Chapter 31
Finn
Finn picked up the message just after lunch.
They were setting up for the first shot of the afternoon.
He had left his phone in the green room over lunch while he met with Ed to talk about the upcoming scene.
With just a couple of weeks left of the shoot, they had a few critical studio scenes coming up that needed extra thought and preparation.
When Chloe walked him back to the green room at the side of the sound stage while they set up for the shot, he sat down in his chair and picked up the little black brick, expecting to idle a few minutes away reading the news, or checking social media.
Instead, he saw two missed calls from the nursing home and five from Suzy as well as an all-caps message.
MUM HAS HAD A FALL ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE!!!
He broke out in a cold sweat and was on his feet in a second. His fingers were all thumbs as he tried to hit the buttons to return Suzy’s missed calls.
She answered on the first ring.
‘Suzy! What’s happened? Is she okay?’
He could hear traffic in the background and Suzy’s voice sounding far away on her old car’s hands-free system.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, sounding panicked. ‘The nursing home just said she’s had a fall and hit her head and she was disoriented, and there was some bleeding.’ Suzy’s voice was getting higher and higher. ‘And an ambulance took her to hospital, and that’s all they said ohmygod!’
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m ten minutes from the hospital. You need to get here now, Finn!’
He was already pushing his way out of the green room. He nearly collided with two of the grips pushing a loaded dolly cart.
‘I’m on my way,’ he said, then cut the call.
He barrelled onto the set, which was crammed with crew setting lighting positions and checking continuity.
‘Jake?’ he called, looking around. Then louder, ‘Jake?!’
‘Finn?’ He spun around at the sound of Leanne saying his name. ‘Are you okay? Do you need something?’
He was shaking. He felt trapped. Words were slow to come, but he knew he needed to explain himself. He didn’t even have a car, he needed someone to get Geoff to drive him. He suddenly hated the way this life pampered him so much that it took away his autonomy.
‘I need to talk to Jake now,’ he bit out.
Leanne nodded and pressed her radio. ‘Jake, can you come and meet Finn on set urgently, please?’
She gently reached out and led him towards the side of the set to a slightly quieter spot, out of the way of the crew. She seemed to know not to ask any questions.
Jake appeared a moment later. He took one look at Finn’s face and asked, ‘What is it?’
‘My mum’s had a fall,’ Finn managed, struggling to get the words past a lump in his throat.
Jake didn’t hesitate. ‘I’ll get Geoff to bring the car around. Do you need us to get anything from your trailer?’
Finn didn’t answer. There wasn’t a thought in his head other than that he needed to be at the hospital. The missed calls were still showing on his phone, and he gripped it tightly as if he could crush out the guilt that he had been so slow to find out.
He shook his head dully. ‘Just the car,’ he muttered.
Leanne was talking into the radio as Jake put a hand on his shoulder and started to steer him towards the exit.
‘Where’s the car going?’ Jake asked. ‘The hospital?’
‘Yes,’ Finn answered, picking up his pace as they exited the stage into unit base, the studio road just beyond it.
He could see Geoff slowly approaching in the car, and he stretched out his legs to go and meet him.
Jake jogged beside him, reaching the car just before him and pulling open the door.
Finn climbed in, and then Leanne ran up and passed him his bag from his trailer and his padded coat.
‘You might need this,’ she said, as she handed it in.
He was puzzled for a moment, then remembered he was dressed as a farmer from the 1850s. Yes, the coat might be handy.
After checking which hospital they were heading to, Geoff didn’t say anything else. He pushed the speed limit and sped through amber lights to get them there. Finn messaged Suzy for an update, but the message showed unread; she was probably still driving or trying to park.
Geoff dropped him at the hospital entrance and said he would find somewhere to park and would wait to see if Finn needed him.
Sprinting into the hospital, Finn realised he didn’t know where to go.
Rows upon rows of signs listed departments and ward names, and the thought of his mum being somewhere in this labyrinthine hospital and him not knowing where, sent a wave of panic coursing through him.
He saw a sign for reception and marched around the corner.
‘Excuse me, I’m looking for Linda Ellington. She was brought in from Gable Hall Nursing Home.’
Eventually, the receptionist found the details and directed him to the right ward.
The place was a rabbit warren, original Victorian hospital buildings connecting to 1960s additions and modern extensions, and he went wrong twice but eventually exited a lift into a waiting area.
The first person he saw was Suzy, who burst into tears at the sight of him.
‘Oh my god, Suze.’ They hugged, holding onto one another for a moment, and then Finn held her by the shoulders. ‘Have you seen her? Is she okay?’
‘I haven’t seen her yet. The doctors are with her. She seems okay, they’ve said, though they need to run more tests. But they said,’ her chin wobbled, ‘that she’s a bit bruised, but we shouldn’t be shocked. Elderly people bruise more easily, so it will look worse than it is.’
