Dead Tomorrow

99

Shortly after midnight the doorbell rang. Lynn sprinted down the stairs and opened the door. Dr Hunter stood on the front step, dressed in a suit, shirt, tie and overcoat, holding his black bag. He looked tired.

For an instant, she wondered incongruously about his suit – had he put it on just for this visit, or had he been on call all night?

‘Ross, thank God you’re here. Thank you. Thank you for coming.’

She had to struggle to resist hugging him in gratitude.

‘Sorry it took me a while. I was dealing with another emergency when you rang.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘No. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate it.’

‘How is she?’

‘Terrible. She keeps screaming out with stomach pains and crying.’

He strode up the stairs and she followed him into Caitlin’s bedroom. Luke stood there, looking bewildered, holding Caitlin’s hand. In the dim glow of the bedside light, perspiration was pouring down her face. There were scratch marks all over her neck and arms.

‘Hello, Caitlin,’ the doctor said. ‘Tell me how you are feeling?’

‘Actually, you know what?’ She spoke in a breathless rasp. ‘Not great actually.’

‘Do you have an acute pain?’

‘I’m in so much pain. Please – please stop the itching.’

‘Where exactly is the pain, Caitlin?’ he asked.

‘I want to go home,’ she gasped.

Ross Hunter frowned. ‘Home?’ Then he said gently, ‘You are home.’

She shook her head. ‘You don’t understand.’

‘It’s OK,’ Lynn intervened. ‘She’s talking about where we first lived. Winter Cottage.’

‘Why do you want to go there, Caitlin?’ he asked.

She stared at him, opened her mouth as if to answer, then appeared to have difficulty in breathing for some moments.

‘I think I’m dying,’ she gasped, then she closed her eyes and let out a long, dreadful moan.

Ross Hunter gripped her wrist, checking her pulse. Then he stared into her eyes.

‘Can you describe the pain in your tummy?’

‘Awful,’ she gasped, her eyes still closed. ‘It’s burning. I’m burning.’

She suddenly thrashed, twisting from right to left, then back, like some crazed animal.

Lynn switched on the overhead light. Caitlin’s face, and now her eyes too, which sprang open, were the colour of nicotine.

Inside, Lynn was burning too. Her whole insides felt as if they were being twisted into a tourniquet.

‘It’s OK, darling. Angel, it’s OK. It’s OK.’

‘Can you show me where it hurts exactly?’

She opened her nightdress and pointed. Ross Hunter placed his hand there for a few moments. Then he peered closely at her eyes. Then, telling Caitlin they would be back in a few moments, he took Lynn’s arm and led her out of the room, closing the door.

Luke was standing, ashen, on the landing.

‘Is she going to be all right?’ he asked.

Lynn nodded at him, trying to give him reassurance, but wanted a few moments in private with the doctor.

‘Would you mind fetching me a glass of water, Luke?’

‘No – er, sure. Yes, of course, Lynn.’ He disappeared downstairs.

‘Lynn,’ Ross Hunter said, ‘we need to get her into hospital right away. I’m extremely concerned at her condition.’

‘Please, Ross, can we just wait until tomorrow? Tomorrow afternoon? She does have moments when she seems really strong – then she relapses. She’ll be OK for a little longer.’

He put his finely manicured hands on her shoulders and stared hard at her.

‘Yes, she might rally every now and then, for a short while, when she gets a build-up of strength, but don’t be fooled. Those are her very last reserves she uses up, every time that happens. Lynn, you need to understand that without emergency medical treatment, she might not survive until tomorrow afternoon. She’s suffering almost total liver failure. Her body is being poisoned by her own toxins.’

Tears began streaming down Lynn’s face. She felt giddy, felt his firm hands steadying her as she swayed. Got to be strong, she thought. Come all this way. Got to be really strong now. The German woman was coming to collect her at midday. Just a few hours’ time. Have to hang on till then.

She stared back at him, determinedly. ‘Ross, I can’t, not tonight.’

‘Why on earth not? Are you mad?’

‘I can’t let her go into hospital to die. That’s what’s going to happen. She’s just going to die in there.’

‘She won’t die if she gets immediate treatment.’

‘But she will die without a new liver, Ross, and I don’t have any faith they are going to find her one.’

‘It’s her only chance, Lynn.’

‘I can’t tonight, Ross. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon?’

‘I don’t understand your reluctance.’

Luke was coming up the stairs with the water. She took it gratefully from him, then he stayed, listening. She could hardly tell him to go away.

‘I want you to give her something yourself, Ross.’

‘I’m not a liver specialist, Lynn.’

‘You’re a fucking doctor, for Chrissake!’ she snapped at him. Then she shook her head at herself. ‘I’m sorry – I’m sorry, Ross. But you must be able to give her something. I don’t know, some boost for her liver, something to stop the damn pain, something to perk her up, a shot of vitamins or something.’

He pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket. ‘Lynn, I’m going to call an ambulance.’

‘NO!’

Her sudden vehemence startled him. For some moments they both just stared at each other, in a kind of Mexican stand-off.

Then he gave her a strange look.

‘Is something going on, Lynn? That I don’t know about? Are you planning to take her abroad, is that it? To get a transplant in China?’

She stared back at him without responding, wondering whether she dared to take him into her trust, caught Luke’s eye, willing him to keep silent.

‘No,’ she said.

‘She wouldn’t survive the journey, Lynn.’

‘I – I’m not taking her abroad.’

‘So why do you want to delay her going into hospital?’

‘Just don’t ask me, Ross, OK?’

He frowned deeply. ‘I think you’d better tell me what’s going on. Are you seeing some alternative practitioner? A faith healer?’

‘Yes,’ she said, suddenly short of breath with nerves, the word jetting out. ‘Yes. I – I have someone-’

‘They could see her in hospital, surely?’

Lynn shook her head vigorously.

‘Do you understand how much you are endangering Caitlin’s life, doing this?’

‘And what the hell has your damn system done for her so far?’ Luke suddenly said, simmering with rage. ‘What’s your bloody National Health done for her? Drag her in and out of hospital for years, putting her on the transplant list and getting all her hopes up, finding her a liver, then deciding instead to give it to some fuck-wit alcoholic so he can have a couple more years in the boozer? What do you want to do – send her back up to that hell-hole so more people can promise her a liver she’s never going to bloody well get?’

He turned away, dabbing his eyes with the backs of his fists.

In the silence that followed, Lynn and the doctor stared bleakly at each other.

Sniffing, she said, ‘He’s right.’

‘Lynn,’ Ross Hunter said gravely, ‘I’ll give her a strong shot of antibiotics and I’ll leave you some tablets to give her every four hours. They’ll help reduce the infection which is causing her the pain. If I give her an enema, that will help too by reducing the protein build-up in the bowel. She should really be on a fluid drip – you need to get a lot of liquid down her.’

‘What sort?’

‘Glucose. She needs a lot. And you have to get her to eat, as much food as she can get down her.’

‘This will work, will it, Ross?’

He looked at her sternly. ‘If you do all those things, hopefully she will rally for a while. But what you are doing is dangerous and you’re only buying a short amount of time. Do you understand?’

She nodded.

‘I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon. Unless there’s a dramatic improvement, which I don’t think we’re going to see, then I’m sending her straight to hospital. All right?’

She threw her arms around him and hugged him.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered, tearfully. ‘Thank you.’