Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Aoife was still on Vicky’s mind when Alex turned up at the clinic for his volunteer shift a couple of hours later and produced a pink jewel-encrusted dog collar and lead from his pocket.
‘I saw it in a shop and couldn’t resist.’
The sparkling item in his hand caught the sun and threw it straight back at her.
‘It’s for Dolly, for her first walk today.’
Vicky forced herself to focus and move on from whatever had gone on in the bedroom along the corridor. She couldn’t just barge into the young woman’s life.
Alex put the bundle into her hand.
‘It’s just a little present.’
‘It’s lovely, thank you. Dolly’s going to look great in it. Let’s get her out of her cage, shall we?’
Dolly’s joy at being let out was unbounded, and when Alex placed her on the ground for the first time since the accident, her barking was off the scale.
Vicky crouched down and attached the collar and lead, while Alex held her still and felt the dog’s leg all the way down before letting her go.
‘I’d say only up to the first field and back, but let’s give it a try. Don’t let her run, even if she tries to.’
‘Yes, that’s fairly obvious.’
And don’t teach your grandma to suck eggs were the words she wanted to add, but she felt odd about referring to herself as his grandmother, so she kept quiet. The age difference between them was always there in the background, for her at least.
She’d spoken more sharply than she intended, and he put his hand on her shoulder for a moment.
‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, sorry. Just a little nervous about Dolly putting pressure on the broken leg.’
He seemed satisfied with that explanation. There was no way she could tell him what was really bothering her.
‘Don’t worry. The latest scan showed that her leg has healed nicely. Let’s just take it slowly.’
Dolly pulled against the unfamiliar collar and lead for the first few seconds, but a handful of treats helped calm her down. Alex bent down to give her a thorough stroke.
‘OK, Dolly. Let’s go.’
When Vicky walked the little dog outside, they were met with a flashmob. All the volunteers working that day, plus Maeve and Seamus, were shouting and cheering as Dolly took her first tentative steps.
The tears swam in Vicky’s eyes at the sheer pleasure on everyone’s face. These people really cared.
‘Thank you, thank you, on behalf of Dolly.’
The dog added a few barks of her own, which made laughter echo round the courtyard.
Vicky looked across at Alex.
‘Did you organise this?’
‘Might have had a little word earlier.’
He was full of surprises. Not every one was a winner, but this one most definitely was.
‘Well, it’s a lovely idea, thank you.’
Vicky bowed to her audience one last time, and keeping Dolly on a tight rein, stepped from the stone-flagged courtyard onto the uneven surface of the first field.
The change in terrain under her feet made Dolly falter for a moment, but soon she was straining at the lead to go faster. Alex fished a treat out of his pocket and made her wait for it.
‘Easy, girl. Small steps.’
A noise behind them made Vicky and Alex turn and smile at each other, as Bruce bounded over to join the party.
Dolly stopped pulling immediately, and after a thorough nuzzle with her best mate, continued her stately procession with the black cat at her side, purring away.
Alex took out his phone and took a photo.
‘See, that’s all we needed. Some of Bruce’s superpower to keep things steady.’
‘They get on so well, although they’re very different personalities.’
‘Well, you know the saying, opposites attract.’
‘Mmmmm.’
Alex was in a strange mood this morning. The best word she could think of to describe it was ‘jaunty’. He was positively upbeat, which was certainly not always the case. For once it was she who was something of a Debbie Downer.
Alex watched Dolly walk and produced his million-dollar smile.
‘She’s putting her full weight on that leg, which is excellent.
I think we can safely say that Miss Dolly’s on the road to a complete recovery.
She’ll still need to stay in the cage at night for a couple more weeks, but the walks can be increased daily.
We should give ourselves a big pat on the back. We did good!’
You didn’t want to give her a chance when she was brought in – you wanted to put her down was the ungrateful thought that flashed through Vicky’s head. The vet had worked tirelessly on Dolly’s recovery since and was almost as fond of the little dog as she was. What was the matter with her?
‘We certainly did. She’ll be running around in no time.’
With a frisson of shock, Vicky realised that Dolly’s sign-off with a clean bill of health would probably coincide with her leaving Greece and going back to England.
She’d already started the paperwork to adopt the little dog, but returning to Liverpool suddenly seemed so close, unbearably close.
