I Hear You Calling

by Helen Line

  ‘Jen, have you gone mad?’

  ‘Don’t even ask me, just do it. Oh and by the way, you might be relieved to hear that Rae is out of her coma.’

  I heard the large sigh of relief over the phone before he went on to ask: ‘Have you told her? Does she know it was me?’

  ‘Not yet, but I will. She needs to know how he tracked her down otherwise she will never feel safe again. Now, stop thinking about yourself again and get off the phone. You need to make that call and Mark, make it good, they need to believe you.’

  Richard

  Something is falling onto my face, something cold and wet. Rain. Rain falling onto my face wakes me from my sleep. I lie still for a moment and try to work out where I am and what is happening and then I remember. Like a film on a massive TV screen I see it all again, Dad driving the car out to sea and me running down the beach screaming at him to stop.

  I look out to sea and there is no sign of the car at all now. It has gone, he has gone. My Dad.

  I feel like I want to cry but I can’t, I think I must have used up all my tears already.

  I don’t know what to do now. I try calling the princess but she doesn’t answer.

  I am really thirsty but the water bottle was in the car. And the car is in the sea. I put my tongue out to catch some of the raindrops, I catch a few but it doesn’t really help.

  No-body knows where I am, I don’t really know where I am either. I know I have to do something but I can’t think what it should be.

  What would the princess tell me to do? I close my eyes really tight and try to imagine her and what she would say.

  I think she would tell me to start walking away from the beach and find some people. It feels like a good idea so I stand up to go and do that. And then I fall down again. My legs won’t work. Every time I try to stand up they just crumple up like paper and I fall down. What is going to happen to me? I can’t move and nobody knows where I am. I am going to die. I will die right here on the beach. Dad should have left me in the car with him after all.

  I want Mum so badly; I keep seeing her face in my mind.

  ‘Solly, God, Princess, anybody. Somebody please help me.’

  In my head I am screaming but the voice that comes out of me is like a little mouse.

  And then I am really tired again and I can’t stop my eyes from closing, even though I try really hard.

  In my dream there is a man and a lady dressed in black, they have me prisoner and they keep bending over me and talking into my face.

  ‘Who are you? Can you tell us your name?’

  I’m going to tell them ‘cos I have seen James Bond movies and I know that you don’t give in, even if they torture you.

  Then the lady moves away and takes out a little black box. That is probably the electric shock box, I think to myself. She is getting ready to torture me.

  But then she speaks into it. She has a funny voice and some of her words sound strange but I hear her say “ambulance.”

  And then I start to open my eyes. They are still there, it isn’t a dream. I keep staring at them until my eyes will work properly and then I see that they are police officers.

  ‘Richard Banks,’ I whisper.

  ‘Hey Richard,’ the lady smiles. ‘We have been looking for you.’

  And then I go back to sleep.

  Rae

  PC Sam Morgan came in to the hospital to take my statement. I knew then that I was getting old because he looked about the same age as some of the kids that I work with.

  He had a gorgeous baby face and ebony black hair that curled slightly around his ears. Sitting himself down at my bedside he leaned in towards me and gave me a toothpaste advert smile.

  ‘We’ll take it slowly and we can take as many breaks as you need,’ he told me.

  Behind his back Jen was making suggestive faces and I struggled to turn my laughter into a cough.

  ‘It’s natural to be nervous,’ he mistook my spluttering for an attack of nerves.

  ‘But I promise to make it as painless as I can.’

  Jen was now in full blown dramatic mime behind him. She was loving this.

  ‘Jen, please come and sit down on this side.’ I pointed to the chair on the opposite side of the bed to Sam.

  She gave me a “spoilsport” face as she did what I asked.

  Re-telling the assault was even more difficult than I had imagined it would be; as I told him how Jim was waiting for me in my bedroom I felt the shock and fear of the whole experience flood over me again and had to take one of the breaks Sam had promised me within five minutes of starting.

  Slowly and very painfully I managed to get the story out eventually. The room was silent except for my voice, Sam’s scribbling and Jen’s quiet sobs.

  When I stopped talking the young man looked at me with a concerned expression.

  ‘Are you OK?’

  I nodded, emotionally exhausted now.

  ‘You have done very well. I know it’s not easy.’

  ‘Do you think you will get him?’ Jen’s voice was strangled by the tears she was still crying.

  ‘We are following a lead in the North. It seems he is probably in the area but he has gone to ground. When we find him, and we will, he will be facing serious charges.’

  ‘Prison?’ I asked.

  Sam nodded. ‘For a few years I should think.’

  ‘I hope they throw away the key,’ Jen was drying her eyes and so didn’t see my expression for a couple of seconds.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ She said when she did look at me.

  I was thinking all sorts of things that I knew I couldn’t tell her, like, how could I be turning Jim in to the police? He had never been physically violent before, maybe I had pushed him to it? I knew that if I voiced these thoughts Jen would go ballistic at me for having them, so I played safe and told her the thoughts I was having that she would understand.

