Chapter 46
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Dr Mac arrived at the same time they did, his blond hair tousled from the speedboat ride over, his face windburnt.
Another not-good sign. He never came by speedboat except in a grave emergency.
The doctor gave Sally and Frankie a grim smile, then disappeared straight upstairs before Frankie could even get to see her dad.
Instead, she found Lily in the kitchen, pacing backwards and forwards in front of the range. She didn’t even manage to smile at Dylan. A third terrible sign.
‘Mum?’ said Frankie. ‘What happened?’
Lily threw her arms around Frankie in an extremely un-Lily-like manner, a little sob escaping from her lips as she held on to her daughter.
‘Mum?’ said Frankie again, the word alien on her tongue.
‘Oh, Frankie, it’s my fault. I got out of bed and he looked so peaceful I thought he was sleeping and so I left him to it.’
Frankie’s knees wobbled beneath her. ‘My God. He’s not…?’
‘No. No he’s alive,’ said her mum, shaking her head frantically. ‘But when I went back, he wasn’t breathing. He was so grey, Franks, like he’d been painted, even his lips. I’ve never seen anything so awful.’
Frankie encouraged her mother into a kitchen chair and sat down beside her, still clutching her hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Dylan and Sally hovering in the corner, Sally twisting her skirt between her hands, Dylan rubbing at the back of his neck.
‘Mum, if he wasn’t breathing…’
‘I did that CPR thing. I didn’t really know what to do, but I remembered something about an old Bee Gees song–’
‘“Staying Alive”,’ said Dylan, then bit his lip.
‘That’s the one,’ said Lily, with a little strangled kind of laugh. ‘All I could think of was to keep doing that, keep pressing on his chest, but oh, Frankie, I couldn’t even bear to look at him, it was like looking at a doll or something, he was… not your dad, you know?’
Her every word was ripping at Frankie’s heart but she tried to nod, tried to look understanding, tried to hold herself together. ‘And then?’ she prompted.
Lily looked at her as if she’d already forgotten what she was saying.
‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ said Sally, to nobody in particular.
Dylan gave her a nod and dropped onto a kitchen chair across the table, reaching for Frankie’s hand.
Her mother caught the movement but didn’t comment.
Didn’t even seem to compute what it might mean.
Didn’t seem to be able to compute anything.
‘I’ll get some biscuits, too,’ said Sally, busying herself around the kitchen.
‘And then what happened, Mum?’ said Frankie, gently.
‘You never call me that,’ said Lily absently.
Frankie put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know. I’m sorry. Do go on,’ she prompted again.
Lily stared at her for a long moment.
‘With Dad? What happened next?’
‘Oh. Yes, well, I was doing a pathetic job of that with one hand and trying to call Dr Mac with the other and crying my eyes out all over your poor father, you know, and then–’
‘Yes?’ said Frankie, over the whistling of the kettle on the range.
‘And then he opened his eyes,’ she said, and Frankie let out a sigh of relief. ‘Cheeky sod blinked at me as if he didn’t know what I was doing or why I was hurting him. Can’t blame him, I suppose. You have to really go some, you know. I might have cracked a rib for all I know.’
‘Oh, thank God,’ breathed Frankie.
‘I know. I did say a few prayers,’ said Lily, rubbing her face with her hands.
‘Mum, you did so well,’ said Frankie.
Lily had the grace to colour a little. ‘I just did what anyone would do, but oh my goodness, I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.’
‘And now?’ pressed Frankie.
‘He was breathing but saying his chest hurt, that’s the thing, he’s been having a heart attack or something, I think. I can’t help wondering, though…’
‘If it was from the statue that day,’ piped up Dylan, who had been listening intently.
Lily stared at him, eyes wide. ‘Yes. Exactly. He hasn’t been right since that day. What if he did himself some damage?’
Frankie nodded. ‘It’s a possibility. Let’s see what Dr Mac says.’
Lily put her head in her hands on the table. ‘This damn island. If we were on the mainland, he’d be in hospital already.’
