CHAPTER NINETEEN
Over the next few days, as I continued being a regular visitor to Dad’s bedside, it was a huge relief to find that Dad was on the mend.
He’d had various scans and there seemed to be no permanent brain damage.
He was still sleepy and confused a lot of the time.
But his periods of lucidity were becoming longer and more frequent, and he was delighted to hear about my new job at the café.
I also told him about Xander and joked that he didn’t need to worry about me being single forever now.
He squeezed my hand quite hard at that, and the cheerful relief in his eyes as he looked at me made me realise his worry for me had been real.
I smiled at him, feeling my heart doing a crazy dance just at the mention of Xander. ‘He’s definitely one of the good ones. I like him a lot.’
I’d been to see Mavis over the road, although (surprisingly) she didn’t actually know where Minnie, her fellow WI member, lived.
Obviously, she’d been desperate to discover why I wanted to track her down but I wasn’t going to tell her about Minnie’s generous offer of cash, so I just said that Dad wanted to know if she was all right and had recovered after the accident.
Mavis had been all agog for details when she’d first heard about Dad being in a coma, and she’d wasted no time in calling round to the house to offer her support.
‘Oh, you poor dear, you look terrible. All washed out with worry. I just wanted to say that if Peter or I can help in any way, you just need to let us know.’
‘Thanks, Mavis. That’s really kind of you.’
‘Tell you what, how about you have a nice sit down while I make you a cup of tea? Then you can tell me all about it... get it all off your chest. It’s always good to talk about these things!’
Before I’d known what was happening, Mavis was marching purposefully through to the kitchen, calling back, ‘Now, where do you keep your teabags, dear?’
Minnie’s address hadn’t been the only thing I’d needed to find out.
It had also been on my mind that I still had no idea who Dad had been meeting on the day of his accident.
I’d been picturing the poor woman waiting for him in the Little Duck Pond Café, completely unaware that he’d been involved in an accident, and believing that he’d stood her up on their date.
And I knew how dispiriting that could be. ..
But when I asked Dad about his date later that day, he didn’t seem to remember anything about it. He’d just stared at me in confusion.
‘You were getting ready to have coffee with someone you’d just met?’ I’d tried to jog his memory gently. ‘You got to know her that night you met your old friends at the pub?’
But Dad had just frowned and looked at me in despair, and I could tell it was distressing him that he couldn’t remember. So I’d patted his hand and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, Dad. Everything will come back to you eventually. It might just take a little time.’
He’d nodded but the look of panic in his eyes lingered, and I’d kicked myself for having mentioned it. The last thing we needed was for him to be worrying because there were things he couldn’t remember.
I’d thought about it later, though, and it had puzzled me a little.
Dad seemed to remember everything else.
He could name the prime minister and he’d remembered when my birthday was. And he’d even managed to slowly whisper his PIN number to me, all digits correct. I knew it was right because I recognised the numbers as Mum’s birthday.
If he could remember all of that, why couldn’t he remember who he’d been going on a date with that day? Unless, of course, he didn’t want me to know who it was...
That made me think that maybe it had been Janet – Mum’s best friend – as I’d originally guessed. Maybe he’d denied it because he’d thought that romancing Janet would seem too close to home and I wouldn’t approve...
But I was also a little puzzled as to why Janet hadn’t been in touch to find out if Dad was okay.
The accident had been on the news and everyone in the neighbourhood seemed to know about Dad being in a coma.
I couldn’t go into a shop these days or walk along Sunnybrook High Street without someone coming up to me to say how sorry they were to hear about Dad, and how was he doing?
But maybe Janet just hadn’t heard about the accident...
A few days later, though, I was in Guildford buying Dad some new pyjamas and toiletries when I actually spotted Janet coming out of the chemist’s.
I chased her along the street and eventually caught up with her and she seemed delighted to see me.
But it was fairly clear early on in our conversation that she didn’t know about Dad’s accident, and she was horrified when I told her.
She’d grasped my hand in both of hers. ‘Oh, Anika, love, I’m just so glad to hear he’s on the mend now. What a terrible thing for you both. I’m just back from visiting Carrie and Dom and the new baby in Australia.’
‘Oh, lovely! How are they?’
She’d smiled. ‘Tired, of course, but very happy. I was glad to be able to help out and spend time with them. I was there for a month and I only flew back yesterday so I’m still feeling spaced out with jet lag! But that’s why I knew nothing at all about your dad’s awful accident.’
She’d wanted to visit him and I’d assured her I’d phone her just as soon as he was up to receiving visitors. Then I’d walked away, completely none the wiser about who he’d arranged to meet on the day of his accident.
It looked like Dad’s date, whoever she was, would have to remain a mystery for now...