It was hard to believe she’d already been on the island for two whole months; it really did feel like only a couple of weeks.
Dolly would have a very different life back in the UK, as would she. There’d still be beaches nearby and plenty of grass, but she couldn’t promise sun, and Dolly had never even seen rain. How would she cope with mud and slime? Her white coat would be dirty in no time.
But she was racing ahead. It was a pointless train of thought. They still had another month to enjoy all the island had to offer, and it was up to her to make the most of it. Living in the present was her aim, rather than obsessing over the past, or worrying about the future.
Alex stopped stroking Bruce and looked straight at her.
‘Time to head back, if that’s OK. I’ve got to check on a few cases here, and then clinic this afternoon. But I’ll be back this evening for the patrol. Let’s hope it’s our last and that all this nonsense is over.’
Vicky nodded and moved off with Dolly, followed by Alex and Bruce. They were a right little menagerie, like something out of a Gerald Durrell novel. They only needed a waddling pelican and a goat to complete the picture.
Her out-of-kilter feeling followed her throughout the day, and it was still sitting somewhere around her stomach when Alex turned up for the night patrol. Dolly was safely tucked up in bed, thoroughly worn out after so much unexpected activity.
Much of their walk was conducted in silence, which suited her.
The moon was at its fullest, hanging majestically in the sky, and the silver pathway it created on the sea was worthy of a painting by an old master with its myriad shades of grey and shafts of dazzling light.
There was no sign of anyone; they were the only two people for miles, insignificant dots on the landscape.
About to begin the return leg, Alex insisted they stop and have a cup of coffee and a square of karydópita, walnut cake made by his yiayiá. Vicky leant back against the wall and took a bite of the sweet treat along with her drink.
‘Oooh, this is gorgeous. I can taste nuts and cinnamon. I’m right about the cinnamon, aren’t I?’
‘You are.’
Alex poured her some more coffee.
‘It’s the most positive I’ve heard you all day. Is everything really OK? You seem a bit down.’
Vicky swallowed the last delicious morsel of cake before speaking.
‘I am struggling with something, but it involves two of the volunteers, so I can’t really talk about it, as it’s not my story to tell.’
‘Ah, that’s tricky.’
‘It also brings up all sorts of bad stuff for me from my past.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
She could have left it at ‘not my story to tell’, but she’d started now.
‘Because of my experience, both personally and as a nurse, I’m not sure if I’m overreacting, seeing things that aren’t really there, blowing something out of all proportion. That’s what’s really getting to me.’
‘Now that I understand.’
‘Really?’
‘Obviously this goes no further than us….’
‘Of course.’
‘My father was, or I should say is, an alcoholic. It affected my childhood in many ways, none of them good, and I hated the chaos he created. He gave up drink twenty years ago, and he’s stuck to it, which is commendable, but I was already a fully grown man by then.
I’m thankful for my mother’s sake that he managed to give up, but those wounds from childhood run deep.
I get anxious whenever I see anyone drinking what I consider too much, even though I know it’s none of my business.
And I rarely touch a drop myself, because I’m terrified of turning into him. ’
It was a moving speech, and it certainly explained his attitude to her at the Easter party and yesterday in Suzie’s bar. She was grateful for his honesty. You never really knew what was going on in other people’s minds, or what was lurking in their backgrounds.
‘Thank you for telling me. I totally get what you’re saying. My problem is in some ways similar in that I have experienced things I don’t want other people to experience, and it colours the way I look at things.’
His expressive brown eyes in the moonlight were kind.
‘We all have our secrets, and, in my experience, there’s no such thing as a ‘normal family’. Most people have things they’d like to keep hidden from the rest of the world. But you also need to trust your gut instinct. If you feel that something is wrong, then it possibly is.’
‘Thank you. I think you’re probably right.’
The chat with Alex had strengthened her resolve to tackle the Aoife problem. There was no point putting it off any longer.
Alex threw the coffee dregs onto the ground and carefully put everything back in his backpack.
‘Ready?’
‘Sure.’
The return journey seemed to pass even more quickly, and the companionable silence felt lighter to Vicky after their talk. They’d reached the second to last field when her foot caught on something. It was probably just a tree root, but they needed to check. There wasn’t enough moonlight to see by.
‘Alex. We need the torch.’