Frankie rubbed her shoulder. ‘But he’d be utterly miserable,’ she said quietly.
‘That’s true,’ said Lily.
They waited and waited and eventually Dr Mac emerged, his face lined with worry. He looked round at them all.
‘He’s alive,’ he said. ‘All thanks to Lily. But he’s seriously ill, I’m afraid. It looks like internal bleeding to me. Potentially that’s what’s caused the heart attack.’
Frankie let out a sob and Dylan squeezed her hand. Sally put down the mugs and slipped onto a chair at the end of the table, adding her own hand to the pile.
‘So, what now, Doc?’ said Dylan.
‘We need to get him to the mainland as fast as we can.’
‘Speedboat?’ said Frankie. ‘But he’ll be so uncomfortable.’
‘It’s the only way I can think of,’ said Dr Mac. ‘Time is of the essence. Every minute we talk is potentially a minute’s more damage. The main issue is, how do we get him to the harbour?’
Frankie did some fast calculations in her head. ‘I can get the tractor and trailer or the ATV, but we’d have to drive so slowly or all the bumps and potholes might make things worse.’
‘Could we carry him?’ said Lily, looking around at them all.
‘He’s heavy,’ said Sally. ‘But we could try.’
‘Hold on,’ said Dylan, and all eyes turned to him. ‘What if I had another way?’
Frankie stared at him for a moment or two, her shell-shocked mind on go-slow. ‘The helicopter,’ she breathed, a seed of hope swelling in her chest.
Dylan nodded. ‘I can have someone here in fifteen minutes if they scramble.’
‘What, do you have a helicopter on standby or something?’ said Sally incredulously. ‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’
But Dr Mac’s voice was urgent, his brown eyes intense. ‘Dylan, do you have a helicopter on standby? Please tell me you do.’
Dylan shrugged. ‘Yes. Basically. As good as. We have someone on contract, but it’ll depend on where they are right now. It’s not a medical helicopter or anything, though. Does that matter?’
‘It’ll have to do. He’s not in full arrest, I think he could manage to travel sitting up, so long as we’re quick.’
‘Let me make a call,’ said Dylan.
‘Do it,’ said the doctor, although they could see he was already dialling.
Dylan was even better than his word. In less than ten minutes they were carrying her father across the grass to the meadow, ducking under the whirring blades of a helicopter, hearts in their mouths.
They strapped Brian into a seat as best they could.
Lily and Frankie were helped up into the cabin, Dr Mac facing them, and Dylan clambered into the front seat next to the pilot.
Sally waved them off from the field, tears staining her cheeks, Blondie having appeared at her side like the excellent emotional support dog she was.
As they took off, it occurred to Frankie that she’d ordinarily be excited for her first ride in a helicopter, but all she could think about was her dad, slumped beside her, breathing heavily.
His skin was still a funny kind of grey colour but although he didn’t seem able to talk, he had managed a little smile when he’d laid eyes on Frankie, and that, that smile, was everything.
It was also potentially the shortest helicopter ride in history, as within minutes they were passing over the only hospital on Guernsey. Frankie frowned at Lily, then patted Dylan on the arm.
‘Aren’t we stopping here?’ mouthed Frankie into her headset, which they’d been given to help them hear over the noise of the propellers.
Dylan shook his head. ‘Southampton,’ he said.
She glanced at Dr Mac, who nodded confirmation. ‘This is for the best.’
Lily was clutching her husband’s arm, oblivious to anything else, so Frankie didn’t bother trying to explain to her what was going on. Every now and then Brian let out a little moan, and Dr Mac would lean forward and take his pulse, but apart from that it was all, thankfully, very undramatic.
Until they reached Southampton anyway, where they looked down on the large hospital building to see doctors, porters and nurses all gathered on the helipad beneath them, with a trolley ready, waiting to whisk her dad away as soon as they landed.
That was the moment when reality hit Frankie.
That was the moment she realised they were nowhere near out of the woods yet.