Emma: Dad’s ring was back on his finger when I saw him in the hospital that afternoon. I doubt he even knew it had been missing.
He was awake but drowsy, slurring jokes to himself and trying to get Mum to scratch his backside. Mum said he was on strong painkillers, which was an understatement considering he asked me what rhymed with orange and then giggled himself back to a half sleep that didn’t last long.
It’s fair to say he wasn’t himself… which was apt because I wasn’t sure whether I could ever look at him the same way again.
Scott had asked me who benefitted from Alan being pushed – and I didn’t want to listen. Then I’d opened the post office box…
I was lost in that when the door to Dad’s room opened and the doctor came in. He told us that Dad had multiple fractures in both legs and that operations would be needed to help set them. Before he could finish, Mum asked if that could be done in the UK. I thought it was fairly clear that the doctor was trying to steer us away from that, but as soon as he said ‘it’s possible’, Mum leapt on that and said that they’d get anything done privately as soon as they got back.
The doctor was trying to explain the dangers, but Dad was higher than a hot-air balloon and Mum seemed determined to get him out of there. The doctor said that Dad would need a wheelchair to be on a plane and that they’d do something with his legs to try to make it as comfortable as possible for him.
In the end, he could have said that Dad needed a bed of marshmallows and a pillow made out of magic goat hair and Mum would have said it was fine. She wanted him off the island.
The doctor made a few other checks, gave one final attempt to change Mum’s mind – and then wished us well. It was like a parent telling a child not to stick their fingers in an electrical socket and then standing back with their hands up when their stupid kid insisted on doing it anyway.
We sat with Dad for another half an hour or so as he drifted in and out of consciousness. I wanted to ask him about the cliff and whether he was with anyone. If he was, then he never said… not that he said much that was coherent. He pointed at the wall behind me and asked why there were sheep in his room. He asked Mum what was for tea and wondered why there were no spaghetti hoops in the cupboard.
It was surreal.
Mum and I got a taxi back to the hotel, but we were still in the village when I asked the driver to let me out. I told Mum I’d see her later and then crossed a mini plaza and headed across to where the documentary crew were filming. I’d spotted them from the cab and, if you want to know the truth, I was being nosey. I wedged myself behind one of the market stalls and watched as the crew talked to a guy who was running a café. Scott wasn’t there – but Paul was. He was holding the boom mic as one of the others asked questions and the café owner answered.
I really wanted to hear what they were saying, especially after seeing the contents of that PO box – but I didn’t want to go any closer and let them know I was that bothered. I probably watched for about ten minutes until I looped my way back around the market and headed up the slope towards the hotel.
I wanted to get back to the cottage, but Julius was by the small pool again and called across. I think he might have been waiting for me.
Julius: I’d not seen Emma all day. Amy and Chloe were hoping she’d spend some time with them around the pool. I tried to tell them that Emma wasn’t the type of person who’d sit around on a sunbed all day – and I suppose that’s how it ended up going. The only times I ever saw her around the hotel were either at dinner – or as she was coming and going.
…
I have no idea what she was doing with her days.
Emma: Julius said that Mum had told him Dad was awake. I replied it was true but that Dad wasn’t yet the Dad we remembered because of all the drugs. I suppose, out of context, that could mean a very different thing.
I thought that was it, but Julius nodded me closer and lowered his voice. He said: ‘I’ve been thinking about what you said… that Dad was pushed.’
Julius: I suppose that’s what happened – but that doesn’t give the context. I was thinking about what Emma had been saying, but only because I was worried about her. I wasn’t acting like it was a serious theory.
Emma: He asked me why someone would push Dad, so I told him about Daniel and the argument over the business from a few months before. If Dad had died, then Mum wasn’t going to bother with the business. Daniel would end up in charge. I reminded Julius that he was the one who’d overheard Daniel talking about Dad’s spending.
Julius: She was doing a really good job of seeming crazy.
Emma: I probably talked about seeing Daniel attempt to pressure Mum into signing some papers. I remember Julius and I looking across the pool towards him. Daniel was wearing a pair of shorts that would be obscene in some countries and, if anything, he was somehow redder than the night before. We’ve had turnip and radish and I’m running out vegetables to compare him against. Maybe a mutant tomato? And, yes, I know a tomato is a fruit. Either way, it was extraordinary. I’ve never seen a human being that colour before.
There was this moment where Julius and I were looking across the pool at Daniel and I really felt we were on the same page as brother and sister.
Julius: Emma must have seen what she wanted to see, or heard what she wanted to. There was never a time when I indulged her conspiracy theories. At most, I listened to her. Does that make me the bad guy? She’s my sister.
Emma: Julius said he’d keep half an eye on Daniel, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. It sounded like one of those things someone might say. At the same time, it was more than he’d committed to the last time we’d talked. I felt like I finally had an ally.
Julius: Is that the word she used? ‘Ally’?
…
If that’s what she believed at that time, then she was delusional even earlier than I thought.
Chapter Twenty-Two
EVEN MORE CHINS
Emma: I was still with Julius and the girls when I watched Daniel stand. He put on a shirt and some flip-flops, then shuffled off towards the cottages.
I followed him away from the pool and reached Mum’s cottage a moment after she opened the door to him. Daniel didn’t notice me until he’d already spoken – and I suppose it wasn’t a surprise when he asked Mum if she’d thought about signing the papers from the day before. She’d been at the hospital all day and he wouldn’t have seen her, except for a brief moment when she was re-entering the hotel.
When Mum caught my eye, he turned and realised he’d been overheard. That’s when he started saying how fantastic it was that Geoff was awake. He went through the full routine of ‘back to fighting fit in no time’ and ‘he’s always been a tough nut’, but it seemed so transparent.
Daniel: That girl is like the dregs at the bottom of a wine bottle.
Emma: I think I said ‘Mum—’ and then Daniel exploded. He spun to me and goes: ‘This is none of your concern, girl!’