A Change for the Better?

by Stephanie Drury

  Katie was just surveying the cases and boxes that were nearly blocking the hallway when the bell rang and the door opened simultaneously as Lucy bowled in mid-sentence, “no she won’t Ben, we come all the time now we don’t need to wait for someone to answer the door” she argued, without noticing Katie or the boxes in the hallway and promptly fell over them.

  “Oh bugger” she said as she stood up, rubbing her backside, “I didn’t see those” she added, stating the obvious.

  “No?” Ben raised an eyebrow, “well that’s why you wait for someone to open the door so they can guide you through any obstacles waiting on the other side” he chided.

  Lucy seemed unimpressed with this advice but nearly fell back into the boxes as she turned round and walked into Katie.

  “Oh – what are you doing there?” she asked, somewhat indignantly

  “Waiting for someone to ring the bell” Katie answered sardonically, sharing a smile with Ben as she did.

  “Ha ha – funny much?” Lucy drawled, “You’re nearly as bad as him” she added, flicking her ponytail in the general direction of her brother, “I’m going upstairs to see Poppy – and I won’t have to ring the bell!”

  Katie and Ben managed to keep a straight face until Lucy had disappeared round the top of the stairs when they both gave in to their mirth. Fourteen year old sisters were hugely entertaining! When they’d recovered and exchanged the usual pleasantries Ben surveyed the offending boxes and cases.

  “I’m guessing this is all the stuff to take to Mo’s then?” he asked, a tad unnecessarily.

  “Yes, just as well you could come! I think this would be about eight trips in my car!” Katie laughed.

  “And the rest” Ben added, “but it should all go in the back of Conan”

  “Conan?” Katie had to ask

  “The warrior – I bought that instead of the Kangoo, all this stuff should fit in the back and there’s enough seats for all of us, so you don’t need to take the car at all” he explained

  To be honest, Katie was relieved; she hadn’t felt like driving over to Mo’s. She didn’t like to admit it but she was feeling a bit depressed about Mo’s move, at least with Ben and Lucy talking and bickering all the way, it should keep her mind occupied. Katie and Ben set to clearing the hall of all the boxes and cases and soon they were all stowed in the enormous back of Conan without incident, apart from Ben’s slight double take at the popcorn maker.

  Just as the last box had been stowed in the boot and the door was shut Lucy appeared, with immaculate timing, ready to go, and with Poppy in tow

  “It’s okay if Pops comes too isn’t it? She’d really like to see Mo” Lucy asked

  Ben looked to Katie who had no doubt, “Of course it is – Mo will love to see you” she said, “She can check if I’m feeding you enough - again!”

  They all hopped into the wagon and in thirty minutes were pulling up outside Cheadle House with plenty of oh-ing and ah-ing from Poppy and Lucy who hadn’t seen it before. Before they were all out of the van the big front door opened and Mo and Bert appeared at the threshold to greet their visitors.

  “Katie, Katie, come and see the room they’ve given me, next to Bert’s. It’s like a hotel, TV, digital radio, automatic lights and a minibar!”

  “What” Katie said, in disbelief, “a minibar, that can’t be right, I mean, I know you can have a drink if you want one but a bar in your room, that’s outrageous! I’ll speak to Violet about that – how much will they charge? They cost the earth in hotels. I can’t believe it!” Katie was in full swing now, full of outraged decency and ready for battle – so much so that she didn’t immediately notice everyone repressing a smile but she then spotted Mo mid-wink to Bert.

  “Oh I see” she laughed, “so you’re feeling much better then?”

  “I’m feeling fine, my dear” Mo said, “but still getting used to this bloody stick! Come over here and help me back to the room, Ben, you and Poppy, oh and Lucy can bring the boxes. That’s alright isn’t it?” she asked as she looked at Ben.

  “That’s what we’re here for” he said, doffing an imaginary cap, as Mo linked Katie’s arm and they set off down the corridor.

  The room was, indeed, fabulous. Spotlessly clean with a deep, luxurious, cream carpet that almost ate your feet as you walked on it, there were heavy brocade curtains in a deep plum and a perfectly co-ordinated double bed. Katie looked at the bed and then at Mo, raising a questioning eyebrow.

  “Well, you never know” Mo laughed, “I’m not quite past it yet!”

