Written in the Scars (The Estate Series Book 4) (7 page)

Lewis scowled. Alcohol wasn’t the best option but if it helped him to get rid of the images inside his head, then the neighbours would have to put up with a little noise here and there. It wasn’t as if he caused a riot every day.

He waited for Josie to drive off before going to take a shower. Once freshened up and dressed, he went downstairs to face the music.

Laura was standing with her back against the worktop when he walked into the kitchen, her arms folded. ‘Afternoon,’ she said, eyebrows raised.

‘Morning.’ Lewis opened a cupboard and pulled out a box of cereal, then a bowl.

‘You need something more substantial than that.’

He shook his head. ‘I’m not that hungry.’

‘You need to soak up the alcohol I can smell on your breath.’

Lewis sat down at the table and poured milk over his cereal.

‘What did she want?’ he asked.

‘She says you vandalised a car.’

‘Ah.’

‘Did you?’

‘No.’

‘You’re lying, aren’t you?’

He nodded.

‘For crying out loud!’ Laura tutted. ‘You can’t go around taking your anger out on innocent people.’

‘It was a car, not a person!’

‘Nevertheless, it belongs to someone who has worked hard for it.’

Lewis looked up sheepishly. ‘Don’t you think I regret it?’

Laura sat down across the table from him. ‘You can’t go on like this.’ She reached for his hand. ‘Whatever is troubling you, son, I’d like to support you. To listen, and to—’

‘What, Mum?’ Lewis snatched his hand away. ‘Help me get through it?’

‘Well, yes,’ she nodded.

‘You can’t help me. No one can.’ Lewis put down his spoon. ‘What happened was my fault.’

‘But what
did
happen?’

There was a pause before Lewis spoke again.

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ He shook his head.

‘If you tell me what’s bothering you, maybe I can support you.’

Lewis’s laughter was cruel. ‘Stifle me, more like.’

‘Stifle you?’ Laura sat back in her chair. ‘How can you say that? You haven’t lived at home for twelve years, I’ve taken you back after the break-up of your marriage—’

‘It’s only a separation. I’ll get her back.’

‘—and in the space of a few months my whole way of life has been affected. It was bad enough losing your dad and being on my own, but I’m beginning to think that I’d rather it be that way. You have the nerve to say that
I’m
stifling
you
?’

‘I can just as easily move out again, if that’s an issue,’ Lewis bristled.

‘Of course it isn’t. But you can’t continue to—’

Lewis stood up abruptly, the chair scraping across the floor in his haste. ‘Look, Mum. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. Honestly, I do. But no matter how much you want to help me, you wouldn’t want to be inside my head right now.’

‘Son.’ She touched his arm this time.

‘If I want to get Amy back, I have to do this my own way.’

‘But Amy doesn’t want to—’

‘Leave me alone!’

Laura recoiled, her face paling at the anger in his voice.

Lewis marched out of the kitchen and left the house with a bang of the front door. Margaret, who was sitting on her doorstep smoking a cigarette, threw him a filthy look.

‘What are you staring at?’ he shouted, before slamming shut the gate and running down the street.

Why wouldn’t anyone listen? He deserved to be unhappy, couldn’t they see that? Why should he be happy when Nathan…

Only when he had left the house far behind did his steps slow enough for him to catch his breath. What was the point in running? He couldn’t escape his problems, his fears. The guilt would come with him wherever he went. It would haunt him for the rest of his life. And he couldn’t talk to anyone about it. Because then everyone would know what had happened and whose fault it was.

Once he’d calmed down a little, Lewis went across to Vincent Square. In Pete’s Newsagent, he found a pile of envelopes that he could buy individually and brought one. Next, he went into Shop&Save and withdrew sixty pounds from the cash machine inside the doorway.

Once he’d popped the notes into the envelope, he walked back to Davy Road, hoping he’d be able to recall where he had caused the damage last night. Stopping suddenly, he drew level with a car parked outside a house. It was a Fiesta, in fairly old shape now. The passenger side mirror was missing, wiring hanging out of a hole in the door.

Embarrassment flooded through Lewis at the thought of what he had done the night before. Feeling his skin reddening, he walked up the pathway and knocked on a door.

It took a while for the door to be opened. An elderly woman with short, thinning grey hair stood looking through the half-inch gap allowed by the safety chain on the door. Over the top of her glasses, she eyed Lewis with contempt.

‘Didn’t you cause enough trouble last night?’ she snapped.

‘I did and I’m sorry.’ Lewis thrust the envelope through the gap in the door. ‘I came to give you this.’

‘What is it?’

‘Money for the mirror.’

Her hooded eyes narrowed. ‘I can’t take that.’

‘Why not? It was my fault.’

‘Yes, I know but that doesn’t make it right.’

Lewis frowned back. ‘What would make it right?’

‘You only needed to apologise.’

‘But it cost you money.’

The door was shut in his face. Lewis was about to leave when he heard the chain being removed before the door was opened up fully. The woman couldn’t have been a day under eighty and immediately reminded Lewis of his nan who had passed away when he was in his late teens. She wore navy trousers and a two-piece pale blue cardigan and jumper. He could see from her posture that she was unsure on her feet. In his drunken state the night before, he hadn’t noticed the stick she was leaning on.

‘I would have clouted you with this if I’d had it near me,’ she said, rising it an inch from the floor.

‘I’m not sure what I would have done if you had,’ Lewis admitted.

She glared at him for a moment, then, seeming to relent, she handed back the envelope. ‘How about you do me a favour instead of giving me this?’ She pointed to her garden. ‘I do my best to keep everything tidy but I struggle with those hedges. I don’t have any family to help, so I don’t suppose …?’

