Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
MAISIE
The antibacterial-smelling tang wouldn’t dissipate no matter how many times Maisie washed her hands, scrubbed her arms, changed her clothes, or sprayed perfume in the half an hour she’d been home. The damn metallic, clinical scent taunted her, making her carry around the constant reminder that today she’d been a terrible granddaughter – this entire week , in fact.
Orthostatic hypotension, otherwise known as dizziness from standing too quickly, combined with dehydration from yesterday’s hike, today’s steamy morning bath, and a four-hour long binge watch of some new TV show with only shortbread for sustenance – is everything that had apparently contributed to Vera’s fall.
“No signs of a stroke or cardiovascular episode,” the doctor in A the phone tag she’d been playing between Ronnie, her parents, three brothers; and then all of the calls that came from every single member of the hiking group after she put text updates in the group chat, Maisie wasn’t surprised that the device had given up.
She had too.
Every part of her ached; her head from all her tears, her heart from all the panic, her shoulder from Vera’s door that at least she now knew acutely was completely secure from forceful intruders. She needed a warm shower and food that didn’t come from a vending machine, coffee that didn’t taste like bitter milk, and a nap. She needed to charge her phone in case Ronnie called with news. Yet everything she needed felt too big of a task when she didn’t even want to move from this seat.
Boots pounded up the stairwell from the downstairs door. Maisie was so drained from the day that she didn’t even startle at the heavy footsteps belonging to the only person she hadn’t given a thought to in the last six hours.
She picked her head up out of her hands and wiped at her raw eyes. Her door wasn’t unlocked so she’d have to open it, knowing who was outside and why he was here. The balls of her feet screamed at her as she stood and went to open it, her fingers touching the cold handle after the pounding began on that, too.
Iain burst through as soon as the door was open wide enough, howling, “Where were you? I needed you there and you never showed up.”
“I couldn’t—” she croaked.
“I fucking needed you.”
Maisie detonated. “I’m sorry that you weren’t my first thought when I saw my grandma lying on the floor! I put my family first – I’m sorry.”
Iain wasn’t the only one who had needed her today. As soon as she’d seen Vera on the floor, her other plans hadn’t mattered. They hadn’t even entered her mind.
His features paled, voice cracking when he said, “What?”
Her constant state of being overwhelmed – which hadn’t given her a minute of peace today – rose up again to Maisie’s surface, forming hot tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” she echoed, her lungs expanding quickly.
“ Fuck that . Maisie, what happened to Vera?” Iain stepped forwards, moving her inside and shutting the door behind him.
Maisie’s sniffles came unbidden as the burning sensation of tears rolled on stronger. Her hands gripped Iain’s sleeves at his forearms whilst he held her elbows and guided her the steps towards her sofa. “She went dizzy and fell,” she said. “She hit her head, and she’s at the hospital.”
“Ronnie took her?” Iain lowered her to the sofa and sat beside her. Tenderly, his fingers cupped her cheek and his thumb swept the tears under her eye.
“I found her.” Maisie dabbed the cuff of her cardigan sleeve to her other cheek. “She was just … lying there.”
A silent sob wracked her body. Iain wrapped his arms around her and rested back against the cushions, drawing her with him, so Maisie buried her face in his chest and held onto his coat with as much strength as her tired grip would allow.
“I was so scared, Iain.” She sniffed. “I couldn’t find the spare key at first, so I had to ram the door. I called the ambulance, but she’d been on the floor for half an hour , Iain.”
Maisie didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened if she hadn’t decided to go round and talk to Vera this morning, clear the air about the boundary she’d not so nicely set in place. Ronnie hadn’t been due back from visiting his brother for another couple of hours, and if she hadn’t gone to the house by then …
Both the paramedics and the doctors in A after her experience of being let go, she didn’t know why she wasn’t. Her only comfort was that he at least sounded as torn as she was inside. All of his walls she’d helped to bring down had risen back up instantly.
The little card box rattled in her lap when she moved to grab a fistful of tissues from the coffee table.
Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to open it so soon; the rest of this day might hurt a little less if she left it for another.
But there was something in Iain’s voice when he’d told her to wait that was like a siren calling her out to sea. After that entire argument, he’d still wanted her to have what was inside this box.
Wiping her cheeks as dry as she would get them tonight, she opened the lid and let out another sob.
Inside, the crocheted penguin teddy was no bigger than her finger, and the pebble that sat beside it was perfectly uneven – grey with flecks of blue and white like the tablets of constellations they’d lifted to the sky.
“Did you know that when male penguins fall in love, they search for the perfect pebble and give it to the female?”
“I didn’t.”
He’d done all of this for her.
And then he’d walked away.