‘Hey, it’s Sophia!’ called the boss of the IT company she was doing a session with. ‘All hail, mistress!’ She knew he was joking but at the same time she felt respected and powerful. This is more like it, she thought, as she high-fived the men and began shouting the stretches to begin their hour.
As soon as he opened the front door to the apartment building, the freezing air snapped at Joey’s face. Christ, it was horribly cold. For all her faults, Sophia was tough. She never seemed to flinch heading out in this God-awful weather.
His current route, which meant he’d get in a good ten kilometres, took him along the main road towards Pippa’s apartment block and up to the large green belt and parkland. Clicking on his iPod, he began to jog.
Eminem’s angry tones weren’t going to lift his mood so he pulled the device from his pocket and began to scan through his iTunes list.
Sophia’s lack of interest in his family and his life was becoming too much for Joey. He couldn’t continue to share his bed with someone who clearly didn’t give a toss about him. He wondered whether she’d been quite so selfish when they’d first got together. He’d been so in awe of her drive to succeed that he’d probably missed the underlying harshness.
He’d noticed the roadworks sign and the luminous orange and white tape blocking the area, but that didn’t prepare him for the sudden feeling of weightlessness he experienced. It seemed to happen in slow motion but he knew he was falling. His last conscious thought was the intensity of the noise as he hit the bottom of the pit.
The lighting was dim, and unfamiliar voices were zoning in and out of his head. Joey tried to remember what time of day it was and what he was meant to be doing. ‘Where am I?’ he asked. ‘What’s going on?’
‘You’ve had an accident. You’re in an ambulance. Try not to move,’ the man looking down on him said. ‘Can you tell me your name?’
‘Joey Craig,’ he said, as terror shot through him. He was shivering uncontrollably.
‘Take it easy, Joey,’ the man said kindly. ‘I have your mobile phone here. Who would you like me to call? Who lives closest to here, son?’
‘Sophia, my girlfriend,’ he said, as tears ran down either side of his head.
The man passed Joey’s phone to another man and kept talking to him in a calm and hushed tone. ‘Fred will call her now. We’re nearly at the hospital. You were blessed that a lady was driving past, witnessed your fall and called us. It’s damn cold and you could’ve been in serious trouble if you’d been left lying there.’
‘I don’t remember what happened,’ Joey said. ‘My head’s thumping.’
‘You knocked it and you’ve broken a few bones, Joey. When we get to the hospital the A&E team will come out and meet us. Things are going to happen very quickly, okay?’
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Did you get Sophia on the phone?’
‘Not yet,’ Fred answered from behind.
‘We need to get you checked out so we know where you’re hurt. Try your best to remain calm, okay, son?’ the man said, holding his gaze.
‘Okay.’
‘We’re reversing to the hospital door now.’
Before Joey could utter another syllable, the back doors flew open. The sleet and early-morning light greeted them as hospital staff pulled the trolley he was lying on out of the ambulance. Joey saw the sky momentarily before they entered the building. He felt nauseous. ‘Why is my head strapped down?’ he shouted.
‘We don’t know if you have a spinal injury, Joey,’ a nurse said, directly above his head. ‘We’re taking you straight in for a scan and we’ll be able to determine if there’s any damage.’
‘Did anyone speak to Sophia?’ he asked again.
‘Not yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we have contact with your next of kin,’ the nurse said kindly.
‘If you can’t get her, can you ask them to call Pippa?’ he begged. ‘She’s my sister and she lives on the same road I fell on.’ He choked up once more as they rushed him to the scanning room. He’d never been more terrified in all his life. He wished he could be more of a tough guy but, to his shame, tears seeped down either side of his face as the medical team wheeled him onwards.
‘We’re going to lift you on the count of three, Joey,’ a nurse instructed him. ‘I want you to keep still. Let us do the manoeuvring, okay?’
‘Yup,’ he said miserably.
Even though they were impressively co-ordinated and very swift, the jerk as they laid him on the scanning bed made him yelp.
