting and studying your documentation we are pleased to announce t
hat you can go ahead with your web site at the East Barton o
ffice. Obviously any charges incurred will be
solely your responsibility at b
ranch level but we feel sure that you will soon recoup any losses and look forward to seeing
some dramatic changes in your b
ranch profits this year. We are looking to use your ideas as a pilot scheme at
Denton
Fairfax
and if
it proves to be successfu
l we may link up to all of our branches across the south w
est. However, we cannot expect you to take all of the responsibility for design and distribution so we wi
ll be sending someone from our head office m
arketing department to your branch who will be working closely with you on this. His name is Peter Hendford and
he will be at the East Barton o
ffice next Monday 23
rd
November at
8am
. As you may
know, Peter has been with the c
ompany for two years now and is experienced in
both the IT department and in m
arketing. He is looking forward to working with you
……..

Felicity read and re-read the e-mail over and over. They were not going to be responsible for any charges incurred. Furthermore they d
id not trust her to set up the w
eb
site; they had to send this IT b
offin to do it for her
, even though it was her i
dea. When she got home
that night Felicity phoned her m
other to tell her the news but Margaret Breen had news of her own.

‘Oh Darling I really don’t know what to do about you
r f
ather. I shall have a law suit on my hands if we’re not careful.’

‘Why, what’s happened Mum?’

‘Well yesterday I had that chap come over to start on the garden and he seemed really nice. He worked very hard all morning digging up th
e turf and cutting it in strips.
I took him out a cup of
tea and we chatted for a while;
very nice young
man. I gave him the key to the summer h
ouse and told him he could keep his tools in there to save him taking them home every night because it will take several days for him
to do the g
arden you see. Anyway, in the afternoon he seemed to disappear and I assumed that he had gone off for a break somewhere and was coming back because his spade was still there, you see, on the lawn.’

Felicity was itching to tell her mother her own news but stayed quiet and listened, ‘Yes.’

‘Well he didn’t come back.’

‘Don’t tell me, Dad upset him in some way.’

‘That’s putting it mildly dear;
very mildly indeed. We had our evening meal
and settled down to watch the t
elevision and of course there were some very high winds last night so you couldn’t hear you see.’

‘Hear what Mum.
What happened?’

‘Well the gardener you see. He was in the summer h
ouse all night. Your f
ather must have pushed him in and locked the door. The poor man was beside himself. I woke up this morning and I heard
someone
sh
outing. It was coming from the g
arden.’

‘Oh my God. Are you s
erious? He actually locked the gardener in the summer h
ouse and left him there all night?’

‘Yes. Well the young man was very nice about it when I explained… yo
u know… about your f
ather. He was more concerned with his wife who didn’t know where he was all night. Of course I’ve spoken to her
today and apologised but dear o
h dear Felicity what are we to do with him? I can’t be watching him all the time.’

The image of what had happened stayed with her a w
hile and both Felicity and her m
other saw the funny side but the awful truth of it was, what could they do? Put him in a home? Felicity had always sworn that neither of her parents would ever end up in a home. Perhaps if she gave up her cottage and moved in with them……. She still couldn’t be there during the day but she could
help in the evenings; give her m
um a break……….

She thought of her own life. She had a good job, some nice friends but no one to share her life w
ith. No M
r right; a
nd what of blue e
yes? He hadn’t been in touch since their lunch date and they had got on really well. He’d seemed so nice. She had been
quite concerned
about meeting up with him and then had found him so easy to get on with, she felt as though she had always known him. But he didn’t want a relationship. He’d told her straight. Well if that was the case how did he explain the leggy blonde at the nightclub?
Was he seeing her? Was she one of many? She’d certainly seemed quite cosy with him.
Was h
e playing the field? Well if blue e
yes didn’t want a relationship, then he must be out for what he could get.
Naughty blue e
yes.
Perhaps he just hadn’t met the right girl.
Because of course if he hadn’t met the right girl, and Felicity was that girl then he wouldn’t want any leggy blondes……. would he? Felicity had been on her own now for so long she’d forgotten what it was like to share your life with someone. What if she never could? What if she was destined to be alone with only a cat for company? And if she did move in with her pare
nts and then got together with blue eyes would her father lock him up in the summer h
ouse?

Felicity prided herself on her enthusiasm and punctuality. Her working day was nine to five and she was always there to open the office at
8.45am
prompt. Today of all days she couldn’t be late and here she was at
7.40am
stuck in traffic. An articulated lorry was trying to turn and couldn’
t because of the traffic queue
in both directions either side of it. It took ten minutes for everyone to realise that they had to back up a little and give the lorry driver more room before the backlog of cars were able to move. As she wal
ked around the corner from the car p
ark she saw that he was already there, pacing up and down outside the office and peering occasionally through the window. He didn’t have the usual appearance of an IT wizard. At college Steve and his friends had given her their analogy of the IT lecturers in such a way it had
burned an i
mage into her psyche. They always had long greasy hair slicked back and wore Hush Puppies. Long hair as they never had time to cut it because they all di
d 25hr days glued to their PC
screens and they didn’t have lives. It was always slicked back so no one would notice they hadn’t had time to wash it and the slick spread to their faces because they constantly ran their fingers through their hair whilst contemplating technological possibilities, hence the spots. She’d never really understood the Hush Puppy bit unless they actually did leave their screens on the odd occasion but no one ever knew because their feet were so quiet no one ever heard them. Peter Hendford did not fall in this category. He came in the Greek God style category. He was tall, incredibly handsome and looked very fashionable.