  ‘He’ll hate being in Prison and he’ll hate me even more for putting him there. When he comes out he will come back again, I know he will, and he will be angrier than he was before.’

  ‘There will be restrictions put in place, whenever he is released, and you will be informed and supported all the way when that time comes,’ Sam told me softly.

  ‘But that is going to be quite a way off so don’t even think about it now.’

  Jen left soon after to walk Barney and I lay back on my pillows and tried hard to take Sam Morgan’s advice but it was certainly easier said than done. I kept going over and over everything that happened since Jim appeared back in my life, double checking everything I had said and done. I had to be sure that I hadn’t provoked him and caused the attack to happen. I didn’t think I had but I needed to be sure. I knew that most people wouldn’t understand my dilemma but that didn’t make it any less real to me.

  ‘You may be going home soon,’ the nurse said as she came in a little later. ‘Doctor Killarney is going to come tomorrow morning and check you over and then you could be leaving us.’

  My heart lifted then. I could picture my little house with its cosy warmth and comfort and Barney; he would go mad when he saw me again and I couldn’t wait to hug him and kiss his long silky nose. But I shuddered when I thought about entering the bedroom. Maybe I would move into the spare room for a while. Maybe I would move into it for good, it was a nice room and it overlooked the garden and caught a lot of sun. In fact I couldn’t remember why I hadn’t chosen that as my bedroom in the first place.

  I was in the middle of planning the décor for my new bedroom when Jen rushed into the room. Her eyes were bright and shiny and her face was flushed.

  ‘They’ve found him, Rae. They’ve found Richard, and guess what, he was just where you said he would be.’

  ‘Is he OK?’ I was almost too scared to ask.

  ‘He is alive but not particular
ly well. They have taken him to hospital but they think he will be OK.’

  ‘And Chris?’

  Jen shook her head.

  Richard

  So, they take me off in an ambulance with blue lights flashing and sirens and everything. I don’t remember it though ‘cos I was unconscious. I only know about it ‘cos Mum tells me later. I am sad I missed it really.

  When I wake up I am in a bed in a small room with white walls and white sheets and blankets. The woman standing next to me is dressed all in white as well.

  ‘Is this Heaven?’ I ask her.

  She laughs, ‘No my lovely. Far from it. You are in hospital, carriad.’

  Her voice sounds like she is singing, I really like it.

  There is a big tall machine with a wire going into my arm.

  ‘What’s this for?’

  ‘That’s your drip darlin’. You got a bit dehydrated and that is putting fluids into your body.’

  I don’t understand really but I am enjoying listening to her.

  ‘And I got good news for you. Your mum is on her way. She should be here soon.’

  Mum. Mum is coming. She will be here soon. She will put her arms around me and hold me tight and I will start to feel better. Mum is coming.

  ………….

  My granny stands at the door and looks at me and cries. And then she speaks.

  ‘Richard, my baby, oh my baby’ and she rushes across to the bed and hugs me. I know that voice. It’s Mum’s voice, it’s Mum’s hug, and Mum’s smell. Why does Mum look like my granny?

  She has put her hair into a pony tail and as she hugs me close I can see the brown roots. She hasn’t done her blonde hair dyeing. Mum always does her hair dyeing, she hates having brown hair. And her face is thinner and sort of grey looking, just like her mum, my granny. But it isn’t granny, it’s Mum and I cry and hug her back.

  And then Tom is there and he’s crying a bit as well but he tries to pretend he isn’t.

  ‘Something in my eye.’ He says as he wipes the tears away.

  ‘We were in the newspaper Mum.’

  ‘I know Sweetie. Don’t think about that now.’

  ‘But Dad went really mental.’

  She wraps her arms around me again then and pulls me right into her.

  ‘Shh, just don’t think about it.’

  And I can tell that she doesn’t want to hear about it.

  ‘The people here speak funny,’ I say instead. ‘It’s nice though.’

  She smiles then. ‘It’s a Welsh lilt.’

  I have no idea what that means but she is smiling so I am happy.

  Rae

  Dr Killarney said I was ok to go home as long as I didn’t overdo things. With an arm still in plaster and two very sore ribs there wasn’t really much chance of that but I just thanked him for everything and smiled back at him.

  Jen helped me to dress in the jeans and loose shirt she had brought in for me, at the same time as throwing things into my bag. The zip on my jeans went up really easily.

  ‘I think I must have lost a few pounds.’

  ‘Hardly surprising love, there was no chocolate or ice-cream in that drip,’ Jen laughed.

  She was more excited than I was, and that was saying something because I was ecstatic at the thought of going home.

  ‘Stay Barney, let your mother sit down first,’ Jen held Barney back by his collar until I sank down into my own very comfortable armchair. As soon as she let go of him my beautiful boy leapt in my direction and I was covered in a six stone furry explosion as he licked my face frantically and made soft grunting noises to welcome me home. I buried my face in this golden mane and allowed a few tears to fall onto his silky fur.