‘Sorry about that,’ the nurse’s face appeared above his once more. ‘You’re doing really well, playing a blinder. Just bear with us for a few more moments while we get this scan done and we’ll be able to make you more comfortable, okay? The worst is almost over.’
His head hurt as the large machine moved back and forth over him. There was another agonising pain too, but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. He desperately wanted to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes the pain hurtled through his body.
‘All right, Joey, the scan is done. You’re a trouper,’ the nurse said. ‘Are you allergic to anything?’
‘No,’ he managed weakly.
‘Okay. I’m going to give you an injection now and it’ll make you feel a lot more comfortable, I promise.’
‘That’ll be nice,’ he said, closing his eyes and hoping she was telling the truth …
‘Joey!’ He opened his eyes what felt like moments later to see his younger sister standing above him.
‘Pippa,’ he croaked, and began to cry once more. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried. ‘Jesus, what happened to you?’ Her face was battered and bruised.
‘I had a bit of an incident last night, remember?’ she said, and touched the large plaster on her nose. ‘It’s nothing compared to what you’ve managed to do to yourself. I had a scrap with a taxi driver and you brought me in here with Skye,’ she reminded him.
‘I remember now,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been in the hospital before and now I’m here twice in twenty-four hours,’ he said.
‘Pretty good going,’ Pippa said, smiling.
‘What’s happened? Did the nurses tell you anything? Where’s Sophia? Did they call her?’ he asked. His body felt like it was made of wet sand.
‘It’s okay. You’re going to be fine,’ Pippa said, stroking his forehead. ‘You fell twenty feet into a trench. Luckily a woman driver saw you disappear and called 999.’
‘We need to take you for surgery now,’ a doctor said, arriving into the room. ‘Joey, you’ve swelling in your neck but we don’t think that’s a serious problem. Your leg’s going to require surgery, though. It’s broken in several places and so is your arm.’
‘What?’ Joey said, beginning to shake again.
‘You’ve a nasty cut on the side of your head. Nothing a few stitches won’t sort,’ the doctor went on. ‘You’re lucky you were spotted.’
‘Funnily enough, I’m not feeling overly lucky right now,’ he said bitterly.
‘Take it easy and we’ll all be here when you come out of the theatre,’ Pippa said.
‘Where’s Sophia?’ he asked once more.
‘Eh, we haven’t been able to get hold of her yet, but I’ll keep trying,’ Pippa promised. ‘Just concentrate on getting through this. I’ve signed your consent forms for surgery.’
And my live-in girlfriend doesn’t give a toss whether I’m dead or alive, he thought.
When Joey was wheeled into the ward after his surgery, his parents had joined Pippa.
‘That was some fright you gave us all.’ Holly looked exhausted.
Joey scanned the area around his bed for his girlfriend.
‘I only caught up with Sophia about half an hour ago,’ Pippa said. ‘She’s on her way.’
‘Great,’ Joey said, looking from one face to the next. ‘I can’t remember how I fell. I feel like such a klutz,’ he said. ‘I could’ve killed myself.’
‘Take it easy there,’
Holly instructed. ‘You had a nasty fall and it could’ve been much worse, but by all accounts it wasn’t entirely your fault. The hole was meant to be covered over. There were no lights surrounding it either.’
‘You just had to take the limelight, didn’t you?’ Pippa said, with a smirk. ‘I thought I was doing well with a smashed-up face, but you, darling brother, have taken the biscuit.’
‘Pippa!’ Holly glowered at her.
‘I’m only joking and Joey knows it,’ she said, winking.
‘Do I look worse than you?’ he asked Pippa. ‘Your eyes are manky.’
‘I’m like Miss World compared to you.’
‘You look very sore, you poor thing,’ Paddy said to Joey. ‘Half your head is shaved because they had to stitch it. You’ve a badly broken leg and your arm is fractured too.’ He shook his head.
Footsteps made them all turn to the entrance of the ward. Assuming it was Sophia at long last, Joey found it hard to hide his disappointment when he spotted Lainey striding towards him.
