‘Well, Katie! What’s the news?’
‘Mam has to have an operation, but she’s not going to die.’
‘Well, thanks be to God for that. Now, if I go back to my own bed for the rest of the night will you be all right? The rest of them are asleep. If you need me, knock on the door and I’ll be in here in a jiffy.’ Standing up to go, she wrapped her dressing-gown tightly around her.
‘Mrs Dunne, thanks. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Don’t say a word, dear. I’ll be around after breakfast and we’ll have a chat then. The only thing is, the young fella is fretting thinking that he caused your Mam to get ill. For heaven’s sake tell him she’s okay.’
Before she went to bed, Katie crept over to Paddy and whispered: ‘Paddy, Mam’s all right. She’s alive, she’ll get well again.’
He mumbled something in his sleep. Too exhausted to do anything more, Katie crawled up the stairs and slid into her bed.
Chapter 20
THE HOSPITAL
Katie walked down the long corridor looking for Unit 5. The floor below was filled with beds containing smiling, contented women. Beside them stood little plastic cots on wheels, with small babies asleep in them. Cards and ribbons and soft toys cluttered every bed.
This floor was quieter. There were no babies here. Two or three heavily pregnant women walked up and down, chatting to each other. Unit 5 was down at the far end. Mam was in Room C.
There were six beds in the room, three on either side. Mam’s bed was by the window. She was staring out at the city spread out below them.
‘Hi, Mam.’
The face that turned to her seemed so like Hannah’s it shook her.
Mam looked thinner, her skin was white and her hair loose around her shoulders. She seemed older and yet younger at the same time. She wore a short-sleeved white hospital gown.
Something hung from a metal pole over her bed. It was a bag full of red stuff and it was going through a long thin tube into a part of Mam’s hand.
‘Hello, pet.’
Mam reached to hug her but couldn’t move because of her arm.
‘It’s blood, pet.’ Katie looked alarmed. ‘Some person gives a pint of their blood,’ Mam went on, ‘and then they freeze it to give to the likes of me, would you believe it, girl!’
Katie stared. ‘How are you, Mam?’
Her mother wouldn’t look straight at her.
‘I’m fine, pet.’ She made no mention of the baby but she kept blinking as her eyes welled up with tears.
The lady in the bed beside shoved a box of tissues at Katie to pass to her mother.
‘Let her cry, love, she needs to.’
Katie felt uncomfortable, so she stood up and walked to the window. The bed opposite was empty. Three of the women had men sitting beside their beds. The lady with the tissues had an elderly woman and another woman visiting her and judging by the resemblance, Katie decided they were her mother and sister. Mam only had her.
‘Here, Katie, give me a hand to sit up more.’
Katie helped her up a bit and fixed the pillows.
‘Oh, and Mrs Fox next door sent you in this.’ It was a bottle of lemonade.
‘Well, I don’t believe it,’ Mam said, and they both laughed.
Katie opened it and poured out a glass for Mam. The rest of the time all Mam wanted to know was how everyone was. Did Hannah go to school? Brian had PE today – did he wear his tracksuit? What about Davey, is he missing me? Is Paddy behaving himself? Who’s minding them while you’re here?
‘Mrs Dunne. She’s been real good and cooked a shepherd’s pie for us for tea and she gave me the money for the bus fare here.’
All too soon a nurse went around and tinkled a bell to say visiting time was over.
She hated leaving Mam in this place but in her heart Katie knew it was the only place for her.
‘I’ll come again tomorrow, Mam.’
Her mother hugged her as if she didn’t want her to go either. Katie waved back as she joined the throng of visitors moving towards the stairs. She wished Mam wasn’t so alone. The other women all seemed to have lots of visitors and lovely nightdresses and plenty of things on the little locker beside their beds. Mam’s was empty except for the glass and the lemonade. It didn’t seem fair.