  “No, you’re probably not – I think I am though” she added under her breath. Mo appeared not to hear and soon everyone else appeared, ferrying boxes and cases and exclaiming over the room.

  “Really, it’s not old fogeyish at all” Lucy said magnanimously, “I could even stay in here - with a few changes” she added.

  “Thank you, Lucy!” Mo said, “And exactly what changes would you make?”

  Lucy pondered this for a moment, wrinkling her forehead in thought, “ Well I’d have to have my iPod and docking station over there and the curtains should be black, to add a bit of drama, maybe paint a mural on that wall over there” she continued, warming to her theme

  “Yes, well it’s not Mo’s room to change” Katie cut in before Mo got too interested in any of Lucy’s more outlandish ideas as she already seemed to surveying the far wall a bit too carefully. “What time is it? I’m starving!” Katie said suddenly, realising there was a fairly loud rumbling beginning in her stomach.

  “God, yes, look its 7.15 – we’ve missed dinner. I was going to treat everyone.” Mo exclaimed, “I know, who’s for fish and chips?”

  Everyone, it seemed, was up for fish and chips so Ben and Bert were dispatched to ‘The Happy Haddock’ in the wagon to pick up six times fish and chips as Mo, Katie, Poppy and Lucy finished unpacking the boxes and stowing it all away.

  In half an hour they were all sat round on the bed and in the deep comfy armchairs contentedly munching crispy, battered haddock and fat, golden chips out of the paper. There’s something deeply comforting about food eaten with your fingers, still in their wrappers and everyone had gotten so comfortable they were loath to make a move when they had finished. The combination of the warm, comfy surroundings, full bellies and the cold March night outside made the thought of going out there very unappetising, but it was already 8.30pm and Ben knew he had to get Katie and Poppy home to Laxley Heath and then on to Rawlinston at a reasonable hour so that Lucy wouldn’t be yawning her way through school the next day. Reluctantly they said their goodbyes and promised to be back soon. They all drifted off into quiet reveries as they made their way back to Tolpuddle House, quietly contented. As Ben pulled up outside the house, Katie invited everyone in for a cup of tea and as Ben was feeling a little drowsy, or so he told himself, he decided to take her up on her offer before finishing his journey back to Rawlinston.

  CHAPTER 21

  Katie opened the front door, giving a silent word of thanks again for Ben’s handiwork that meant she no longer ended up on her backside every time she came in, and they all trooped in behind her. Katie had barely had time to fill the kettle when there was an insistent knocking on the side door. Katie swore Mary could hear the kettle going on from a full mile away! Opening the door Katie was about to invite Mary in when she saw she was drip white and distraught.

  “Help, Katie, help – Ken’s collapsed. I don’t think he’s breathing, I don’t know what to do, I can’t lose him.” Big tears welled in her eyes and were falling fast down her cheeks. Putting a protective arm around Mary, Katie started to lead her back to the flat as she left she looked over at Ben meaningfully, who, reading the signal, jumped up with a quick instruction to Poppy to call for an ambulance, and then followed Katie and Mary round to the Clackett’s flat.

  Ken was lying in the middle of the living room floor and looked terrifyingly still. Ben rushed straight over to him, checking his breathing and looking for any signs of life. Katie
watched in a daze as he checked Ken’s airways and began compressions on his chest, 30 compressions, 2 breaths, 30 compressions, 2 breaths, 30 compressions, 2 breaths. Katie shook herself. She needed to be more use and realising Mary was becoming increasingly hysterical and didn’t know what to do, Katie took her into the kitchen and sat her down with Poppy who had come round to say the ambulance was on its way.

  “Mary, stay here with Poppy and look out for the ambulance so they know where to come as soon as they get here” she instructed Mary, giving her something to do. Quietly she told Poppy to keep Mary in the kitchen, Poppy nodded, instinctively understanding the need to keep her occupied and away from the living room.

  Katie ran back into the other room.

  “The ambulance should be eight to ten minutes – is there any response?” she added.

  “I don’t know, I know what to do but I’ve no idea if I’m helping.” Ben answered desperately.

  “Of course you’re helping” Katie reassured him, “he would have no chance if you weren’t here – if he comes through this it’ll all be because of you.”