Lewis looked at them. It wouldn’t take longer than a couple of hours to cut them down to a decent size. He glanced up at the clear sky. It was perfect weather for it and it would give him something to do.

‘Unless you’re too busy in your day of causing trouble?’ the woman added with a sly grin.

‘Lewis’s brow furrowed. ‘Why are you letting me off?’

‘Because you came to make amends. I see people for what they are and not for what they do. Sadly, most people aren’t like me.’ She looked up at him, despite being two steps above the level of the path. ‘Besides, it’s not my car.’

Lewis grinned. He’d been wondering about that.

‘Well, I suppose it will pass a few hours away,’ he said.

‘Perfect.’ She held out her hand. ‘I’m Elsie, by the way.’

‘Lewis. Lewis Prophett.’

‘Well, Lewis Prophett, once you’ve finished the hedges, perhaps I can persuade you to run the mower over the lawn and we’re quits.’

Chapter Nine

Of all the wards that Megan Cooper helped to keep tidy on her shifts at the hospital, number twelve was her favourite because of the variety of people she got to see. It was a holding bay for emergency patients who needed surgery for injuries caused that day. Once the operations were done, patients were either discharged or moved to a more specialised ward for further treatment. It was also her last ward to clean before she went home for the day.

The ward was mixed, with beds segregated for males and females, fitting six in a bay. She turned the corner into the first bay, mopping the floor as she went, her tiny frame lugging the cleaning trolley behind her. There were three patients that morning. To her right, two elderly men were sitting in chairs beside their beds chatting to each other, their arms waving around as they spoke. She tried to work out what was wrong with them but there didn’t seem anything obvious. They looked too well to be in hospital but she knew that people could change in an instant on this ward as they were being monitored.

On the other side of the bay, sitting on top of the covers in the middle bed, was a man that looked familiar, although Megan couldn’t think why at first. Even though he was scowling, she could tell a smile would light up his face if he ever let it. He didn’t look too much older than her nineteen years; she would bet his spiky black hair wouldn’t usually look so messy too. He wore pyjamas, his legs crossed at the ankles, new slippers on his feet. His right hand was lying on top of the covers, a bandage around it. In the other, he held a newspaper. He dropped it to the bed as he caught her eye.

‘Hi, there.’ Megan smiled broadly. ‘I think I remember you from school. It’s Sam, isn’t it? Sam Harvey?’

‘Yeah.’ His eyes narrowed.

‘I’m Megan, but you probably won’t remember me as I was a couple of years below you, I think. Did you have a sister? Keeley or something like that?’

‘Keera?’

Megan nodded. ‘How are you feeling today?’

‘Like someone has tried to rip my fucking hand off.’

‘Oh, dear. What happened?’

‘Had an argument with a chainsaw.’

‘Euw.’ Megan grimaced.

‘It’s not that bad!’

‘It’s never that bad, you see?’ She smiled. ‘Do you need an operation?’

‘Had one last night.’

Megan continued to mop the floor as she saw Sue, one of the staff nurses on duty, walking towards them. She hoped she wouldn’t get into trouble for chatting, like she often did. But Sue smiled as she walked past to make up a bed that had been recently vacated.

‘Give him a run for his money, if you can,’ she shouted over as she pulled back a sheet. ‘He did nothing but moan last night.’

‘You’d moan if you were put through so much pain.’

‘Is it any better this morning?’ Sue stopped what she was doing. ‘The doctor will be around soon and we can sort out more pain relief if possible.’

‘I’m okay, thanks.’

Sue nodded and continued stripping the bed.

‘It was too swollen to do everything,’ Sam explained to Meg. ‘I might have to have another operation. I have to wait and see.’

‘Well, you might be moving wards soon then.’

‘Haven’t a frigging clue. All I know is that it hurts like fuck.’

Megan looked at him with a frown. ‘You swear a lot, you know.’

‘And?’

‘Some people, they curse so much in conversation that they don’t even realise they do it all the time. It can offend people without you realising.’

Sam bit on his bottom lip. ‘Have I offended you?’

‘Me?’ Megan shook her head, her blonde ponytail swishing at the back of her head. ‘Not at all. But—’

‘Well then, mind your own business and stop interfering.’

‘I was only –’

‘You were trying to be a busybody, like a lot of people here. But what do you know? You haven’t had an accident and you aren’t stuck in here either. So forgive me if I swear every now and then without thinking.’

‘Hey, you said a few sentences
without
swearing!’ Megan glanced at him from below her fringe.

Sam’s frown changed into a smirk. Then it morphed into a yawn.

‘Sorry, I have a tendency to yackity-yack for too long,’ Megan smiled.

‘No, I’m just tired.’

‘That’ll be the anaesthetic,’ Megan nodded knowingly. ‘It knocks you about for a couple of days afterwards. You’ll just be getting used to it as they’ll be sending you home.’

‘Oh, ha ha, very funny.’

Megan beamed as she wheeled away her trolley. ‘It’s far better than being a grumpy chops and swearing at everyone.’

When she heard a noise behind her, she turned back to see that the plastic cup which had been on the cabinet beside the bed was now on the floor, a small pool of water beside it.

‘Oops, how clumsy.’ Sam pressed a hand to his mouth, a look of innocence on his face.

Megan frowned, catching Sue’s eye as she did. Sue was hiding a smirk. Had Sam knocked the cup off deliberately?

She wheeled the bucket over and proceeded to mop up regardless. Picking up the cup, she shoved it in the rubbish bag attached to the handle on the trolley.

‘What did you say your name was?’

Megan turned round and tapped her name badge with a finger.

‘Well, Megan,’ Sam whispered. ‘You have a mighty fine arse from where I’m sitting.’