Chapter 24
24
STEVIE
Stevie was beginning to lose hope. They’d been there for hours now, and no one had come to see them. What did that mean? If this was back home, and they were at her place of work, Glasgow Central Hospital, she’d have known exactly who to speak to, she’d have known where to go, she’d have had a rough idea how long each step in the process would take. But here, she was just a tourist, waiting for information about someone they cared about, and scared to death what the news would be.
Carina’s brother-in-law, Ben, had gone to see if he could track down some coffees, so once again, it was just her and Carina, sitting with their heads against the wall, listening to that bloody clock tick.
And then bang…
Stevie and Carina both gasped and shot upright, as the door at the end of the corridor opened and a woman in a white coat came towards them. Stevie tried to read her face, but couldn’t. Neutral. Could go either way.
Stevie reached for Carina’s hand, and squeezed it, while both of them kept their eyes fixed firmly on the doctor.
‘Good afternoon,’ the doctor said in perfect English. ‘I believe you’re with Miss Chiles? Brought in today from Ngong Ping?’ she said, giving the location of the Buddha its proper name.
‘Yes,’ Stevie replied, noticing that Carina’s mouth wasn’t moving.
‘I’m Doctor Lin, and Miss Chiles has been under my care. We’ve run many tests to establish the cause of Miss Chiles’ accident. We were concerned that there could have been a cardiac incident, but we were also concerned about the possibility of deep vein thrombosis, given that she had a long flight earlier in the week. Of course, no tests are absolute, but we’re confident that we’ve ruled out both of those possibilities.’
Stevie felt like someone was lifting a giant weight off her chest, as her lungs kicked back into action. ‘Sometimes,’ the doctor went on, ‘The simplest answer is the correct one. We think she was acutely dehydrated and suffering from the effects of the heat and humidity. She’s managed to tell us that she hasn’t been sleeping this week, and she’s had a considerable amount of stress. Our conclusion is that those factors, combined with a lack of fluids, caused her to faint, in the first instance.’
More relief. Dehydration. Exhaustion. Heat. That made total sense.
‘However, Miss Chiles did take a considerable knock to her head, causing her to lose consciousness. We’ve scanned her head and there’s no obvious injury, but we’d like to keep her in overnight for observation as a concussion is a potential issue and one that we need to monitor.’
Beside her, Carina’s whole posture changed, as her shoulders lifted, her chin raised and she found her voice again. ‘I can’t tell you how grateful we are, doctor. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Can we see her?’
‘She is very sleepy at the moment, so perhaps only for a few minutes? After that, please let us take care of her and come back in the morning. We should have a full picture of the situation by then. If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you through now.’
Just at that moment, Ben came down the corridor, carrying three coffees. ‘Ben, she’s okay. We’re just going to nip in and see her for ten minutes.’
Stevie noticed that he had a kind smile. ‘That’s great news. I’ll wait right here. No rush. Take your time. And tell her I said hi.’
They followed the doctor down a maze of pristine corridors, until she stopped to open the door of a small room and there, propped up in bed, was the smiling face of Moira Chiles. But only for a second, before she winced. ‘Ouch, it hurts when I smile.’ Stevie thought she looked tired. Maybe still a little groggy. But oh, it felt great to see her.
Carina, so incredibly worried outside, now reverted right back to their usual mode of communication. Tender jibes and sarcasm. ‘The things you’ll do to get attention, Moira Chiles.’
In the bed, Moira gave a hopeful smile. ‘Did it work? Are they putting up a plaque that says, “Moira Chiles fell here”?’
Carina nodded. ‘They are. And they’re giving you free tickets for the cable car for the rest of your life.’
Stevie stepped forward, unable to stop smiling. ‘You gave us a fright. I’m so glad you’re okay. They’ve said they just want to keep you in overnight for observation.’
There was no mistaking the glisten in Moira’s eyes as she nodded. ‘I gave myself a bit of a fright too. What happened? I remember starting to climb the steps, then I remember waking up here. Nothing in between.’
