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‘What’s wrong with her?’ Appealing to Phil, Adam began to panic.
Quickly now, Matron crossed to the bed. Leaning to examine her patient, she told them, ‘It’s all right. She’s trying to say something, but she’s not yet fully awake.’ She glanced up at Phil. ‘Another moment, and you must take Adam back so she can get her rest.’
As Matron moved away to check the machine readings, Peggy attempted to speak again. This time, Adam drew closer, trying to decipher the incoherent whispers.
With great tenderness, he wrapped his hand about her fingers. For a moment he was silent, painfully reliving what had gone before. Presently, with his other hand he reached out to stroke her thick, wayward hair. ‘I love you, Mum. I want you to come home, so please get better soon.’
Peggy heard his every word, and she so wanted to rest, but she had to know first. In a snatched breath, she asked him, ‘Is he … here?’
Relieved to hear her voice, Adam leaned closer, his voice small. ‘If you mean Father, he ran away like a coward, and he never came back.’ Anger consumed him. ‘He did this to you, didn’t he?’
‘Sssh!’ Her voice shivered with fear.
Exhausted, she momentarily closed her eyes. She was not afraid for herself, but for her only child. She needed to take care of him, this precious boy, who had seen bad things that no child should ever see.
‘Mum!’ Adam leaned closer. ‘Don’t be afraid, because if he comes back, I won’t let him in. Phil’s taking care of me, and we’ll be all right till you come home. We really will …’
When she made a slow, deliberate movement to touch his face, he realised she was anxious to say something else.
‘Don’t talk, Mum. It will be all right,’ he assured her. ‘I’ll take care of everything until you get home. If he comes back … I’ll tell them what he’s like …’
Deeply distressed, Peggy’s furtive whispers were for her son’s ears only. ‘No. Don’t say … that.’
‘But he hurt you, Mum. He did!’
‘Please … promise me.’ Exhausted, she fell back into her pillow.
‘All right, Mum.’ Adam stood up and, gently laying his face on hers, he reluctantly put her mind at rest. ‘I won’t tell,’ he whispered, ‘I promise …’ He found it hard to believe it was what she wanted, but he would keep his promise.
All he needed was for his mum to get better.
‘Love you … Son.’ Relief shadowed her face and now she was silent again.
‘Mum?’ Cradling her face, he was shocked at how cold she was. ‘Mum!’
There was no response.
‘Mum! Wake up … Mum!’
Matron hurried across the room. One glance at Peggy and she pushed the panic button. ‘Take the boy away now!’ she said to Phil.
Glancing at Peggy’s face, Phil was afraid. ‘Come on, son. We’d best do as Matron says.’ Deeply shaken, he led Adam away. As they hurried out the door, a number of medical staff were coming up the corridor at the run.
Keeping a strong hold on Adam, Phil quickened their steps. He did not want even to consider what might be going on in the recovery room.
Quickly now, he took Adam down the long corridor and into the waiting area where they had previously been.
Adam fought against him. ‘I have to go back … my mum needs me.’
‘They’re taking care of her, son.’ Phil kept a tight hold on Adam. ‘They’ll let us know how she is, soon enough.’ After seeing her so pale and empty, Phil secretly feared the worst.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_d71785a2-791e-5bc1-bd4e-af67e0425877)
IN THE VISITOR’S room, Phil anxiously paced the floor. Occasionally, he paused to look through the window into the corridor, but there was no one in sight.
He turned his gaze to Adam, who was curled up on the couch, quietly sobbing.
With every minute that passed, Phil began to lose faith, though he kept his disturbing thoughts to himself.
Presently, he glanced across at the boy, who was quieter now, deep in thought. Phil’s heart went out to him. Again, he made his way over to him. ‘I know you want news of your mum,’ he started, ‘but we must try and be patient, however hard it might be.’
After what seemed an age, there was a tap on the door, and the surgeon entered, his face sombre.
‘What happened? Is she all right?’ Phil asked.
Simultaneously, Adam ran over, asking anxiously, ‘Is my mum all right?’
The surgeon quietly suggested to Phil, ‘It might be best if I have a quiet word with you first.’
Sensing the tense atmosphere, and made increasingly nervous by the knowing glances that passed between the two men, Adam backed away. ‘What’s happened? Why won’t you let me go to my mum?’