‘Hi – I came as quickly as I could. It’s been so busy in work I couldn’t leave,’ she explained. ‘Jesus, it’s like M.A.S.H. in here with the two of you.’ She was looking from Pippa to Joey.
‘Feeling left out?’ Pippa grinned. ‘I could always whack you with a chair if you want to join the black-and-blue brigade.’
‘No, you’re all right, thanks, sis. Joey, you poor thing, what on earth happened?’
They all started talking at once, trying to tell Lainey what had gone on, but stopped when the surgical team arrived to speak to Joey.
‘We’ve set your arm. It was a clean break so you didn’t require surgery there,’ the doctor told him. ‘Your leg was in bad shape, though, and we’ve had to place two pins in the joint at your ankle. You’re looking at six weeks of this thigh-high cast, then a further six in a half-cast.’
‘What about the spinal damage?’ Pippa asked. ‘They told me when I arrived earlier on that he’d neck swelling or something?’
‘Again, you were lucky,’ the doctor said evenly. ‘There’s severe bruising to the top of your spine but nothing appears broken. We’ll scan you again when the swelling’s gone down. The cuts to your head look like they were caused by some sharp stones on impact.’
Holly and Paddy looked ten years older as they huddled together at the foot of the bed.
‘I’m so sorry about this, everyone,’ Joey mumbled.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Paddy said. ‘We just want you to get better.’
‘Depending on what you and Sophia decide, you’d be more than welcome to come to Huntersbrook when you get out of here,’ Holly said.
‘You’ll need to be looked after. That sounds like a good idea,’ Lainey said. ‘If Sophia’s out at work, you’ll be on your own. You’ll need help while you can’t walk.’
‘I’ll see,’ Joey said, as a nurse came over.
‘You should all let Joey have a rest now,’ she said. ‘He’s going to be very tired and sore for the next few days.’
‘Would you like one of us to stay?’ Holly asked.
‘No, thanks. I’m happy to get a bit of sleep,’ Joey said weakly.
As he watched them leave, he felt more let down now than he ever had before. Not by his family: they were great. By Sophia. Where was she? He could have been dead by now and she wouldn’t have cared either way.
The drugs were causing waves of exhaustion to wash over him. The best thing he could do was give in and sleep. Only a few hours ago he’d been wishing he could spend the day in bed: he ought to be careful what he wished for. It seemed that, sometimes, wishes really did come true.
As the family convened in Reception to discuss visiting rotas, Sophia sauntered through the main door. ‘Hi,’ she said, as she spotted them. Forcing a smile, she tried not to stare at Pippa. ‘Ugh poor you, just look at your face!’ she said.
‘I don’t need any reminders that I look battered thanks, Sophia,’ Pippa spat.
Sophia nearly died. She’d never liked Pippa. Lainey was a moany cow but Pippa was a cheeky bitch and she’d just about had enough of her. ‘Well, that’s nice,’ she said. ‘Can you tell me where Joey is, then?’ She turned to Holly, hoping she’d be less snappy.
‘He’s in St Matthew’s Ward, there on the right,’ Holly said, without smiling.
‘Great. How’s he doing?’ Sophia asked.
‘He’s in cracking form,’ Pippa butted in again. Sophia was about to point out that she wasn’t actually talking to her, but Pippa continued, ‘The smashed leg was a hoot. But he’s most delighted with the broken arm and the gash on the head. Sadly he hasn’t done irreparable damage to his spine so he can’t boast that injury.’
‘It – it sounds serious,’ Sophia stammered, shocked.
‘Yeah, we thought so too,’ Pippa said. ‘But these things all occurred to us … Oh, let me see, when was it? Yes, I remember now.’ She was growing increasingly angry. ‘It was first thing this morning when we got the call.’
‘Pippa, leave it,’ Holly said. ‘We’re all frazzled, Sophia,’ she explained. ‘It’s been a long day and there’s no point in adding any further to the unpleasantness.’