Carina brushed her off. ‘Don’t worry about that now. The important thing is that you need to rest. Sleep. We’ll be back in the morning to collect you. If you need anything at all, just call.’
‘I will,’ Moira agreed. ‘Although, I don’t have my phone.’ She scanned the room. ‘Any idea where it is?’
Stevie pulled it out of her bag, and placed it on the nearby counter, where Moira’s clothes sat in a neat pile. ‘I lifted it, but it was smashed up when it bounced down the steps, I’m afraid. But don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll let you use the landline here and we can get a new phone for you tomorrow.’
Moira seemed happy with that solution, and her eyes were already getting heavy, so with a kiss on the cheek from each of them, they said their goodbyes. ‘Oh, and Ben is here,’ Carina told her. ‘He said hello. He’ll pop over and see you tomorrow, if you’re up to it.’
Moira’s eyes were closing now. ‘Tell the handsome big devil I said hello back and I always thought he was much sexier than Spencer. Sorry, Carina. That might be the concussion talking.’
Moira’s breathing changed as sleep claimed her, and Stevie felt nothing but relief. She was okay. She would be fine. The x-rays and all the tests were clear, so worst case scenario this was a concussion – best case scenario, Moira walked out of here tomorrow with nothing but a bit of bruising.
They left her to sleep and they were halfway back to the hotel in Ben’s car, exhausted, depleted, but still bathed in relief, when a thought occurred to Stevie.
‘Carina, was Moira still on the phone to her son when she fell? He might be worried.’
‘I’m not sure. Damn. I don’t have a number for him – it would have been in Moira’s phone.’
Stevie felt a pang of guilt that she was ramping up Carina’s stress levels again.
‘I’ll send him a direct message on social media and I’ll see if I can track down a contact number for him.’
It took the rest of the journey home for her to type out a private message to Ollie Chiles on Instagram, and then she googled the name of his agent and manager, and called their offices too. At both offices, she got the security staff, because it was the middle of the night in LA, so she left her number there with a message saying she was calling about his mother, stressing that it was urgent, and asking them to call him straight away, despite the late hour. She came off the phone hopeful that they’d pass it on.
Back at the hotel, Ben came into the lobby with them, and suggested a drink in the lounge.
‘I’ve never needed one more,’ Stevie replied, meaning it. How could it be 7p.m. already? The time had gone so slowly today, yet now it felt like it had flown by. Carina, however, looked dead on her feet.
‘Darling, thank you,’ she said to Ben, ‘But if you both don’t mind, I’m going to go upstairs and take a bath. It’s been quite a day. Quite a week.’
‘Yes, it has,’ Stevie said, feeling for her. ‘I’ll call you in the morning and we can arrange to go back for Moira when they give us the okay.’
‘Excellent. And both of you, thank you. I’m very grateful you were with me today.’
With a squeeze of Stevie’s hand, she left them to it. Although, suddenly Stevie felt hugely awkward. This poor guy had invited his sister-in-law for a drink, and instead he’d been landed with her and he was probably now desperately thinking of a way to escape.
She tried to give him a light-hearted off-ramp. ‘Erm, if you’d rather give a drink a miss now that Carina is gone, I’m very happy to raincheck.’
‘Not at all. You grab that seat and I’ll order. What would you like?’
‘White wine? Any kind.’ At home she barely drank alcohol, maybe a couple of glasses of wine a week at most, but the last few days definitely came under exceptional circumstances.
He came back with two glasses, and they made polite small talk until the wine began to kick in and relax them, and he brought up the subject of her mum again.
‘I know I said earlier, but I really was sorry to hear that you’d lost her. She was a pretty special person.’
How many times had she heard that this week? Who was this woman that they all had such fond memories of, despite all her flaws and complexities? It still boggled her mind.
‘It’s been quite a revelation, being here. I don’t know if Carina explained, but there’s a whole chunk of my mum’s history that I never knew existed. I didn’t know she lived here. Or that she was a singer. And I’ve discovered she had some pretty wild ways.’