  Ben shot her a grateful smile and carried on for four or five minutes, though it felt like hours.

  “Where is the ambulance?” Ben gasped, sweat pouring off him.

  “It should be here any time now – let me do that for a bit, you’re shattered” Katie offered, she gripped one hand with other as Ben was doing and took over the compressions, Ben did the first couple with her so she knew what pressure to apply.

  “Count to 30 then stop and I’ll do the breaths,” he instructed. They worked on in perfect unison until finally the ambulance crew arrived and took over. Katie and Ben moved out to the kitchen and waited with Mary, Poppy and Lucy, all of them white and drawn and silently praying.

  After what seemed like an age, Tom, according to his name badge, one of the paramedics came into the kitchen and told them that Ken was breathing now and showing some signs of recovery but they needed to get to hospital as quickly as possible now.

  “Thank the Lord!” Mary collapsed onto a chair, crossing herself.

  “You want to thank this pair here” the paramedic said, pointing to Ben and Katie, “without their intervention I don’t think we’d have been so lucky.”

  Gently the paramedics, Tom and Jenny, lifted Ken onto a stretcher and pushed him out to the waiting ambulance. His face was as grey as a battleship and his chest rose and fell in short, sharp breaths, but at least he was breathing. Soon Ken was in the ambulance, with Mary holding his hand, blue lights flashing and off down the road to Rawlinston General. Mary had begged Katie and Ben to follow them. They knew there was no way they could leave Mary on own at the hospital as Ken wasn’t out of the woods yet, but Ben still had Lucy to sort out – there wasn’t really time to get her across to Jean’s on the other side of Rawlinston and she couldn’t stay on her own. Ben was just deciding Lucy would have to come with them when Poppy piped up as she could see his dilemma, “I’ve got a put-me-up bed in the flat. Lucy can bed down at mine tonight and I’ll take her in to Rawlinston on the bus in the morning – if that’s okay? Then you don’t have to worry or come trailing back over here” she offered, “if you’re happy for her to stay with me?”

  Ben simply hugged Poppy, “Thanks Pops – that’s perfect” he added and with Lucy sorted out Katie and Ben were soon on their way to the hospital, both nervous about what they might find when they got there.

  The hospital was quiet when they arrived, in that ‘everything’s going on behind closed doors’ way that hospitals have. Katie and Ben entered the building and looked for anyone to help them. A efficient, but kindly, receptionist pointed them along the orange line on the floor to find the emergency room, as they drew closer a few more people appeared, in and out of doors along the corridor, pushing trolleys, carrying clipboards and the noise level increased as wheels squeaked, machines beeped and intercoms buzzed. In the midst of it all they saw Mary, sat in her own stillness, gently weeping into her cotton handkerchief. Katie’s heart lurched as she saw her and she instinctively gripped Ben’s hand. What if Ken was dead? What if he’d gone?

  Ben gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and led her towards Mary.

  “Mary” he said gently, “what’s happening? Have you heard anything?”

  “No, they took Ken in there” she said, pointing to a door on the far side of the waiting area, “and I haven’t spoken to anyone since. I don’t know what to do” she added helplessly.

  Ben took control immediately, “Katie, stay here with Mary and I’ll go and see what I can find out,” he ordered and disappeared towards the nurse’s station they had passed back in the corridor. He was gone only five minutes but to Katie it felt ten times as long as she sat with Mary waiting, Mary twisting her handkerchief endlessly between her fingers. Ben returned stern faced,

  “The nurse is getting someone to update us on what’s happening,” he told them, and true to their word a doctor in blue scrubs appeared from the emergency room and came over to speak to them. Katie realised she was holding her breath as the doctor got closer and her grip on Mary’s hand tightened.

  “Mrs Clackett?” the doctor enquired, in a gentle voice. Mary nodded.

  “Well, the good news is we’ve got Mr Clackett stabilised, but he is quite poorly, he’s had a very big heart attack I’m afraid”

  “Will he be alright? Will he get better?” Mary stammered uncertainly.

  “He’s got a long way to go and he may have to have a little operation but there’s no reason he shouldn’t make a good recovery. He’ll have to take things carefully from now on though.” The doctor told her.

