Page 62 of The Wish
As they approach the nurses’ station, Ryan steps in front of them and clears his throat formally. Jesse struggles pulling herself out from the wheelchair to stand before him.
‘I’m getting out of here next week; can I come and see you at home?’ he asks.
‘Of course you can, Ryan, anytime.’ Mandy’s voice is warm. ‘You have your mother ring me and we’ll make it happen, OK?’
Ryan simply nods. He looks at Jesse, reaches out and punches her oh so gently on the arm. Jesse kisses him on the cheek. Ryan turns very quickly and walks away.
Luke slowly walks towards Jesse and stops directly in front of her. His voice quivering, he asks if he can have a hug, the kind she gives Amy. Before he can move, Jesse wraps her arms around him, holding him as his body shakes with sobs. Eventually, a nurse gently pulls Luke from the embrace and hands him over to a colleague.
Dropping back into the wheelchair, Jesse quietly, says ‘bye’, as much to the ward as to anyone in particular. Her voice shakes,she tries to keep the tears in. Her mum places one hand on her shoulder as she wheels her away. ‘Time to leave, my darling girl,’ she says softly. ‘Time to go home.’
In the car, Jesse turns off the radio, preferring to stare out the window in quiet contemplation, seeing the scenery go past as if for the first time. All those colours, all that life. On the coastal road, she sits up straighter. There, in the distance, a balloon floats high over the world.
‘Thinking about your balloon trip?’ Mandy says.
‘It was amazing,’ Jesse says, breaking into a big grin. ‘Flying above everything like that. I could see the track, I saw dolphins . . . I think I even saw our house!’
Mandy laughs. ‘That’s great, darling. I’m so glad you had a good time.’
‘It was the best.’ Jesse smiles but then looks over to Mandy. ‘Thanks for letting me go, Mum.’
‘Well, Alex rang me asking if there was anything you liked to do; a place you liked to go, somewhere that he could take you as a surprise. I told him you were a beach bunny, but he knows we live on the beach and you can go there any time, so he asked what else you liked.’
‘What made you say I liked hot air balloons? It’s not something we’ve ever talked about.’
‘The day I brought you back to the hospital, you were watching one fly over the bay. At the time I guessed you were wishing you could fly away from here, from your life, from the hospital, and it broke my heart.’
Mandy can’t control her voice or the tears that escape and flow down her cheeks.
‘Oh, Mum, I don’t want to fly away from my life, from you. Yeah, OK, maybe from going back to hospital.’
Jesse leans towards her mum and wipes away her tears with her fingers so she can see to drive, loving the choking giggle Mandy can’t control.
‘I wasn’t sure what to tell you about my time with Alex, because I didn’t want to upset you by telling you I had an amazing experience which you, Dad and Sam weren’t part of.’
‘You won’t upset me! Quite the opposite, I am so happy that Alex was able to do something for you, give you something that we couldn’t.’
‘And there is no way Dad would have let me go,’ Jesse says quietly.
Mandy reaches over and squeezes Jesse’s hand. ‘He’s trying, darling. He really is.’
‘I know, Mum.’ They sit in silence for a while, the hot air balloon hanging in the sky ahead of them. ‘Do you want to hear about it?’ Jesse finally says.
The look of love on Mandy’s face is all Jesse needs to see before she starts sharing with her mother her flight in a hot air balloon.
Jesse is still telling the story when they arrive home and the two stay in the car until Jesse has finished. They hug each other over the middle console.
‘We better get inside; Sam can’t wait to see you and I’m sure he’s driven Judith crazy with questions about when you’re coming.’
The front door is barely open before Sam throws himself at Jesse.
‘You have to let us come in, Sammy,’ Jesse says as she propels the two of them, arms entwined, away from the front door so Mandy can come in. Their neighbour Judith appears and she and Mandy hug.
‘Where’s Dean?’ Judith whispers.
‘He stayed behind to pack up Jesse’s things, he’ll be here shortly. How was Sam, no trouble?’
‘Sam, trouble? No, we chatted, and I watched him drawing.