  Bless Jen, she busied herself in the kitchen and allowed me time to wander around and greet my home. It was a bit like when you have been on a long holiday and when you return you get that brief period of time where you see your home with fresh eyes. It doesn’t last long, within an hour or so you are just seeing home again, but for that hour it is a rare experience.

  I walked around each room and looked at everything, stopping to reconnect with precious sentimental items; the crystal paperweight that Mum and Dad bought for me when I graduated, the photo of me and Jen making sandcastles on a beach somewhere in Cornwall with our mouths coated in ice cream and sand.

  I stood at the bedroom door for a few minutes before I felt I could actually force myself to go in. I tensed myself ready to re-live it all again when I saw the scene of the crime. Instead, as I pushed the door open, I laughed out loud. Jen had been at work in here in my absence.

  Walls that had previously been magnolia had been changed to soft duck egg blue. The bed was no longer under the window it had been moved to rest against the opposite wall to the door and then suddenly I realised it wasn’t even my bed. My double divan had been replaced with a pine framed bed and my cream and caramel bedding had been replaced by a luxurious set in teal and chocolate brown silk. Sitting on the bottom of the bed with a silly smile on his face, Jen’s knitted clown that she had had and loved since she was about four years old. She had completely changed the look and feel of the room.

  I wouldn’t have to change rooms after all. My sister was a genius and I rushed downstairs to hug her with one good arm and tell her so.

  The late afternoon sun was quite warm so we sat in the garden with coffee and lemon cake and Barney lay at my feet the whole time, to make sure I was going nowhere without him again.

  ‘Jen, you haven’t mentioned Mark since I woke up,’ I suddenly realised.

  Her face tensed then. ‘No, I haven’t.’ She let out a huge sigh.

  ‘Oh well, I suppose I had to tell you sometime,’ she said. ‘He was the one who told Jim where you were living.’

  For a second I felt as if I was back in the greyness hearing words that I knew but that didn’t make sense. I felt my head tilt to the left as I looked back at her with a question. ‘What did you just say?’

  She looked as guilty as if she was personally responsible for Mark and all of his actions.

  ‘He did Rae. He told Jim you were in Eadstone and even gave him your bloody address.’

  ‘But…. Why? Why would he do that?’

  ‘Jim was sort of blackmailing him. It seems that Mark had sex with a prostitute on his stag night and Jim knew he hadn’t told me about it.’

  I was stunned. Stunned to think he would be stupid enough to tell Jim where I was and even more stunned to think he would cheat on my beautiful sister a few days before their wedding.

  ‘He didn’t realise that it would all end up so badly though,’ Jen said. ‘He was genuinely distressed when you got beaten up and that’s how come he confessed.’

  ‘What happens now?’ I asked her.

  She shrugged her shoulders and I knew that she wasn’t being dismissive, she just hadn’t got the words yet to express the situation and plan for the future.

  We didn’t talk much after that, both of us locked into our own private thoughts about the incredible situation we found ourselves in.

  I remembered that some weeks ago she had told me how Mark was becoming a little remote, the guilt was obviously getting to him long before Jim actually assaulted me. I couldn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for the stupid man but he must have felt under tremendous pressure these last few months.

  We were just sitting down to dinner that evening when Tom texted me an update on Richard. The drip had helped a lot with Richard’s dehydration issues and, although they were keeping him under observation for the night, staff felt sure he would be able to leave hospital the next day.

  At least that good news lifted our dampened spirits a little.

  Richard

  The Welsh doctor says I can go home and the lovely nurse with the singing voice gives me a hug and a bar of chocolate for the journey.
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br />   Tom drives me and Mum home and the car smells of Herman. I don’t mind, I like it, but Mum keeps sniffing and covering her nose. Tom keeps saying sorry, that he hasn’t had time to clean the car out recently. I try to tell him that it doesn’t smell as bad as Dad’s car had but Mum tells me not to think about that anymore, it’s over now.

  I know that it’s over now, it has to be ‘cos Dad is dead, but that doesn’t stop me thinking about it and remembering things.

  I am wondering what we will do now without Dad? I want to tell Mum that he had said sorry and I want to ask Tom if he thinks I will be able to talk to Dad in the spirit world yet. And does he think Dad will still be a bit mental over there or will he be better now?

  I want to tell them about the princess, and me being a knight and riding through the forest on a white pony.

  And I want to tell them how scared I have been and how dirty and thirsty and how I have been sick a few times and even wet myself.

  I want to tell them how sometimes I feel so angry because Dad was going to kill me and then I feel so sad because he went to the spirit world without me.

  Instead I keep quiet and listen to Tom’s radio playing really old songs that I have never heard of but he is singing along to.

  Tom

  I drove Janet to Wales. It was, as you would expect, a tense and quiet journey, neither of us sure what we would find when we got there. Over the last two weeks Janet had visibly aged by about 20 years and I noticed her hands trembling constantly as she clutched her handbag on her lap the whole way. God knows what was going through the poor woman’s mind, I know my thoughts were tense enough.