She missed two buses on the way home but was relieved to find that Mrs Dunne had finished giving the others their tea and had set Hannah and Brian to do the washing up. ‘Your tea is in the oven, Katie.’
‘Thank you again, Mrs Dunne,’ she murmured as she went to the door with her.
‘Think nothing of it. Your Mam’s a nice woman, keeps herself to herself, ‘tis the least a neighbour could do. How was she?’
Katie told her about the blood and about losing the baby.
Mrs Dunne crossed herself. ‘I lost two of my own, but you just have to get well and get back on your feet and thank God for the children you have, that’s what I say.’ Katie nodded. ‘Now go back in and eat your dinner before it gets cold on you.’
Late that night when the others were getting ready for bed, Paddy came in to Katie.
‘Is Mam really okay?’
‘Yeah, she’ll be fine,’ she tried to reassure him.
‘Do you think I was the cause of it?’
Katie shook her head. ‘No, Paddy, I don’t. She wasn’t feeling well for the last week or more.’
‘I don’t mean to cause trouble, I just – well – I can’t explain it. Sometimes sitting in a classroom or on that old school bus, I feel like I just want to get free of it all. I hate being shut in, people planning every hour of the day.’
Katie stared at him, he was really worried about it.
‘Paddy, being free and being a traveller is in your blood, you can’t change that. It’s just that some travellers can fit in and settle better than others.’
‘Maybe I’m a bit like my Da or Tom?’
‘Yeah, maybe.’
‘Come on, away to bed.’
* * *
The next day she visited the hospital again. Mam had a bit of colour in her cheeks and was sitting up. A different woman was in the bed near her.
‘I brought you a clean nightie and a hairbrush and some soap and a towel. Mrs Dunne sends her best wishes and the two old ladies who live across the road sent you this.’
Mam unwrapped the package. It was a tin of sugared fruit drops.
‘Miss O’Gorman was in with me at lunchtime. I’ll be going home in about two days’ time.’
‘That’s good news.’ They just chit-chatted until the bell rang. Mam was tired and needed to sleep.
As she walked up to the bus stop Katie wondered how things would work out during the week or two ahead.
There wasn’t a penny in the house for food and she couldn’t ask Mrs Dunne for any more. Maybe she should go and beg like Mam had to do at times when there was nothing left. She had just turned the corner when she spotted a familiar green car parked near the house.
She began to walk faster, then to run. It was!
Her father opened the car door and started to come towards her.
‘My little Katie!’
She hurled herself at him.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
‘’Tis all right, pet, I’m back.’
‘Why are you sitting out in the car?’
‘Well, Tom told me where the house was, but I was just about to ring the bell when I noticed a strange woman there, so I wasn’t sure if I had the right number and I decided if I waited one of you was bound to show up.’
‘Oh, Da! You don’t know how much we’ve missed you!’
She began to lead him up to the front door.
‘Katie, where’s your Ma?’
‘Come inside, Da, and I’ll explain it.’
A flustered Mrs Dunne opened the door with Davey in her arms.
‘Mrs Dunne, this is my father.’
Mrs Dunne was disapproving and the girl noticed the older woman examini
ng her father with curiosity. It would be the talk of the neighbourhood.
‘How did the visiting time go? How is she, pet?’
‘She’s coming along fine,’ Katie replied and added a ‘thank you’.
The neighbour seemed anxious to stay.
‘I’m fine, Mrs Dunne. Now that Da is here things will work out. Thanks again. Thanks very much.’
Mrs Dunne went off to her own house.
‘Who is she? What’s she doing here?’ Da asked. ‘What the hell is going on?’
‘Mam’s in hospital. She was real sick and had to get an ambulance. I went with her.’ Bit by bit Katie told Da all about the panic of the last few days and all that had happened since she had last seen him.
Davey had climbed up on his knee and was busy pulling at the buttons on his shirt. When she finished, Da stood up and walked to the window.