Moved to tears, Phil took hold of him. ‘I’m sorry, son, but you can’t go to your mother,’ he said gently. Though well aware that it was Adam’s right to see her, Phil realized it would not be wise. After all, he was just a child and, at the moment, dangerously vulnerable.
‘Why can’t I see her?’ All of Adam’s instincts told him the awful truth. In his heart and soul, he knew she had left him. ‘Get off me!’ His screams reverberated through the room. He fought Phil off and would have run from the room, but Phil caught him and held him.
‘Listen to me, son.’ His kind voice was calming. ‘D’you recall what I told you … about my darling wife and how the only thing I wanted in the whole wide world was for her to be all right?’
Tearfully, Adam nodded.
‘And do you recall how, for reasons we may never understand, the Good Lord took her all the same?’
Another reluctant nod.
‘Well, then, I’ve been thinking. Maybe your mum, like my dear wife, could never be made better on this earth. But up there, in God’s Heaven, she doesn’t feel pain any more; she’s comfortable and at peace, and though you will always miss her, she’ll be watching over you. She will never leave you.’
Deeply moved by Phil’s gentle words, the surgeon cautiously approached Adam. ‘I’m so very sorry. I know how hard it must be. I can promise you, we did everything humanly possible for your mother, but her injuries were many and her heart was not strong enough to carry her through.’
Adam looked up, his eyes marbled with grief. He began to sob, and soon it was an avalanche of grief. The devastating loss of his mother and the all-consuming hatred for the man who hurt her could no longer be contained.
In a trembling voice, he murmured, ‘One day, when I’m bigger, he’ll pay for what he did.’
‘Who will, Adam?’ Mr Hendon probed for the truth. ‘Do you want to tell us about this person … the one who must “pay for what he did”? Adam, can you tell me who you mean?’
Adam looked away. The surgeon’s words were a timely caution to him, for he knew he must never tell. Not because he didn’t want to, but because his mother had made him promise not to.
Just then the door opened and a nurse entered. After she had imparted her message to the surgeon, he politely excused himself. ‘I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you for a while, but please wait here. Someone will be along in a moment to have a word with you.’
They watched him leave.
‘Phil?’ Adam’s voice trembled.
‘Yes, son?’
‘When the person comes, will they let me see my mum?’ He felt as though his world had fallen apart. It was a strange and frightening feeling. ‘I have to tell her something.’
Phil knew that feeling, and he saw it in the boy’s face now. ‘Adam, listen to me.’
‘No! I don’t want to.’ Tearful, Adam turned away.
Phil persevered. ‘Think about what you’re asking, son. I know how much you want to see her, but it isn’t right for you just now. Later, when everything is in order, I’m sure you can see your mother … if you are still of the same mind.’
‘Please, Phil, I need to see my mum!’
Phil tried gently to dissuade him. ‘I do understand, but do you really think your mother would want you to see her now? Or do you think she’d rather you remembered your last conversation with her, when she was still able to tell you how much she loved you? Don’t you think she would feel your sadness, if you were to see her now?’
Phil’s wise words reached home. After what seemed an age, the boy took a long, deep breath and tried to be the man his mum would want him to be. ‘Is my mum really safe now, Phil?’ He needed reassurance.
Phil promised him that she was safe.
Adam accepted what Phil had told him, though he found it incredibly difficult to believe that he would never again see his mother, never again hear her voice. Never again hear her laugh, nor run with her across the fields. In his heart he could see her beautiful smile, and that funny way she had of wrinkling her nose when she laughed out loud.
Suddenly the awful truth began to sink in, and the enormity of it all was too much for him to bear.
In a voice that was almost inaudible, he whispered to Phil, ‘I’m really sad.’ Winding his arms round Phil’s wide waist, he confessed brokenly, ‘I don’t know what to do.’
‘Aw, son, we can none of us do anything, because when the Good Lord calls us home, we have to go.’ Phil held the boy tight to him. ‘But you’re not on your own, son, because I’m here for you. If I’m able, I will always be here for you.’
Thankful that he had Phil, the boy confided in a whisper, ‘Phil, I don’t know if she heard me promise. I need her to know that I made the promise.’
