Daisy bit her lip, water dripping from her arm as she scrolled.
Miles:I hate that this happened to her. She’s been targeted twice in the same spot. It makes me feel like I’ve failed her somehow. We keep telling her not to go that route on her own, but she always says the shortcut is worth it. Yeah, she’s frail. It’s not great. x
All Daisy’s self-centred selfish thoughts flew out the bathroom window.
Daisy:I’m so sorry. That sounds horrendous. How is she doing now? How are you doing?
Daisy propped the phone between her knees, the screen facing forward, and waited. The bathwater had cooled, but she didn’t move.
Miles:She’s drowsy and pale but awake. They’re keeping her in for observation. It could be a while. She’s black and blue, too. There are so many bruises. It’s sickening.
Daisy:Gosh, I can’t imagine how bad that must be to see. You must be beside yourself. And you? Have you eaten anything? How can I help?
Miles:A packet of crisps and a disgusting hospital sandwich that was mostly stale plastic bread.
Daisy:At least that’s something.
Miles:I love you, Daise.
Daisy stared at the message. That was a bolt from the blue.
She read it again, then again and the words shimmered slightly on the screen. The glitchy hospital Wi-Fi and barely-there signal had sent what she’d wanted to hear, that was for sure. She loved him too and had done right from the beginning. Although they’d told each other a few times, it hadn’t exactly felt as if it was truly out in the open and it certainly hadn’t been gushing from either side. A hamper the size of a small army had helped.
For a minute, Daisy just sat in the bath and looked at her wrinkled skin and at how the tips of her fingers had gone pruney. She was so emotional and overwhelmed that it felt as if the anxiety was standing just to her right on the other side of the bath, waiting to get in. Funny really, since the anxiety had been her friend, it had only arrived when things were bad and in her quiet moments behind the doors, when she’d felt as if she wasn’t able to cope. Now, here it was threatening when good overwhelm was around, too.
She stayed in the bath for a few more minutes, the message sitting on her screen like some sort of prize as a massive feeling of relief flooded through her body. It felt as if someone had picked her up by the skin on her scalp, tummy and toes and rested her on the surface of the water. Floating in being loved. Another message popped up on her phone.
Miles:I’ll call you in a sec. I’m walking outside. Can you speak?
Daisy:Yep. xxx
Pulling the plug out with one toe, Daisy stood up carefully, stepped out of the bath, and winced as the cool air in the bathroom nipped against her skin. Wrapping herself in a towel, she wound another into a turban on top of her wet hair and sat down on the closed toilet lid, phone clutched in her hand, knees tucked in slightly, still dripping a bit here and there onto the tiles. She stared at the screen and waited, her right leg jigging anxiously. It rang and she slid to answer.
‘Hi.’
Miles sounded drab, quiet, low and tired. ‘Hi.’
Daisy moved the phone and tucked the towel in tighter. ‘God, it sounds like it’s been awful. Are you okay? Is your mum okay, more importantly?’
‘Not really. But I’m fine. It’s been a day, for sure.’
‘It sounds like it.’
‘I’ve never seen her like that before. She looked so small. I kept picturing her when I was young and now, she’s lying there with half her head stitched up. I’ll send you a pic. She looks like an Egyptian mummy.
‘I can’t imagine how horrible it must be.’ Daisy thought about how it might feel for her if the same thing had happened to Susannah. ‘It sounds awful. What can I do to help? So sorry this has happened.’
‘Yeah, it is.’
Daisy watched a picture arrive, put Miles on speaker and tapped to open the image and gasped. She swore. ‘Oh, my goodness! She looks terrible! You didn’t say she had black eyes, too. Oh, the absolute pigs that did this to her! This is dreadful. I cannot believe they did this to your mum! Poor, poor thing.’
‘The bruising and black eyes are from where they punched her. And yet, she still tried to correct the nurse when they wrote down her name wrong.’
Daisy chuckled. ‘Well, I suppose that’s a sign that she’s okay, hopefully.’
Miles exhaled a long, stressed blast of air. ‘It’s so good to talk to you.’
‘Same. So where are you now?’