‘I let you all down and especially your Mam. My stubbornness got in the way …’
Katie looked at him. He was the most handsome man she knew. His hair had once been black and was now sprinkled with grey, his skin was tanned from being outdoors, and his eyes were soft with laughter creases around them. She could understand how at seventeen Mam had fallen in love with him and married him.
‘Hey look, here’s Hannah and the boys.’ Her father ran out and pulled open the front door and the others almost stampeded in to hug and greet him.
‘I knew you’d come back, Da. I knew you’d never just leave us,’ declared Brian solemnly. Hannah’s eyes filled with tears the minute she saw him. He lifted her up and tousled her hair. ‘How’s my own little girl?’
Davey was pulling at his legs trying to get attention and jealous of the others.
Katie went to the kitchen and made a pot of tea while the others showed Da the rest of the house.
He opened the cupboards in the kitchen. It was clear there was nothing much there. He took a ten-pound note from his pocket and told Paddy to take the rest of them to the shops and get some food for tea and some cereal and bread for the morning. When they were gone he supped his mug of tea slowly.
‘I’m sorry, Katie.’
She didn’t know what to say.
‘What made you come back, Da?’
‘Well I was thinking about it. It’s mighty lonely on the road without your woman and your children. It’s okay when you’re a young fella – look at Tom, he thinks it’ll be a grand life. But when he appeared out of the blue, I knew it would break your Mam’s heart. Then do you know who I met? That old one Nan Maguire and her grandson, Francis. She’s a strange one.
‘She told me I should be with my family now and not traipsing the roads of Ireland. She told me if I kept on the way I was going, everything I love would be lost to me. Well, you can imagine how I felt.’
‘She has the second sight, Da.’
‘Oh I know she has the gift. You have to take warnings from the likes of her seriously.
‘So you decided to come back.’
‘I just missed each and every one of you.’
‘Where’s Tom? Why didn’t he come with you?’
‘Well, he’s a young lad that needs a bit of space. Maybe living in a town isn’t the thing for him. He’s on a site with my uncle Christy. He’ll have no mam or sisters to look after him or hand him up a dinner, so he’ll make his own way if that’s what he wants. My guess is he’ll be back before too long. Oh and by the way, young Francis Maguire was asking for you and he told me to give you a message – he hasn’t forgotten.’ Her father looked puzzled but Katie smiled to herself.
After Da tidied himself he was very nervous about going to the hospital to see Mam – you’d think he was a young fella going on a first date. And at the best of times he hated doctors and hospitals.
Katie would have given anything to have seen the look on Mam’s face when he walked into the ward. Having Da back was bound to make things better all round.
Chapter 21
TURNED AWAY!
Mam was kept in hospital for an extra few days as she had a bit of a setback. Da visited her twice a day and in between tried to make a few contacts around the area to see about odd jobs and collecting scrap. Katie took over the cooking and running the house.
The day that Mam came home from hospital Katie watched her get out of the car. She seemed to stop on the pathway, unsure if she wanted to cross the front door. She was so pale, and seemed almost to tremble. It was Da who urged and coaxed her inside and settled her upstairs in bed.
‘I should be getting back to school,’ Katie said to Da.
‘Nothing wrong with staying at home for a while and giving your Mam a hand,’ her father tried to persuade her.
She felt torn in two. Maybe staying at home wouldn’t be so bad, school wasn’t that hot after all.
Her whole mind was in a whirl. She wanted things to change and yet she didn’t. If the truth be told, she didn’t know what she wanted, she was like a piece of cork floating on the river, going any way it was brought, bobbing up and down, a silly useless thing. She hated her face, she hated the pimples on her forehead, she hated her clothes, she hated her hair. There was nothing she could do about most of it, but there was one thing she could change – her hair.
One Saturday morning Katie went up the town and stood in the main street. The weekends were always busy, people with lots of money busily spending it. Da had given her a bit of money for herself.
