Page 39 of Her Fixer Upper

I waved cheerily at Leila and Nim until they were out of sight, and then I spent the journey back to Oak Tree Cottage wrestling with the confusing thoughts whizzing around inside my head. I experienced a pang of nerves when the bus eventually dropped me off in the village, still wondering if I dared follow Leila’s advice. And when I finally walked down the lane and let myself into the house, I told myself I was relieved that although Charlie’s car was parked on the drive, Charlie himself was nowhere to be seen. Whatever conversation I needed to have with him could wait until the morning. Before I could chicken out completely, I scribbled a quick note asking him for a chat and left it by his coffee mug in the kitchen. I would decide in the bright light of the day how far that conversation would go.

* * *

I woke with a start, my heart pounding. Thankfully this time I wasn’t being woken from a deep sleep by someone creeping around my room, but something else had dragged me from my dreams, something potentially just as worrying. My phone was buzzing insistently. I’d set it on the ‘do not disturb’ mode before I eventually went to sleep, so for it to be buzzing now, the person at the other end of the line must have rung several times to have overridden it. I scrabbled around in the dark, trying to feel where it was without sitting up, as I was still half-asleep. It must be the middle of the night still. And with that my sense of foreboding grew stronger. A phone call at this time was never a good thing.

Somehow I managed to answer the call, still struggling to prop myself up on my slightly deflated camp bed and get my bearings.

‘Freya, the important thing is not to panic,’ said my mum, but what she said and how she said it immediately made me do the exact opposite.

Suddenly I was bolt upright and as wide awake as if I’d never been to sleep.

‘What’s happened? Are you all right? Is Dad okay?’

‘We’re both fine. It’s your granddad.’

Icy fear gripped my insides. Not Granddad Arthur, my sweet lovely Granddad.

‘He’s not…he’s not dead, is he?’ I asked hesitantly, the word ‘dead’ coming out in a whisper. I immediately wished it unsaid, as if I was going to make it true by saying it out loud.

‘No, he’s not dead,’ said Mum, putting on the straight-talking voice, kindly but firm, which she normally used in the most serious of situations. ‘But he’s not in a good way. He had a fall yesterday morning, and instead of using his alarm straight away to call for help, he thought he’d be able to get himself back up again and nobody would be any the wiser. In fact, I have a horrible feeling he wasn’t even wearing his personal alarm, and he certainly didn’t have his mobile on him. He spent most of the day on the floor, and it was only when a parcel delivery arrived late in the evening that he was found. The guy doing the delivery says he was concerned by the way Ted was barking at him, because Ted isn’t normally a barking dog.’

‘Oh, poor Granddad, couldn’t he even reach the phone? How terrifying for him. Thank goodness for Ted.’

I could imagine the scene now, Granddad Arthur trapped on the floor and in pain, torn between wishing someone would find him and longing not to be discovered so no one would learn about his moment of helplessness.

‘You know what he’s like, stubborn as a point of pride. And by the time he realised he was in serious trouble, there wasn’t really anyone around to call. I’m not sure he was even making any noise when the delivery guy got there. The man deserves a medal because he tried to get into the house. Anyway, it turned out to be a rare occasion on which your granddad had locked his front door, so there was quite a delay in getting help because the ambulance crew had to wait for the police to break in to get to him. And then it took a while to notify us as his next of kin because he was in too much pain to be able to get the information across.’

Mum was being very factual but I felt myself shaking in shock at the impact.

‘Poor, poor Granddad,’ I said, a sob in my voice.

And then I felt a strong arm going around my shoulders. Charlie sat down beside me on the camping bed, saying nothing, but letting me lean on him and draw strength from his proximity. Although he couldn’t hear everything that Mum was saying, he knew I was upset, and didn’t want me to be alone to deal with it.

‘The doctors say he’s broken his hip,’ she continued. ‘They’re going to take him in for surgery first thing, and then we’ll have to wait and see.’

‘Surgery, at his age? That’s really not good.’ Once again my imagination was running wild, calculating the risks, itching to Google the outcomes, but fearing what I might find out.

‘It is what it is,’ said Mum, and this time I could hear the pain in her voice.

‘Are you okay, Mum?’

‘Not really.’ She paused, and I could hear her taking a deep breath, trying to pull herself together so that she could be strong for me. ‘But I’m with him now, and he’s in the best place. I’ve just snuck out into the corridor to call you.’

I in turn tried to pull myself together to be strong for her. ‘I’ll come over right now. Which hospital is he in?’

I didn’t even have to see Charlie’s face to know that he would be more than happy to jump in the car and drive me wherever I needed to get to.

‘That’s very kind of you, love, but he’s sleeping now, and it’s probably best to wait until morning. I’ll let you know when I’ve got more information about the surgery.’

‘What about Ted? Is he okay?’ The pair of them were normally inseparable and I knew the little dog would be upset being without Granddad.

‘He’s still at Granddad’s. The neighbours are going to keep an eye on him in the morning, but we’ll need to work out what happens after that. Your dad and I can’t take him because our lease says we need written permission in advance before a pet can move in.’

‘We’ll take him,’ I said, not even hesitating. I wasn’t sure how much of Mum’s end of the conversation Charlie could hear, but I could tell from the way his arm tightened around my shoulders that he was in agreement with what I’d said.

Mum sighed. ‘I must say that would be a huge relief, love. The ambulance crew said your granddad was all for refusing to be taken off to hospital because he was afraid Ted would be left behind. I know he’s terrified of him ending up in kennels or a rescue shelter.’

‘That is never going to happen. Ted can stay with us for as long as he needs to. The house is mostly cleared of rubbish now, and the worst of the rewiring and window refitting is done, so it’s not as hazardous as it was when we first moved in. We can whizz around the garden and borrow a strimmer from the neighbours to clear a patch for him to play in.’

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