Page 64 of Anxious Hearts
She pressed on. ‘Do you not think he should follow his passion? Maybe take a chance?’
Deanna focused her wilting glare on Kelly. Dabbed her lips with a napkin. ‘No, Kelly, I do not think my son shouldtake a chancewith his life. Chances end in disaster. Stability is what Finley needs.’
‘Have you asked Finley what he wants?’
Deanna slammed her napkin down on the table so that the plates and cutlery bounced and clanged, cutting through the façade of politeness. ‘Life isn’t about what youwant, Kelly,’ she said with unbridled anger. ‘You think that because you’re young and foolish and you’ve never had to hurt so bad that it tears your spirit in two.’
Kelly leaned back as though she had opened the door to a blazing furnace.
‘I will not let my boy make stupid decisions that put his life at risk—’ Deanna’s voice rose in volume and intensity, ‘—because of a whimsical fancy and this incessant obsession you young people have with following your dreams. Dreams don’t pay the bills or put food on the table. Dreams end in nothing but disaster, and the sooner you learn that, the better.’
Finn spoke up. ‘She’s just trying to help, Mum.’
Deanna looked directly at her son. ‘Well, we don’t need her help, Finley. I know what’s best for you andI’mthe one who has looked after you since your father gave up on us.Iwill decide what’s best for you. Not her and not anybody else.’ Deanna pushed her chair back and stood up. She looked at Kelly. ‘I think it’s best that you leave.’
Kelly turned to Finn, tears welling in her eyes, and he gave her a small nod. His eyes were full of sadness and defeat.
He walked Kelly to the front door. ‘Sorry,’ he whispered.
Kelly could see Finn’s mother at the end of the hallway, watching them. Her tirade had both exhausted and energised Kelly, her own emotions colliding within her heart like violent chemical explosions.
A tear ran down her cheek as she looked up at Finn. ‘It’s your life, Finn. You do what’s right for you, not her.’
He nodded once and closed the door.
Kelly stood on the front step as the hallway light turned off. She wiped the tear from her cheek. ‘I’ll get you out of there, Finley,’ she whispered to the door. ‘You just hold on.’
Chapter Twenty-seven
Wednesday 12 April
Finn awoke suddenly. His head was pounding so hard he could barely move. But if he didn’t move, the pain would pin him and crush him to death. He placed a palm down, lifted himself on an elbow, dragged himself to the wall. It was dark and quiet. Only the dim light from outside allowed him to make out the small pool of blood on the floor. But Kelly was gone.
He tried to stand and the pounding beat like machine guns on the front line. Relentless. Merciless. Devastating. He pulled himself up and leaned on the kitchen bench. ‘Kelly,’ he said weakly.
‘I’m here,’ she said softly.
Finn turned to her voice and saw her sitting on her couch. She was dressed in the same clothes as earlier but her left thigh was wrapped in a white bandage that had a faint line of blood visible through the dressing.
‘What time is it?’ Finn whispered, his own voice a hammer inside his skull.
‘Two a.m.’ Kelly stood and walked to Finn.
He began to rub his temples with his fingertips to try to ease the unfathomable pressure.
‘Migraine?’ Kelly said clinically.
‘Yes.’
She left the room and reappeared a moment later with a small pill. She placed it on the bench in front of him and poured a glass of water.
‘What is it?’ he asked between lightning bolts of pain. Finn didn’t take medication if he didn’t know what it was. What if he took something and he lost his sense of smell or ended up paralysed or in kidney failure?
‘Triptan. Prescription only. It’ll knock you around, but the pain will be gone within half an hour.’
Still Finn hesitated. It was wrong to take other people’s prescription medication and possibly even illegal. He could get into a lot of trouble. He could even get Kelly into a lot of trouble. She could lose her right to practise forever. He couldn’t add that disaster to her life.
But if he didn’t do something, he was going to pass out again. So he swallowed the tablet, then stumbled in the semi-darkness to Kelly’s couch and sat there completely motionless. With his eyes closed, he could hear Kelly moving around the apartment. He didn’t know what she was doing and didn’t have the clarity of thought to figure it out. She didn’t say a word.