Music blared out from some of the shops, all the sounds pushing at each other, competing for custom. Women struggled in and out of the supermarket, many tugging enough bags of groceries to break an arm. Young children were already whingeing and wanting to be home …
Jonathan’s was the first hair stylist’s she spotted. She read the prices on the list in the window. Yeah, she definitely had enough money, so she pushed in the door.
A tape of soft music played in the background. Two women were sitting with their heads leaning backwards at washbasins getting their hair washed. A girl, her hair a mass of bleached white-blond waves, was cutting a middle-aged woman’s hair.
A tanned man with a moustache and a crisp white shirt tucked into tight-fitting jeans came towards Katie.
‘Yes, may I help you?’
‘I want to get my hair cut,’ she said.
‘Well!’ he stopped and stared at her, taking in every inch of her, from her runners right up to her sweatshirt.
‘We are very exclusive, our prices are steep, especially on a Saturday.’
‘I have the money,’ she patted the pocket of her jeans.
‘Well, it’s not just that, actually we have a problem with your type of hair. I’d advise leave well enough alone.’ He seemed embarrassed and fumbled over his words.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, it might just frizz up on you. No, I wouldn’t cut it.’
Katie stared at him. ‘But I want to get it cut, it’s too long and it needs –’
‘I’ve given you my professional opinion. I’m sorry, but no.’ He turned on his heel and went back to a chair where a girl of about nineteen was sitting with a towel around her neck. He lifted up the hairdrier and turned it on full blast and began to blow-dry her hair.
Standing there on her own, Katie had no option but to step out of the shop.
About ten doors down from there was another hairdresser’s called Clip ‘n’ Cut. It was a lot bigger than the last one and seemed much busier. There were about eight basins and each one was occupied. In front of a row of mirrors, women stared at their reflections. There was hair in every stage of mess – wet, greased, hair with bits of paper stuck on it and hair poking out of a sort of bathing cap in a frenzy of madness. Katie couldn’t believe it. She had never seen anything like it.
The woman in charge came over to her. She wore a well-cut suit and giant dangly silver earrings and looked friendly enough.
‘Yes, what is it?’
Katie flushed. ‘I want to get my hair cut a bit.’
The woman seemed surprised.<
br />
‘Humph!’ She waved back towards the busy shop. ‘As you can see, I’m full up.’
As she spoke two women came in, nodded at her and went and sat down in a small row of chairs. They began to flick through glossy magazines.
‘Will I wait then?’ enquired Katie, starting to take a step towards them.
‘No!’ The woman replied sharply ‘Those customers have already made appointments. You might end up waiting hours. Why don’t you try somewhere else or come another day.’
As she spoke she managed somehow or other to walk Katie to the open door.
Katie felt deflated. She blinked and looked up and down the street. There were bound to be a few more hairdressers in a town this size. She had to walk for about ten minutes before she discovered another one. It was up a narrow stairs, over a florist’s. Inside, Michelle’s was busy enough. The women were older and sat studying their newspapers and magazines under big, old-fashioned hairdriers. There was a circle of cotton wool wound around most of the heat-reddened faces. One or two looked up as she came in. Obviously it was Michelle herself who, all of a fluster, came over to her. She was like a big pink marshmallow – her skin was pale and she was squashed into vivid pink leggings and a pink-and-white polka-dot top. She wobbled over to Katie.
‘Yes, dearie?’
‘I’d like to get my hair cut.’ Maybe it would be a case of third time lucky.
‘Oh, I don’t know!’ The woman walked around her.
Two or three of the customers lowered their voices and were semi-listening.
‘Come over here and sit down a second.’ She called Katie to a plastic seat near a silver cash register, opened a kind of glass box, took out a long-handled comb and using the long tip of it lifted up one or two sections of the thick reddish hair.
‘I don’t like messing around with coloured hair,’ she muttered.
The Blue Horse Page 10