‘I thought this nursing home was supposed to be the best,’ Finn ground out. ‘I can’t believe this has happened.’
‘Finn, we don’t know yet if it’s their fault. You know she wanders.’
‘That’s why she’s in a nursing home,’ he snapped.
They sat on plastic chairs and waited, taking it in turns every fifteen minutes or so to ask the nurses how she was and if they could see her yet.
They rarely got much new information. They drank boiling hot bitter coffee from a vending machine, which just added to the sick feelings.
Eventually, after more than two hours, they were escorted into a small room.
Suzy let out a small squeak and nearly cracked the bones in his hand when they saw their mum lying in the hospital bed.
She looked smaller than he could remember.
A big purple bruise was blooming under her right eye and across her cheek, while above the corner of her eye was a large pad, secured in place with a bandage that wound around her head.
There was a cannula taped to her hand with a long tube going into it, and a monitor near the head of the bed flashed and beeped.
Metal rails on either side of the bed were in place to stop her from falling out.
Finn felt his knees shake as he and Suzy approached the bed.
His mum was sleepy but not asleep, and when she saw them, she tried to sit up.
‘Is that my Finn and Susannah?’
She pulled at the rail beside her to try to get upright. Finn helped her sit up; he could feel the bones in her back. Suzy moved the pillows, and he gently lowered her back down and kissed her gingerly on the uninjured side of her forehead, holding her small, weathered hand in his.
‘Mum, are you feeling okay?’
She was looking him up and down.
‘Mum?’ He glanced at Suzy. ‘Mum, we’ve been so worried. How are you feeling?’
His mum frowned, looked up at him and said, ‘I don’t think it’s me we need to be worried about, my boy. What on earth are you wearing? You look like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. Have you fallen on hard times?’
Suzy burst out laughing and wiped at the tears that were still falling. Finn chuckled and grinned at his mum.
‘Um, I’m supposed to look like this, Mum.’
‘You mean that’s what everyone is wearing these days?’ She shook her bandaged head. ‘You shouldn’t be such a slave to fashion. I taught you better than that. You look a right mess.’
Suzy was now bent double laughing.
‘Mum, I’m supposed to look a mess.’
‘Good god! Who’d want to look like that on purpose? You don’t even look like you’ve had a wash in days. Oh my god,’ she tugged her hand away. ‘These fingernails are filthy.’
‘Mum, I—’
‘Has the acting not worked out? Is that it? Because I’ve told you, you can always come back home if things don’t work out, doesn’t matter how old you get.’
Suzy’s laughter started to dry up.
He didn’t know if this was the dementia or if the fall had her temporarily confused.
Her memory came and went, and what she could remember varied from day to day.
But he did know he wasn’t supposed to contradict her.
He shouldn’t point out to her that they had had to sell the home he and Suzy grew up in, and her home now was a nursing home.
‘I know, Mum. I know I can come home,’ he said with a lump in his throat. ‘But this is a costume.’
She puckered up her face and peered at him from under hooded eyes. ‘A costume? What sort of show has you dressed up like that?’
‘Remember, Mum,’ Suzy said, taking her other hand. ‘Finn is making a TV show about people who lived in the 1850s. It’s a period drama. He plays the romantic lead.’
Suzy looked at him and made a face like she was about to be sick.
‘Oh well, now that makes sense.’
His mum reached for his hand and squeezed it, her eyes shining as she looked at him.
‘You being the hero.’
Suzy rolled her eyes.
‘But how are you going to get the girl dressed like that? You need to make more of an effort, love. Speak to the costume people. No woman wants a man who can’t take care of himself.’
Finn laughed and nodded in agreement. The relief of seeing his mum sitting up and talking, even if she was a little confused, was so great.
A nurse came up and introduced herself as Jane.
‘You had a nasty bump on the head, Linda,’ she smiled. ‘But we’ll have you on the mend soon.’
His mum pulled a face and reached up to try to feel the bandage.
‘Do you think the nursing home was at fault?’ Suzy asked Jane quietly.
The nurse shook her head and lowered her voice.
‘We can’t say for sure. You’ll want to ask the nursing home for an account of what happened, of course, but falls at your mother’s age and with her conditions are quite common. I understand she’s been pretty mobile, been moving about in her room on her own?’
Suzy and Finn nodded.
‘We plan to keep her in for now and carry out a proper assessment of your mum’s conditions. We need to see if there are any complications from the fall, particularly with her head injury, and consider what further care she might need.’
‘Complications?’ Suzy said in a panicked tone. ‘Like what? Isn’t she going to be okay?’
Jane would not be drawn. ‘As I said, we’ll be monitoring her closely and carrying out further tests in the next few days.’
Suzy gripped the bars at the foot of the bed. Finn looked at his mother, frail, bruised, and slowly dozing off, and at his sister, shaken and pale, her eyes filled with tears.
He covered Suzy’s hand with his. ‘She is going to be okay, Suze. She has to be.’