Sunrise for Two (16 page)

Belinda watched him
through the window of her little office. She could tell by the
change in his manner that he had finally made peace with Harry. It
was a relief, the atmosphere was still subdued, but at least the
tension had dissipated slightly. The whole team had gone into
mourning when she had informed them of the accident on Monday. They
had raised enough money to buy her the latest handheld game playing
device by midmorning, and the present was still sitting on her
desk, making her feel guilty whenever she looked at it.

She had been in charge of
the IT department for eight years now. It had not been an easy
journey for her; years working as a secretary to put herself
through university, then more years as a secretary in this very
hospital while she studied management courses and took extra
classes. When she finally got the post managing this team, the
staff hadn’t made it easy for her. She knew that they went out
drinking on a Friday, she heard the references to jokes and stories
that didn’t include her, but she had held her tongue and slowly and
grudgingly they had started to respect her.

When a young female
applicant had finally appeared in her recruitment tray, she
remembered the excitement she had felt; an ally at last and maybe a
friend. She had been worried that the primarily male interview
panel would give her the difficult time she remembered from many
unsuccessful interviews. They hadn’t given her a difficult time at
all. By the end of the half hour of questions she found herself
interrogating Harry about the finer points of programming in such a
severe fashion that the woman from human resources had finally
intervened. She had to admit that Harry had passed with flying
colours. She knew her computing inside out.

Harry had gotten the job
straight out of university, she had arrived in the department with
youthful enthusiasm and a constant supply of freshly baked cookies
from the nearby supermarket. All she needed to do was lift her head
up and someone made her a cup of coffee, and all of the sexist
jokes had disappeared overnight. Belinda remembered how badly she
had reacted when Harry had asked her if she would be joining them
in the local wine bar on her first Friday in the job. She still
felt ashamed of the way she had rejected the younger woman’s
friendliness, and she could still see the disapproval in the eyes
of her team. She had spent the past four years quietly resenting
Harry’s easy charm, but she had to admit that the office was
horribly quiet without her.

Finally, when her
conscience was really pricking her she picked up the present and
the card that absolutely everybody had signed and navigated to the
right bit of the hospital. She waved her id badge and followed the
sound of laughter, then she took a deep breath and opened the
curtains. Her first thought was that it wasn’t fair. Harry was
wearing a pair of blue striped pyjamas that made her look
effortlessly feminine and elegantly fragile, then she felt bad,
Harry had lost a lot weight and from the way she was holding her
arm it was clearly very painful.

“
I’m so glad
you came,” she said sincerely, making sure that she held the older
woman’s eyes. She introduced the two nurses who picked up their
sandwiches and nodded unenthusiastically at her before they
disappeared back into the office. “They’ve taken to eating their
lunch in here, it’s really nice.” Harry explained. Belinda nodded,
she wanted to say that people weren’t usually really nice to her,
but instead she held out the present and explained that everyone
was missing her. “I’m really missing all of you, I keep wondering
what is happening to the blood results, and if Simon got his new
computer.”

“
He didn’t
and he’s driving me mad,” Belinda admitted conspiratorially. She
opened the present and the card at Harry’s request, reflecting for
a moment on how restricted she must feel. “Sorry,” she added
awkwardly, “I guess a two handed console is not much use to you at
the moment.

“
It’s okay,
it’s a nice gesture,” Harry shifted uncomfortably and rubbed the
back of her neck. Belinda looked around the little cubicle, and
Harry followed her gaze and felt a flush of embarrassment colouring
her throat. The nurses had promised her that all the tubes and the
bulkiest of the bandages would be removed by the end of the day,
and she realised that the waiting was really starting to frustrate
her. She closed her eyes for a moment, then she opened them again
and treated Belinda to her most convincing smile.

“
Are you
alright?”

“
Of course,”
Harry said ruefully, “now tell me, what am I missing?”

Belinda started talking
to fill the awkward silence, then she started enjoying herself,
making Harry laugh with anecdotes about their eccentric team mates,
and of course their ongoing feud with the training department. She
stayed with her until the start of visiting time when Libby
arrived, then she felt self-conscious again and fled back to the
safety of her flowcharts.

By Thursday lunchtime
Harry was really bored, she had watched more box sets and read more
magazines than she cared to remember. The smell of coffee pulled
her out of one of her favourite books, and she looked up into the
warm eyes of the handsome policeman. “Hello again, have you got
more questions for me?”

“
Not really,”
he said with a grin, “in fact I’m shamelessly abusing my position.
I was passing the hospital and I thought you might need a cup of
coffee.”

“
I’d love a
cup of coffee.”

“
Well that’s
good to know. I wondered if you wanted me to leave my phone number,
I’d be happy to drop off a cup whenever you needed it.”

“
Thank you.”
She smiled at the big handsome man with the impeccable social
skills, the man who navigated all the things that she felt
vulnerable about with elegant ease. She smiled into his easy humour
and drank her double espresso, wondering frustratedly why she
couldn’t stop thinking about Chris. PC Andrews touched her hand
when he left, she didn’t feel a tingle and she didn’t feel short of
breath. Her traitorous mind flooded with images of Chris smiling,
Chris touching her face and of course Chris kissing her. She had
been hoping he would appear with his usual sexy scruffy style, but
for once he seemed to have taken her at her word and she realised
that she missed him and wished that she had something to distract
her restless mind with. When Julia arrived, she greeted her with an
enthusiasm that was almost desperate.

“
Are you
okay?”

“
Yes I’m
fine, today is the first day I haven’t felt really sore, but it’s
made me realise how little there is to do in here.”

“
Good, I was
hoping you’d say that. My consultant gave me the afternoon off
because of my recent accident trauma, and my father has been kind
enough to buy me a new car.”

