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The boy acknowledged their departure with a grunt and continued his game.
‘How is Brad coping with his mother’s illness?’ Sophie asked as she buckled her seat belt in the passenger seat of Will’s roomy old car.
‘I don’t think he is.’ Will sighed and started the engine. ‘I’ve tried to talk to him but he seems to have shut everyone out—including his mother. Bella worried about him at the beginning of her illness—she was diagnosed with cancer a week after Brad’s fourteenth birthday—but she doesn’t talk about him now. I think it upsets her that she can’t give him the support she wishes she could. She told me a while back she’d run out of emotional energy.’
A painful mix of sadness and helplessness churned in Sophie’s gut. The combination of poverty, illness and social isolation had delivered a cruel blow to this family. It wasn’t fair.
‘Isn’t there anything more that can be done for Bella?’
‘What do you mean?’ Will frowned.
‘She needs twenty-four-hour care … It’s not fair on her son. There must be somewhere like a hospice … In Sydney—’
Will’s grimace deepened.
‘We’re not in Sydney.’
Her boss seemed to want to wind up the conversation, but Sophie was determined to have her say.
‘Isn’t there residential care for the terminally ill here?’
Will began to back out into the street but braked at the kerb as a car sped past, the young driver going way too fast. He put the gearstick in neutral, wrenched the handbrake on and took a deep sighing breath.
‘I wish there was … for patients like Bella.’ Will’s voice was thick with emotion. ‘Do you think I don’t know that Bella, and hundreds of people like her, deserve pampering and dignity in their last days? Or at least to have the choice of where and how they die. Particularly those who have little in the way of family support.’ He paused. ‘But who pays?’
Sophie looked away and began fiddling with her watch band.
‘The government?’ she suggested quietly.
Point made. Sophie felt foolish, naive and totally put in her place.
The hospice she was familiar with was a private facility attached to one of the major private hospitals, paid for by wealthy patients and their health insurance funds.
Will put the car in gear, released the handbrake and looked in the rear-view mirror but he didn’t start reversing. He hadn’t finished.
‘The only government-funded hospice in this city is always full and is basically a converted wing of an old, now-defunct psychiatric hospital. And palliative care seems to be way down the list of priorities for Heath Department funding. I honestly think Bella is better off staying at home. At least for now.’
Will eased the car onto the road.
‘She has access to twenty-four-hour advice, home visits through the palliative care service, and both she and Brad have chosen the home-care option.’
Will accelerated.
Sophie understood his frustration. She had a lot to learn—not only about working in Prevely Springs but about how much of himself he gave to his patients. She glanced at her companion. He had dark rings under his weary eyes and his tense grip on the steering-wheel indicated he wasn’t as relaxed as his tone suggested.
What drove him to work so hard? As an experienced GP, surely he could choose a less demanding job. No one was indispensable.
But looking at Will … He seemed attached to his work and his patients by steadfastly unyielding Superglue.
Maybe she could be the one to ease his burden, to help him discover that there was a life away from work, to bring on that gorgeous smile she’d seen light up his face at least once that afternoon.
Purely as a friend, of course.
As if sensing Sophie was watching him, Will glanced at her as he slowed, approaching a corner.
‘What’s up?’ he said, crinkling his brow in a frown.
Nothing that your amazing smile won’t fix.
‘I’m concerned about Brad.’ Which she had been before she’d become distracted by the enigmatic man sitting next to her. She continued. ‘What sort of life does he lead? What’s in store for him in the future?’ She paused to take a breath, aware she had Will’s full attention. ‘How can a fourteen-year-old shoulder the responsibility of being the primary carer for his mother? It should be the other way around.’
Will accelerated around the corner and Sophie recognised the street where the clinic was located. ‘All valid concerns.’ He sighed as if the weight of the whole world’s problems rested on his shoulders. ‘He seems to have shut the real world out and replaced it with a virtual one, I’m afraid. I’m at a loss as to how to help him.’
‘Would it be okay with you if I tried to talk to Brad?’ Sophie knew it was an impulsive offer, and any support she gave would be a drop in the ocean compared to the Farrises’ hardship, but the boy seemed so isolated and withdrawn. She wanted to do something positive for Brad and Bella.
‘You’d have nothing to lose because I’ve got little to offer him at the moment.’ Will looked almost as weary as Bella. ‘Maybe twelve or eighteen months down the track …’
His voice trailed off, as if he’d started a conversation he didn’t want to finish, but Sophie was interested.
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘I’m not in a hurry.’
He rewarded her with another of those charismatic smiles, apparently surprised she was interested.
‘I’m in the process of trying to get a youth-focused community centre up and running.’ Will parked on the road, a block away from the clinic. ‘See, over there?’
Sophie looked in the direction he was pointing. On the far side of a sports field a building of about the same vintage as the clinic stood neglected at the end of a weedy driveway. Several windows were broken and the parts of a low front wall that weren’t hidden by metre-high weeds were covered in graffiti. It had a chain-link fence around it, displaying a ‘DANGER KEEP OUT’ sign.
‘Looks like it’s ready for demolition.’
Will’s scowl suggested he didn’t agree.
‘That’s exactly what the council wants, but they haven’t got the resources to replace it. Since they closed the place down about a year ago they took away the one place local kids, like Brad and his mates, could hang out without getting bored and up to mischief. But if it’s up to bureaucracy, it’s unlikely to happen.’
Will tapped his fingers on the steering-wheel and for the briefest moment he looked desolate. Why was finding the fate of a rundown old building so painful?
‘So what’s going to happen to it?’
‘I’m trying to save it.’
