Chapter 19
19
‘You’re doing a great job.’ Hudson sipped from his mug of tea as he watched Beau finish sweeping down the side of the airbase building.
Beau put the last of the debris into the garden waste bin as Hilda approached, returning from a job, and stirred up the grass surrounds as she came in to land.
It was a lovely dry June day and finally warm enough for short sleeves outside. It felt good to linger in the sunshine for a while, so Hudson didn’t rush to get on. They watched the crew disembark, their faces saying their job had gone well.
What took him by surprise was Beau watching the crew so intently.
‘Let me take that.’ Hudson took the broom and went to put it away. ‘Good job, guys,’ he said to Kate and Brad as they came inside the hangar and stowed their helmets on the shelf.
They briefly discussed the patient and the mission and by the time Hudson went out to find Beau, his son was talking intently to Vik as the pilot refuelled Hilda, having dragged across the lengthy hose from the bowser.
Hudson wondered whether they’d exchanged any words about the hoax but if they had, Vik had clearly decided the best way past this was to educate, given the information he was throwing in Beau’s direction.
‘How fast do you fly?’ Beau asked once Vik had finished a spiel about fuel consumption.
‘We frequently reach speeds of 150 miles per hour.’
‘That’s fast.’
‘Very. We can cover over two miles every minute. It can mean the difference between life and death for a time-critical patient.’
The fuel continued to sloosh into the aircraft.
‘I hear today could’ve been very different if The Skylarks hadn’t been there.’ Hudson didn’t miss Beau’s guilt when he said this – what gave it away was the slight dip of his head as he tried to hide behind his fringe again.
‘It would’ve been catastrophic,’ said Vik. ‘That man would have had no hope without pre-hospital care.’ He had Beau hold the nozzle while he replaced the fuel cap and then dragged the hose back to the bowser.
Beside Hilda, Vik put a hand on Beau’s shoulder. ‘We all appreciate the written apology you sent. It sounds like you won’t ever be a part of anything like that again, am I right?’
Beau shook his head vigorously. ‘Never. Unless it’s to report someone else doing it.’
‘Good. And you’ve been doing a great job around here; nice to have you on board.’
‘It’s just a bit of tidying and cleaning.’
‘It means nobody else has to do it,’ Vik told him. ‘It means we can focus on other things. It means we don’t have to pay someone either, so we can use the funds for life-saving missions.’
‘How much does each mission cost?’ Beau asked the pilot.
‘Around ￡3,000.’
Beau’s eyes widened. Hudson was pretty sure he’d already told his son facts like this over time but he knew the deal: kids listened to others more than their parents, who they assumed didn’t know much at all. The thought tickled him sometimes; other times, it was frustrating.
They left Vik to it and headed inside the hangar where Hudson picked up the empty mug he’d put inside when he took the broom in.
‘Everyone is being really nice to me,’ said Beau. ‘I don’t deserve it.’
‘You made a mistake, you’re sorry; that’s what they see. And they’re a great bunch here. I’m lucky.’
‘Yeah.’
In the kitchen, Hudson put the mug in the dishwasher. ‘Your apology went a long way; it was much better to admit to the hoax than have it come out at a later date.’
When Brad came into the kitchen for one of the blueberry muffins Nadia had baked and brought in this morning, Beau asked him whether they’d ever had a mid-air emergency on the helicopter. ‘I was going to ask Vik but I forgot.’
Brad bit into his muffin. ‘No major emergencies, no – we’re lucky, Vik and Maya are two of the best pilots around.’
Beau had umpteen questions about Brad’s job – when he’d joined The Skylarks, what they’d been tasked with today, what sort of emergencies they might be faced with.
‘Honestly, kid, every day is different.’ Brad popped the last morsel of muffin into his mouth. ‘That’s why I love my job: no time to get bored.’
Hudson watched and listened, gauging his son’s interest. He’d never seen him focus so intently unless it was when he was talking about his favourite football team, Chelsea. They talked about ventilating a patient at the scene, transfusing blood, emergency surgical procedures on occasion.
‘Did you study for ages?’ Beau asked.
‘Quite a while but it was all worth it.’
‘He has to say that,’ said Nadia when she joined them in the kitchen. ‘He knows he’ll be in trouble with the rest of The Skylarks otherwise.’
When Dorothy appeared in the doorway with the fresh supply of bloods, Beau was still eager to know more and Brad didn’t seem to mind the line of questioning at all.
‘Come with me,’ he said, ‘let me show you where we keep these blood products and then I’ll show you around the inside of the helicopter, all the equipment in the back.’
‘He’s kind of in his element.’ Nadia smiled at Hudson when the other two left.
‘Which one?’
She laughed. ‘How’s Beau doing?’
‘In general, pretty good.’
‘You still seem worried.’
‘I let things slip. I wasn’t there enough for him.’
‘You can’t keep blaming yourself.’
‘Who else can I blame? Lucinda and I did this between us. I’m only glad Carys is so young that she had an initial wobble, but more or less settled into our new normal very quickly.’ He sat at the table.