Sophia found Holly patronising at the best of times. She was a real school-teacher type. But at that moment she was glad someone was being less acid towards her.
‘You do things your way, Mum, and I’ll do them mine.’ Pippa spun around to face Sophia again. ‘You clearly don’t give a toss about anyone but yourself. That’s fine by me until you’re embroiled with my brother. He needed you today and you weren’t there.’
‘I was out with a client. I was working. It’s not as if I was sitting in a coffee shop ignoring the calls.’ Sophia sighed. She’d had enough of Joey’s sister. She didn’t need to defend herself to this one. ‘I’ll go and check up on him.’
‘Big of you,’ Pippa said, as she walked away.
‘Pippa, why don’t you just get lost?’ Sophia said. Who did this one think she was, shouting at her in public? ‘It’s not my fault your brother had an accident. Stop treating me like some sort of criminal. Is your face really sore?’ she asked, hoping to calm Pippa down.
‘I’ve felt better,’ Pippa snarled, ‘but that didn’t stop me being here all day worrying about Joey.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake, get off the stage, will you?’ Sophia said. ‘Clearly you’re in the habit of fighting with people.’ She pointed at Pippa’s black eyes. ‘You’d want to learn to keep that temper of yours in check.’ She marched towards the ward.
‘You’re a selfish idiot,’ Pippa called after her.
Sophia was furious. She’d have to tell Joey about this. If he didn’t give Pippa a serious ticking-off, she’d be really pissed off with him.
He’d told her recently that Pippa had lost her job – again. That girl had no idea of responsibility. She spent her time flitting around being beautiful and useless. The whole family treated her as if she was some sort of china doll. Well, Sophia mused, she didn’t impress her. She was a spoiled little madam and she’d no right to try to make her feel guilty for having a career.
Still, Sophia had her priorities right. She wasn’t standing here with a punched-up face, no job, no prospects and no sense of worth. Pippa Craig was a loser with a capital L. Joey would explain to his sister that she was never again to address Sophia in that rude manner. She’d done her stint at Huntersbrook, playing country bumpkin, sitting around with all his sad relations and their farmer friends. She was officially done with that entire family set-up. If Joey wanted her to stay with him, he’d better realise she wasn’t going to be pushed around.
Fair enough, she probably should have listened to her voicemail messages earlier. But in her defence she’d been cross with Joey since this morning. How was she to know he’d hurt himself?
The smell of disgusting hospital food mixed with disinfectant stung her nostrils as Sophia made her way to the ward. This place was a dump. It was probably rife with infection too. She knew Joey�
�d understand when she explained to him that she couldn’t hang out in here for too long. If she contracted one of those hospital super-bugs she’d be out of work and her training would go to pot.
Besides, he’d probably be out by the following day. Fleetingly she thought of her plans for Christmas. This accident might mess them up. Sighing, she strode towards Joey’s bed.
17
O Come, All Ye Faithful!
Holly could barely speak as Paddy drove them back down the N11 towards Wicklow and Huntersbrook House. ‘Paddy, what’s happening to us?’ she asked, as tears trickled down her cheeks. ‘Pippa’s face is smashed, Joey could’ve been killed and Lainey is afraid of her own shadow. Where did we go wrong?’
‘Don’t think like that, love. Pippa got herself into a dicey situation and met a bad egg. It happens. Joey just had an accident. Could’ve happened to a bishop. You heard what the report showed. The hole the council had dug wasn’t sealed off or properly lit up. It was a freak thing,’ he said. ‘And Lainey’s in great form. She’s probably been a bit unsure of her direction in life in recent times, but I honestly think she’s finding her feet.’
‘They say all bad things come in threes,’ Holly said, continuing her train of thought. She knew she was sounding dreadfully negative but she couldn’t help it. ‘What’ll befall us next?’
‘Don’t think like that,’ Paddy said. ‘It’s an old wives’ tale.’
‘I feel I’ve let Joey down lately,’ Holly went on.
Driving Home for Christmas Page 18