‘How?’ Will was a man who seemed to have an insatiable need to take on projects that most people would discard into the too-hard basket. Surely he had enough to do, looking after the health needs of Prevely Springs, without taking on their social problems.
Will revved the engine and pulled out onto the road.
‘The cost of renovating and refurbishing is much less than a new build, especially if the skills of local people could be utilised. I’ve submitted a plan to the council and …’ His sigh suggested he wasn’t overjoyed with their response. He focused his attention on traffic as he indicated to turn into the clinic.
‘And …?’
He parked and turned off the engine.
‘To cut a long story short, they wanted detailed plans and costing to present to the building committee and if they approve it goes to a general meeting. But—’
‘Go on.’
‘The wheels of local government turn slowly. It’s unbelievably frustrating. Three months down the track, I’m still waiting for approval. But what’s turning out to be a bigger problem is that the planning department tells me I’m going to have to show the community can raise funds for half the cost of renovating a very old building that the council think is only fit for demolition.’
‘Before they give approval?’
‘That’s right.’ The smile was gone and Will looked despondent.
‘So it’s not going to be a help for Brad and kids like him any time soon.’
‘No.’
Will reached into the back to get Sophie’s bag, a signal that the conversation was over. But Sophie wasn’t about to be put off.
‘How much?’
Will could no longer disguise his disillusionment.
‘An impossible amount.’
‘Nothing’s impossible.’ Sophie knew about fundraising for the sort of amounts that would be impossible if you depended on cake stalls and bring-and-buy sales. For some of her mother’s friends, raising large amounts of money for charity was a very acceptable occupation.
‘How much?’
‘Two hundred thousand dollars.’
‘Oh.’
‘An awful lot of money.’
‘Yes, I can understand the problem.’
But not impossible.
Sophie didn’t want to labour the point when she had nothing tangible to offer. In Sydney in the same situation all she’d have to do would be to ask her parents to help. Her father would pull strings and know all the right people to ask for financial backing. And her mother revelled in organising high-profile events for charity. It helped that it was fashionable to donate to philanthropic worthy causes in certain circles.
But Prevely Springs was nothing like the eastern suburbs of Sydney. She doubted the community would even be considered worthy, let alone high profile enough to get the desired publicity that usually went with large donations.
Someone she hoped she could help, though, was Brad.
‘Can I go with you on your next visit to Bella Farris and I’ll try to break the ice with her son.’ At least she could attempt to break down some barriers with the withdrawn teenager.
‘Sounds great,’ he said, and the expression on his face changed to one of appreciation. Sophie felt a real buzz in response to her boss’s approval. ‘No harm in trying, but don’t expect too much. You might end up disappointed.’
Then Will promptly changed the subject, ending their conversation about Bella and her son and the future of the derelict building on the next block.
‘You must be keen to see the flat.’
At the thought of a comfortable bed, Sophie felt sudden overwhelming tiredness.
‘I guess I am.’
‘It’s only a short drive to Sabiston. You can follow me.’
‘Okay.’
Sophie glanced across at Will, who was concentrating on changing stations on his car radio. His face was blank. What was going on in his head? What impression had her unconventional intrusion into his life made? Their lives were so different. He appeared to be a very private person, not bound to convention or what people expected of him.
She could live with that.
Then she thought of Bella and her introverted son and realised how small her problems were in the grand scheme of things. She felt humbled and even more determined to make a go of it.
CHAPTER THREE
SOPHIE followed in her own car as Will headed west towards the coast. The scenery transformed as soon as they crossed the railway line. Grey-slabbed roadside pavements and graffiti’d walls of grubby corner shops made way for expansive, grassed road verges, quiet streets lined with jacaranda trees and suburbs dotted with slick shopping malls.
Sophie hit the brake pedal as Will indicated to turn into the narrow driveway of a two-storey block of about a dozen art deco flats clustered around a neatly kept garden and a small brick-paved car park. The neighbourhood reeked of old money and good taste.
The surrounding residences were large and palatial without being ostentatious. The neighbouring property was a prime example—a rambling old house with an immaculately kept grassed tennis court and a garage nearly as big as Sophie’s old flat back home. It reminded her of her parents’ house in Manly.
She eased the car into the last remaining resident’s space as Will climbed out of his car and walked across to open her door.
‘I just need to collect the keys.’ He gestured in the general direction of the neighbouring house. ‘Do you want to meet your landlord?’
‘Okay.’
‘He’s a colleague of mine and we went through medical school together. Andrew Fletcher. He’s one of the top cardiologists around town.’
‘He must be doing well for himself,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
Sophie deduced they weren’t great friends. She couldn’t be sure but she thought there was a hint of bitterness in Will’s voice, though he didn’t seem the type to be jealous of those better off than him. They walked silently up the long drive to the front door. Sophie noticed the camera above them as Will rang the bell. A gravelly voice grated through the intercom. There was the sound of several other people talking and laughing in the background.
‘Will, I was expecting you earlier. We’re round the back by the pool. Let yourself in the side gate and come and join the party.’ The camera swivelled like a giant reptilian eye. ‘And great to see you’ve brought such a gorgeous-looking friend.’
‘Party?’ Sophie was confused.
‘I knew nothing about it. I just told him I’d call in to get the keys some time this afternoon.’
Will opened one side of a pair of heavy wooden gates and then he politely followed her through to the party where they were greeted by a man Sophie assumed to be Andrew Fletcher.
‘So you must be my new neighbour? How delightful to meet you.’ The bare-chested man still dripping from the pool briefly glanced at Will before holding out his hand to Sophie. His grip was a little too firm and he held her hand a little too long. ‘I’m Andrew Fletcher. Sorry—I didn’t catch your name.’
