Page 30 of The Wish
‘I need you, and Mum and Dad more,’ she tells him. Alex glances at Mandy, who is wiping away a tear. When he looks at Dean, the pain that is written all over his face is so clear to see. This is a man who loves his family, Alex realises, even if he doesn’t know how to help them.
Alex startles as Kelly taps him on the shoulder. She indicates for him to follow her.
Alex follows Kelly to a far corner of the hospital cafeteria. ‘Coffee? Tea?’ she asks.
‘I’ll take a coffee. Long black.’
Kelly nods and heads over to order. The barista makes a joke and Kelly laughs – Alex can’t help but notice what a pretty smile she has. As he waits, he looks around the café. Families and friends sit with patients, many in pyjamas and gowns, several have IV poles beside them, watching their visitors drink and eat, envy on many of their faces.
Kelly places the coffee on the table and throws two sachets of sugar at him, for which he’s grateful.
‘How old is she again?’ Alex asks, dumping both sachets of sugar into his coffee.
‘Fifteen.’
‘She puts most adults to shame. Did you see the way she was with Sam?’
Kelly nods.
‘She’d just heard that her father’s not going to let me make the one thing she wants happen, and she’s comforting Sam.’
‘Maturity and wisdom don’t necessarily come with age, Alex. That’s one of the first things you learn here, it’s life experiences that make us who we are, not years lived.’
In silence they drink their coffee, Kelly watching him go through a range of emotions, contemplating what to do next, what to say to her, to Jesse, to Ian.
‘Is this too much for you, Alex?’ Kelly asks finally.
He glances up at her words, but he sees no judgement there, just concern.
‘This is hard stuff, and it’s going to get harder,’ Kelly continues. ‘There is no shame in walking away at this point. You have to take care of yourself too.’
‘Yeah, it’s a lot, but no, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stop when Jesse says stop.’
Kelly nods, as if this is what she expected Alex to say. ‘I’m happy to hear that. But we need to factor in Dean. Saying that, I know how difficult he can be.’
‘At what age can a patient make their own decisions?’
‘That would be eighteen, unless there are exceptional circumstances. But don’t forget, Jesse has two parents, and Mandy is on board.’
‘I’ve met Mandy, she’s really nice.’
‘Mandy is a very special person. She’s doing the best she can, in the circumstances,’ Kelly says.
‘So, what do we do from here?’ Alex asks.
‘We just have to hope that Jesse and Mandy will be able to talk Dean round, I guess. But I’d just get on with it, if I were you. Don’t stop until Jesse says you can stop.’
Alex looks at Kelly, seeing her for the first time as someone other than a social worker. Maybe she’s not so bad after all.
Finishing his coffee he stands. ‘Thank you for the coffee and the chat. I better get back to it.’
Offering a smile, Kelly says, ‘Goodnight, Alex.’
At the doors to the cafeteria, Alex looks back to see that Kelly is watching him. He raises his hand goodbye.
And thinks of her smile all the way home.
In the dimly lit room he calls his office, Alex runs the two sets of filming he and Steve shot earlier in the day. On a third screen he cuts and pastes a portion of the long-range scene, splicing it with the up-close video he filmed under the trees. Repeating this process, he settles on one scene combining the two. Adjacent to the scenes he makes system notes: insert a Sam drawing, merge it into video; talk to Sarah to help with special effects, possibly change the seasons to show multiple visits.