“
So he’s
still feeling bad about forgetting your birthday?”

“
Awful,”
Julia said with satisfaction, “so I thought we could start our
holiday. I know we’re running a few days early, but I phoned them
and rooms are both free.” Harry had managed not to cry all week.
All through the painful and humiliating procedures, and the
horrible sense of helplessness she felt when she looked at the
sling on her arm, but she started crying when Julia mentioned the
holiday.

“
Don’t you
want to go?”

“
Of course I
want to go. That’s why I’m crying.”

“
So shall I
pack your bags?”

“
Julia how am
I going to cope? I can’t transfer one handed, and there’s all sorts
of practical things that you don’t need me to spell out for
you.”

“
Harry you
are my oldest friend, going on holiday with you every year is one
of the most important traditions at the end of my summer.” She
squeezed her friend’s hand and touched her face, “I thought I was
going to lose you last weekend,” she added unsteadily.

Harry looked at her for a
long moment, then she smiled, “Are you sure about this
Julia?”

“
I’m very
sure, and Richard has some contacts up in the Lakes, there’s
somebody he knows who can come and change your dressings. So not
only am I very sure, I also know I can definitely look after
you.”

“
Okay then,”
Harry said softly, then she smiled at her friend, and felt the
tears starting to slide down her face again.

Julia started to pack her
bags, “the rest of your stuff is in the car.”

“
What about
Mike?”

“
I told him
he could come up next weekend, I hope that’s okay.”

“
Of course
that is,” she took a deep breath and smiled at her, “here goes.”
The charge nurse stood in the office door and watched their
transfer. She had grown fond of Harry, the quiet way she had faced
her injuries and her gracious acceptance of the procedures she had
had to endure. So she breathed a sigh of relief when the overweight
woman in the badly chosen green skirt had helped her back into her
wheelchair, and she smiled at her and handed her the take home
prescription that the junior doctor had already
prepared.

“
When I paged
Richard this morning I asked him to organise your discharge.” Julia
explained, and Harry nodded her thanks, thinking about the next
transfer in the crowded parking bays.

When they stepped out
into the rain and the smell of fumes, Harry found her anxiety
alleviated by amusement, “You bought exactly the same car as
before.”

“
I like this
kind of car.”

“
And so do
I.” The transfer went more smoothly the second time. Despite her
sling, Harry found to her relief that she could help the process a
lot with her right arm.

“
You’ve lost
a lot of weight,” Julia told her gently, “there’s hardly anything
left of you.”

“
The food was
horrible.”

“
Well I’m
going to stand over you until you eat at least half of your
dinner.”

“
I’ll eat the
whole lot if you let me have a glass of wine.”

“
It’s a
deal.”

They took the busy road
out to the north of the city, and passed the exuberantly
competitive jostle of Caribbean takeaways and Indian clothes shops.
The city faded quickly behind them, and the soft ridges of the
Peaks started to appear. “Thank you for this.” Harry said finally,
“You’re a good friend.”

“
I keep
thinking about the moment when the car hit you.” Julia told her,
“there was so much blood and you were so still. I just kept having
the same thought in my head over and over.”

“
What was
that?”

“
I kept
thinking that I didn’t tell you how much I appreciated
you.”

“
Thank you.”
Harry said softly.

They followed the signs
for Hawkshead, to the rambling old building that now functioned as
a hotel. They picked up the key from under the mat and followed the
book lined corridor to the same big suite of rooms that they always
shared.

Chris reached the ward at
around the same time as Harry took her first mouthful of wine. Her
bed had already been given to a woman who had fallen off her
motorbike. The ward sister was sympathetic but slightly distant,
and he remembered his very public spat with the beautiful woman he
couldn’t stop thinking about. Reluctantly he drove home, cutting
through the lights just as they changed. Jeff was waiting for him
in the lounge, he handed him a glass of wine and stood with his
back to the fire. “I walked all the way up to the ward carrying an
enormous bunch of flowers.” Chris said calmly, “and they told me
that she had gone on holiday, destination unknown.”

“
What did you
do with the flowers?”

“
I gave them
to my secretary, she was delighted.” There was silence, Chris
joined his oldest friend as he stood beside the flames. “Do you
think that I should forget about her, all I seem to do is upset
her?”

“
No I don’t,
but you need to do some thinking. She likes you Chris, and she’s
right to, you’re a good man, but you keep letting her see flashes
of how decent you are, then behaving like an idiot, it’s as if
you’re afraid to take what you want, afraid to care that much for
someone.” Chris remembered the first week in the children’s home,
the defences he had had to build, the way friendships had been
formed then pulled apart when children and staff moved on. He
wanted to grow old with her, and he realised that part of him
couldn’t bear to take the risk.

There was a knock on the
door, and he found Richard smiling at him, “Come on man, we’ve
actually got a chance of winning tonight.” Jeff lifted his glass in
an affectionate salute and he picked up his gym bag and stepped out
into the warm night. “So did they get there safely? Harry and Julia
I mean.”

“
I didn’t
realise they were going.” Chris said with a rueful smile. Two of
their team mates appeared exuberantly, and began discussing the
pre-match strategies. Chris took up his place in the centre of the
pack, tonight nobody was getting past him.

Afterwards he sat down in
the club house and smiled at Richard, “We had a bit of an argument
yesterday,” he explained, “it was completely my fault.” He paused
and accepted the pint that the older man gave him. “Things were
strained between us anyway. I’d just persuaded her that I could
look after her and that we would have a good time together and told
her how attractive I found her, when things kicked off with the
riots. She tried to pick up where we’d left off the following
night, and I fell asleep.”