Nadia sat down opposite. ‘My mum struggled to parent two of us equally, at least from my point of view. But she did try her very best; I never doubted that. She just had no more of herself to give. From what I know about you, Hudson, you seem to have done as much as you could.’
‘You have a high opinion of me.’
‘I do.’ She looked away after the admission, went over to the bench near the sink and brought back the plastic container of muffins. ‘These are not a cure-all, but they might help a little.’
‘I suppose I could give it a go.’ He reached for one and after a few bites, he did feel better, not because of the muffin – although he couldn’t deny it was tasty – but rather that Nadia understood where he was coming from. And being in her company always made a situation feel that much lighter.
‘Do you think that if your mum had had time for you then you and Monica may have got on better?’
‘Not if my sister had behaved the same way; I couldn’t stand it. But maybe if Mum had been tougher, who knows, Monica may have made different choices.’
‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’
‘Sure is.’ She shook her head when he tried to persuade her she needed a muffin too. ‘I’ve already had two.’
Beau and Brad’s chatter and laughter drifted in through the open kitchen window as they emerged from the hangar and strode over to the helipad.
Nadia turned back to face him. ‘Beau is a great kid. From what you’ve told me and from what I’ve seen, he has nowhere near the issues Monica had, and you’re recognising the need to help him now. You made him accountable by having him write the letter of apology and work around the airbase. Mum could’ve taken my sister back to the shop she stole from, made her do the same. She could’ve made her accountable for any number of things, but she didn’t; she couldn’t bear to make things any harder.’
‘I didn’t enjoy having to punish him,’ said Hudson, ‘but I know it’s way better than the alternative.’
‘Who would’ve thought Conrad might have helped someone, gone easy on them?’
‘Not me, that’s for sure.’
‘Beau seems to be loving his time here, despite the work you’re making him do.’
‘He is, and I don’t mind telling you that that was unexpected – at first, I thought he’d moan every minute he was here, but slowly I think he started taking it in, and somewhere along the line, he got really interested. For years, I’ve been telling him about The Skylarks and the airbase and everything that goes on here, but he never really wanted to listen. Until now.’
‘Maybe it’s a bit like schoolwork – not all kids learn well in the classroom; sometimes taking them outside and having them see things for real can make the difference.’
‘He said that he’d like to carry on volunteering. Although he added the caveat that he wouldn’t want to be here quite so often and do quite so much scrubbing.’
‘There’s plenty we can involve him in. Actually, I need someone to hold a collection pot outside the supermarket on Thursday, late afternoon, for an hour to give the volunteer I have down a break. Do you think he’d do it?’
‘Would you ask him? It’ll sound better coming from you.’
‘Of course.’ She looked across at him. ‘Do you think he’ll ever say who the other kids who were part of the hoax were?’
Hudson shook his head. ‘He says they’ll make his life a misery at school if he does.’
‘Poor kid. Taking all the responsibility rather than sharing it by telling us who else was involved. You’ve raised a good boy there.’
He sat back, let out a long breath. ‘Parenting is the toughest job I’ve ever had. I’m not sure I’m going survive it, if I’m honest.’
‘You’re doing better than you think.’
He waited a beat. ‘Any word from Monica?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m trying to return to normal.’
‘But you can’t. You know that, don’t you?’
‘I do.’
‘Do you think she’ll show up here?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Nadia frowned. ‘I don’t understand why she didn’t come out of hiding when she knew Archie was here looking for her.’
‘You think this is all a game?’
‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘Maybe it’s like Archie says: her head isn’t in a good place.’
‘I always thought that was an excuse before, when we were younger, but he says she’s changed.’
‘You don’t believe him?’
‘I don’t know. I want to.’ She put the container of muffins back on the bench. ‘I’m confused all the time, Hudson. At first, when Archie showed up, I wanted him to turn back the way he’d come and leave me alone. Even when I saw Giles, my head wouldn’t let my heart make the rules. I’d left that world behind, that part of me; I’d made a new life.’
‘But you can’t ignore it. They’re your family.’
‘I keep thinking of Monica, pregnant, out there somewhere perhaps not knowing what to do. I hope it’s not a game to her, I really do.’
‘So do I.’
‘I wondered whether she might head back home to Switzerland without trying to contact me, once she knew Archie was looking for her.’
‘Tail between her legs, you mean?’
‘Something like that.’ She made a groan of frustration. ‘These are all theories because I don’t know her. Not any more. I thought I did, I assumed she was that same person doing the same things she always had, but it’s finally dawning on me that with a couple of decades between then and now, I don’t know my own sister at all.’ She sat back down. ‘Do you think I’ve pushed Archie away so much that he won’t let me know when she does get in touch?’
Hudson shook his head. ‘From what I’ve heard, he’ll be letting you know and then leave it up to you where to go from there. There’s so much history between you all; I think he’s a husband, a father, doing what he can and what he thinks is best for his family.’
‘You think I should get in touch?’
‘It might help you as much as him.’
She took out her phone. ‘You know what, I think you might be right.’
‘You’re going to call him?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Yes. If anything, I need the closure, now more than ever before.’
She smiled nervously at Hudson before she left the kitchen and Beau came back in, talking animatedly about the inside of the helicopter.