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Samantha

Lizzie’s body continued to shudder and shake in disjointed movements as Jaddi flew back into the restroom. It seemed to Samantha, helplessly watching Lizzie – elbows bolted to her side, her hands twisted into deformed fists – as though a demon had found its way into Lizzie’s body and was fighting with all its might to get out.

‘I said get help!’ Samantha shouted, the hysteria, a cyclone in her throat. ‘Where’s the help?’

‘I got Ben,’ Jaddi half panted, dropping down beside Lizzie and avoiding Samantha’s gaze. As Jaddi spoke, Ben stepped through the door, camera on shoulder. The same fluid movements from the terminal now shortened in the small rectangular restroom, but still slow, still even. I’m here to capture the story, not be part of it, that’s what he’d told them on the plane. Why had Jaddi thought he’d help? Why had she not run across the airport, screaming for help until an army of people rushed to her side? All of a sudden the space around them closed in. What now? Samantha didn’t want to leave Lizzie’s side, but what choice did she have?

‘Shit, her lips are turning blue,’ Jaddi said. ‘We have to do something.’ A sob left her mouth as she reached her arms out towards Lizzie’s juddering legs.

‘Don’t touch her,’ Ben said from behind them, his voice calm and in control, slicing through the panic swarming through Samantha. She turned her face towards him. In one move, Ben placed the camera onto the floor and hopped over to Jaddi, pulling her up and away from Lizzie.

‘What are you doing?’ Jaddi cried out, shrugging off his hands.

‘She’s having a seizure, you can’t hold her,’ Ben said, taking Jaddi’s place beside Lizzie.

‘But she keeps banging her shoulder on the tiles,’ Jaddi said. ‘It must be hurting her. I can help.’

‘No, you can’t. You’d do a lot more damage by holding her.’ Ben pulled off his jumper and slid it under Lizzie’s head as a current continued to shake her body. ‘All we can do is cushion her head.’

‘How do you know?’ Samantha asked, not bothering to hide the accusation in her tone.

‘My brother has epilepsy,’ he said before leaning closer to Lizzie. ‘Lizzie, you’re having a seizure. It’s OK. It’ll be over in a minute. Hang in there. You’re going to be fine.’

‘Can she hear us?’ Jaddi asked from behind them.

‘I don’t know. My brother always says he can, but every seizure is different, and it affects people differently.’

Something in Ben’s tone loosened the fear gripping Samantha. She pulled in a breath and watched Lizzie’s jerking movements begin to slow. ‘I think it’s stopping,’ she said.

‘Let’s give it a minute and wait for her to come around before we alert the airport staff,’ Ben said, as if reading the question in Samantha’s head before she’d had a chance to ask it. ‘That way she won’t come out of it to a bathroom full of people. There’s nothing a doctor can do for her right now.’

Time passed. A minute, then two. No one spoke. Samantha could hear her heartbeat drumming in her ears. She glanced at Ben’s camera, still in its position on the floor, the light on the side glowing red. It was still recording, she realised, fighting the urge to stand up and step out of the way. Whether she liked it or not, she was part of this documentary, and nothing would make her leave Lizzie’s side.

‘She’s opening her eyes.’ Jaddi leaned in and placed a hand on Lizzie’s shoulder. ‘Lizzie, can you hear me?’

Lizzie’s pupils narrowed into focus as she stared between the three of them, her eyes wide with fear and uncertainty. It was the same look Samantha had seen on Lizzie’s face the morning of her first radiotherapy treatment last autumn.

‘You’re all right, Lizzie. You had a seizure,’ Ben said.

Lizzie’s face softened, tears formed a wall of water over her pupils but she continued to stare at them in turn.

‘I’ll get her some water,’ Jaddi said, scrambling to her feet.

‘She needs to speak first, before you can give it to her,’ Ben called after her. ‘In case she’s still seizing and we don’t know it. If she is, the water could go straight into her lungs and choke her,’ he explained as he stood up.

‘Oh, right.’ Jaddi knelt back down and ran a hand over Lizzie’s hair. ‘Can you hear me, Liz? Please say something.’

‘Umm.’ Lizzie blinked and touched her hand to the back of her head. ‘What happened?’

‘You had a seizure.’ Samantha swallowed the lump in her throat but could do nothing to stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks and dropping onto the sleeve of Lizzie’s top. ‘We found you on the floor in the toilets.’ Samantha lifted her head to Jaddi and Ben. ‘I’ll go and get help,’ she said, her voice no more than a whisper.

‘No, I’ll go,’ Jaddi said, already springing to her feet again.

‘I don’t need any help,’ Lizzie mumbled as the door to the bathroom swung shut.

‘You do, I’m afraid.’ Ben stepped towards the doorway. ‘You need to be seen by a doctor.’

Horror printed on Lizzie’s face. ‘Don’t make me go to hospital.’ Her eyes shot to Samantha. ‘Please.’ Her voice, croaky from the seizure, broke at the end, so it came out ‘plea’.

Out of the corner of her eye, Samantha sensed Ben stepping back, his movements fluid once more, hoisting the camera into the air and resting it back onto his shoulder. At that moment Samantha didn’t care about the camera, or the thousands of people that would see her kneeling on the floor of an airport toilets crying her eyes out. All she cared about was getting Lizzie to a hospital, whether Lizzie wanted to go or not.