Choking back his emotion, Phil told him, ‘Don’t you worry about that, because she heard it all right – I heard it too – but y’know, son, sometimes we make promises and then, later, we regret them. You might need to think about that particular promise, the one you made to your mother. Maybe you won’t want to think about it just yet. But maybe later, when you’re not so very sad.’
Adam was resolute. ‘If Mum had not made me promise, I would have told them everything … about how he hurt her, time after time, hitting her and making her cry. I hate him for what he did, but she didn’t want me to tell. Why did she not want me to tell?’
Phil measured his words carefully. ‘Because she loved you so much, she did not want you to do something that might hurt you in the long run. I believe that was why she asked you to make that promise.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I think she wanted you not to tell, because if you told, then you would have so many awkward questions to answer. It would be a nasty business, with you caught up in it.’
Leaning forward, Phil placed his hands either side of Adam’s face. ‘All you need to know is that your mother loved you, and that no one will ever be able to hurt her again.’
Looking into Phil’s kind, weathered face, Adam saw such honesty.
‘Phil?’
‘Yes, son?’
‘She’s died, hasn’t she?’
‘Yes, son.’
‘Has she gone to the same place as your wife?’
‘Yes, I’m sure she has.’
‘Will they be friends?’
‘I would like to think so.’
‘But I’d rather my mum could be here with me, because then, when I get older, I could keep her safe always.’
‘Ah, but that’s not your job, son, because now she’s in the safest place of all. Your mum was an angel on earth, but angels belong in Heaven. She’ll be well looked after there.’
‘I want her back, Phil. I miss her … I really miss her.’ Suddenly the full truth had hit home. He could no longer be brave; and his grief was overwhelming. Hiding himself in Phil’s musty old coat, he sobbed as though his heart would break.
Holding him close, Phil took him to the couch, where he sat beside him, holding him until he sobbed himself to sleep.
A short time later, Matron arrived. On seeing the boy asleep on the couch, she went out and returned with a fleecy blanket, which she handed to Phil.
She watched him wrap it around Adam before quietly informing him, ‘I’m afraid we have to discuss official matters.’ She beckoned Phil to the other side of the room, lowering her voice as she told him, ‘I am led to understand that you are not the grandfather after all. Is that true?’
Knowing he must, Phil told her his name and the whole story: how he had dropped Adam from the school bus and walked home with him down the lane; how he was on his way back to his bus when he heard the boy shouting. ‘In a shocking state, he was, finding his mother like that, and his father running off like a spineless coward. I don’t know if it was the father who hurt her, but Adam seems convinced of it.’
‘So, why did you not inform us of these circumstances right away?’
‘I gave as much information as I could, but it was your staff who chose to believe I was his grandfather, and besides, there were more urgent matters to deal with at the time, as you well know.’
‘Well, I’m sorry, but since we have become aware of the truth, I’m afraid it was our duty to call in the authorities.’
‘What authorities?’ Phil recalled the officials in the office, and all his fears returned. ‘Look, Matron, I make no apologies for letting you believe that I was his grandfather, because as far as I’m aware, he’s got no one else.’
‘I see.’ As a woman, Matron was deeply sympathetic, but duty was her priority, along with the boy’s welfare.
She explained, ‘In the light of what we now know, this is a very serious situation. The boy’s mother has died under suspicious circumstances, and the father has run away. Moreover, we are led to understand there are no close relatives at hand to take care of the boy.’
‘I’ll take care of him then. At least until the in-laws can be found.’
‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think that will be an option.’
‘So, what will happen to him?’
‘That’s for the authorities to decide.’
Before he could answer, she left with the parting words, ‘You do seem to have his interests at heart, and he obviously trusts you. If you could please continue to keep an eye on him, I’ll be back presently.’
When she had gone, Phil paced the floor. This is a sorry state of affairs and no mistake, he thought, walking over to where Adam was sleeping. I can’t imagine what might happen to you now, son. He gazed down on the boy and he shook his head in despair. No family to speak of, and no one but me to stand by you.
He understood the gravity of the situation. Unless Adam’s father was found there was little hope of getting the child home. Possibly not even then.
Physically and emotionally exhausted, he sat down in a chair, laid himself back and closed his weary eyes.
Some few minutes later the nurse arrived with two other people.
