Chapter 39
By the time she got back to the ward, Danny had fallen asleep. Sam apparently had, just this second, nipped out to make a call to the office. Before this had happened, Nancy knew she’d have been cross about him leaving Danny alone as both grannies had gone home. But not now. He’d already shown how committed he was to them by outlining the situation to his boss and explaining that he needed to spend every day by his boy’s bedside. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so hard on him earlier on. It was all so complicated.
That night, Sam was very quiet; something she was grateful for, since she didn’t feel like talking either. Truth to tell, as Patricia would say, she could have done without any more hospital visitors, but the following day, Billy and his mother arrived again.
Danny’s eyes lit up when he saw his friend. ‘Hope you didn’t mind us coming up again, but Billy kept going on about it,’ said Brigid, ignoring the fact that her son was tearing round the ward, playing imaginary cars. ‘Sorry my bone marrow didn’t match but on the bright side, just imagine the effect on Danny if he inherited Billy’s wild ways! Mind you, I’m sure it’s my ex-husband’s genes and not mine. His mum says he was a terrible kid, so with any luck our Billy will grow out of it by the time he’s thirty-five. By the way, Lily’s mother sent this into Puddleducks.’ Nancy opened the beautifully wrapped parcel. It was a kite! A lovely red and blue kite with a picture of a duck on it. Attached to it was a note in adult handwriting that said, ‘When Danny is better, maybe we can all fly this together.’ Then came a childish scribble: ‘Love from Lily’.
Such a shame Danny will be missing the Puddleducks day out to the farm, Brigid was saying amidst all her Billy-directed reprimands. Then again, she continued, there would be other trips when Danny got better. Wouldn’t there?
The following day the consultant arrived with a grey face and no bevy of medical students, to invite them into his office for a talk. Neither Nancy’s mother nor her mother-in-law were a good match, he told them in a voice that didn’t have the same confidence as in previous weeks. So far, none of the donors on the list matched either.
‘We’ll keep looking,’ he told her and Sam. ‘But I have to be honest. Danny’s blood count is getting worse.’ His voice dropped. ‘I suppose what I am trying to say, in the kindest way possible, is that time is running out.’