‘She did,’ Ben said, nodding fondly. Stevie decided she liked this man. He had a kind vibe, a decent manner about him. ‘But she also had a good heart.’
‘Did you date?’ Stevie realised what she’d said, and immediately backtracked. ‘I’m sorry, that was intrusive! Please don’t answer that if you don’t want to.’
He had an easy laugh too. ‘No, no, it’s fine. But no, we didn’t date, as such. We spent a lot of time together and I liked her very much, but mostly we were just good friends.’
Mostly, he’d said. Stevie wondered if that meant there was more to their relationship, but she’d already invaded his privacy enough, so she let it go.
‘Actually, though, the last time I saw her was on Christmas Eve that year. I was leaving to catch a flight back to England for a couple of months, and by the time I returned she was gone. I always wondered… well, what would have happened if she’d still been here.’
‘I guess we’ll never know,’ Stevie said, sad for all the possibilities, the potential, all the chances her mum might have missed to have a better life than the one she’d had – just the two of them, in a tiny house, in a very ordinary little village. This was a different world.
Stevie drained the last of her wine. ‘Thank you so much for the drink and it was lovely to speak to you, but I think I’m going to follow Carina and head up for an early night.’
So much to think about. Her mind just needed to decompress, to take it all in and process the craziest week.
They said their goodbyes, and Stevie went to her room, and lay down on the bed, just for a few moments. She closed her eyes. Definitely just for a few moments.
At 5a.m. she opened them again, and saw that she’d lost the whole night.
Her body didn’t know if it was tired or awake, jet lagged or full of nervous energy. Looking out of the window, she saw the dark skies were streaked with the orange beginnings of the sunrise, so she decided to go for a run.
Outside the streets were quieter than she’d seen them, and it gave her space to run, to breathe, to feel the pain and pleasure of her feet hitting the pavements. She cut down onto the harbour front and ran along the promenade, looking out over the water towards Kowloon. On the other side of the harbour, she could make out the Sheraton Hotel. She remembered it was at the bottom of Nathan Road, right round the corner from where her mum lived, and she thought again how she had walked in her footsteps all week.
Her chest tightened and she stopped, put her hands on the railing, stared up at the beautiful sunrise coming up over the harbour now, casting sheaths of light down on to the water.
Without thinking, she threw her head back, her gaze heavenwards. ‘Can you see me, Mum? I’m right here. Back in your world. And do you know what, Mum? I wish you were with me.’
For the first time since she’d got the call to say that her mum was gone, she buckled over and she sobbed until there were no tears left, releasing all the resentment, knocking down the walls that had always been between her and her mum. Only when she’d surrendered it all, let all the pain go, did she steady herself, take a deep breath, and began to run again, her world suddenly feeling so much lighter than before.
When she got back to the hotel, for once, the lobby was almost deserted, with only a few people milling around. Cleaners buffing floors. Watering plants. Just a couple of guests checking out at reception, leaving several members of the reception staff free. She thought back to her last conversation with Moira, when she’d told her to call from the hospital if she needed anything, and decided she’d better check for messages.
‘Excuse me,’ she disturbed the very smart young lady at the first desk. ‘I wonder if you could check if there are any messages for me? Stevie Dixon. Room 610.’
‘One moment, madam.’ She began tapping on her screen, leaving Stevie to glance around at… at…
There was a new arrival, a guy practically storming across the lobby, looking frantic, harassed, and oh so familiar. He made a beeline for the free agent at the next desk.
‘Excuse me, can you please call up to my mother’s room. Moira Chiles. She’s in the penthouse. It’s really urgent.’
Stevie turned, so that she was staring straight at a face that she’d only ever seen on TV.
‘Ollie? Your mum is fine, but I’m afraid she isn’t here at the moment.’ She stepped toward him. ‘I’m Stevie. Her friend Lisa’s daughter. Shall we go have a seat and I can explain?’