  Mary jumped up and hugged the doctor, “Thank you, thank you so much, I thought I’d lost him but now ………….. Can I see him soon?” The doctor said she could see him for five minutes now and led Mary across the waiting area and into the room where Ken was, leaving Katie and Ben to reflect on everything that had happened.

  “Well that’s good then isn’t it?” Ben started, turning to Katie as he spoke and he saw the tears streaming down her face as she rocked backwards and forwards.

  “Hey, hey” he soothed, enveloping her in a big hug, “he’s going to be okay, I’m sure of it.”

  “But it’s all my fault” Katie sobbed, “if only I’d made him go to the doctor’s sooner – he was poorly on Monday morning but he wouldn’t let me tell Mary and I made him promise to go to the doctors with me tomorrow but I didn’t tell Mary – if I had ….” her voice trailed off as she thought of what might have been prevented.

  “If you had” Ben cut in, “exactly the same thing would have happened. Except that he probably wouldn’t have said he’d go to the doctor’s at all if Mary had tried to make him! He’s a stubborn bugger when he wants to be. It’s not your fault Katie, these things just happen.”

  “Really?” Katie looked up at him with huge luminous eyes, brimming with tears.

  “Really” Ben said, “it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Stop beating yourself up” he added giving her another comforting hug.

  Katie smiled weakly and leant against Ben enjoying the reassurance of his embrace. Ben held Katie as she relaxed and thought, although he never wanted to see Katie upset, he knew he could quite happily hold her like this forever.

  CHAPTER 22

  The next few weeks disappeared in a whirl for Katie. She spent her mornings at Declan’s restaurant preparing all the food for the fayre, then in the afternoons she was either visiting Mo or Ken, who, she was very pleased to see, were both recovering with remarkable speed. Then after her visits she was back to Tolpuddle House with a full programme of works, cleaning, painting, gardening and lots of other odd jobs she had listed to try and restore Tolpuddle back to its best. She had already transformed the front of the house, the creeping ivy gone and the pointing restored, she had sanded down and repainted the window frames and was currently toying with commissioning Cliona to make a hand painted name plate for the house. By the time Katie fell into bed each n
ight she was exhausted but, surprisingly, content.

  She hadn’t seen Ben since the night at the hospital and she had heard from Lucy that he was working away quite a lot on a project down south and he was busy trying to put it all together, the details were a bit sketchy as Lucy clearly had virtually no interest in whatever her brother was doing other than how it affected her and Katie didn’t like to ask too many questions in case Lucy misinterpreted her interest as something more than friendship.

  It was now early April, with the shoots of spring visible all around the village, as trees budded, blossom bloomed and a parade of ducklings criss-crossed the green following their mother as if on an invisible thread. On a sunny Tuesday morning, Katie was in the garden preparing some ceramic pots for the potting plants she was going to display around the patio and filling the hanging baskets to hang either side of the front door that she had ambitiously decided to have a go at herself rather than buying the finished article. Katie smiled as she worked, who’d have thought she was an Alan Titchmarsh in the making! It was a beautiful spring day, one of the first of the year, when the sun had some real warmth in it. Katie had given herself the day off from any cooking, most of the food for the fayre was now prepared. Declan’s freezer was bursting at the seams with twenty quiches, pies of apple, cherry, peach and plum, batches of fruit scones, cherry scones and cheese scones, sponges of many flavours, sausage plaits, Cornish pasties and much more. Katie only had cheesecakes and the fresh food to prepare on the day now. She would be able to report that all was well and under control to Sergeant Hermione when she saw her for the final planning meeting that evening, but firstly Katie was going to visit Mo that afternoon. Katie had been visiting Mo regularly since she had been installed at Cheadle House and she was delighted with how well Mo was doing. Katie thought she’d be able to move home soon, of course, that might mean Katie having to move out but that was always going to happen at some point she reasoned. Katie thought she might stay on for a few weeks once Mo was home just to make sure everything was alright. Mo had rung Katie the afternoon before and asked her to call in on her own, usually Poppy, Mary or Tamsin came along with her as they all loved to see Mo but not today Mo had asked, she had said she had something she needed to discuss with Katie in private. Katie was intrigued but thought it was most likely about Mo coming home – Mo always liked to make things as dramatic as possible! Just telling Katie on the phone would have been far too pedestrian for her.