Читать книгу Suddenly Single Sophie - Leonie Knight - Страница 9

AFTER the ambulance left, Sophie experienced a satisfaction she hadn’t felt since working in the emergency department as a raw, idealistic intern. She had no doubt in her mind that Will had, calmly, without fuss or wanting any praise, saved young Jake’s life.

And she had been part of it.

‘Do you deal with many emergencies?’ she asked as she brought two mugs of fresh coffee into the treatment room where Will was tidying up.

He took one of the mugs and smiled.

‘About one or two a week.’

‘Across the full spectrum?’

Sophie perched herself on the examination couch and Will sat in the seat recently vacated by Jake’s father.

‘Pretty well. There’s probably more than the norm of physical violence, drug overdoses, that kind of thing. The clinic operates a little like a country outpost, without the problem of distance and isolation. I do my best to stabilise patients who need hospital care before sending them on.’

Sophie thought of how different it was from her father’s practice.

‘Where I worked in Sydney, the patients are more likely to ring the ambulance first in life-threatening situations … To save time.’

Will’s dark eyes clouded and he looked past Sophie into the distance before he refocused.

‘A lot of my patients have had bad experiences with hospitals, and doctors who don’t know them. And I don’t blame the hospital staff making judgements on appearances. We all do it …’

The appraisal took only a second or two but Sophie felt Will’s gaze flick from her high-heel-clad feet to the top of her tousled head, taking in everything in between. She suddenly became self-conscious about her appearance and the impression she’d made when he’d first seen her.

Before Sophie could think of a reply, Will had downed the last of his coffee and stood, stuffing his stethoscope into his pocket. He looked impatient to leave.

‘I’ll take you round to the flat. It’s nothing flash but is clean, has the basics and is about twenty minutes’ drive from here.’

Will’s sudden change of subject didn’t go unnoticed by Sophie, and she guessed her boss was just as tired as she was.

‘Not in Prevely Springs?’ She’d assumed she’d be staying closer to Will’s clinic.

‘No, Sabiston’s the name of the suburb. I thought …’ He hesitated.

‘Yes? You thought?’

‘It’s a more … upmarket suburb than the Springs.’

More like what she was used to …

He smiled, a fleeting indication that he genuinely cared about her welfare, and it occurred to her how easily she could fall for this gentle, softly spoken, work-weary man. He was everything her cocky, self-absorbed ex wasn’t.

No! Get a grip of yourself.

She hardly knew the man and it was way too soon. The painful sting of shame was still fresh in her memory and she didn’t want to risk going through the indignity again.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll manage,’ Sophie said.

‘I hope so.’ He took his keys from his pocket. ‘There’s just one thing more, before we go to the flat.’

‘Yes?’

‘I need to make a quick house call. A woman with pancreatic cancer. I’m sure it won’t take long. She only lives around the corner.’

Another surprise. Will did house calls … after hours … on top of what she calculated to be more than a sixty-hour working week.

‘You’ll like Bella Farris,’ he added.

‘And … well … the sooner I start, the harder it will be to chicken out.’

Sophie was determined to prove to her new employer she was prepared to tackle working in Prevely Springs head on.

Will knocked on the door of the tidiest townhouse in a shabby block of six and went straight inside without waiting for an answer. Sophie followed close behind, scanning the interior as she entered. The front door opened directly into a cramped living-dining area with a kitchen at the back. A boy of about thirteen or fourteen sat in front of a television screen connected to a games machine. He was overweight, pale, and his eyes didn’t leave the screen. A couple of empty fast-food containers lay abandoned on the floor beside him.

‘Hi, Brad. Is your mum upstairs in the bedroom?’ Will’s tone was cheerful and undemanding.

‘Yeah.’

‘How is she?’

‘Same.’ The boy’s gaze left the screen, flicked to Will, hovered on Sophie for a second and then returned to the noisy, animated action on the screen. ‘Aw, hell!’ the boy added when some bloody tragedy terminated another of his virtual lives.

‘Dr Carmichael and I will go up and see her, then.’

‘Mmm.’

Sophie followed Will up the narrow concrete stairs, vestiges of mud-brown fibres the only indication they had once been carpeted.

‘Bella, it’s Will,’ he called as he reached the dimly lit passage at the top of the stairs.

‘In the bedroom.’ The thin voice came from the only upstairs room with the door open. ‘Come through.’

Sophie followed Will into a sparsely furnished room with a single small window overlooking a weedy back yard.

This family was struggling in more ways than one, Sophie thought as she smiled and nodded, acknowledging the woman propped up in a narrow bed near the window. Her spindle-like arms protruded from the bed cover and rested on her swollen abdomen. Her sighing breaths came irregularly.

‘You’ve finally brought your girlfriend to meet me, have you, Dr Brent? About time too.’ The woman smiled and a hint of colour advanced then rapidly retreated from Will’s cheeks. She looked at Sophie and took a couple of deep breaths. Even talking appeared to be an effort for her. ‘I told Will I wasn’t going to leave this earth until he found a woman to replace me. He needs looking after.’

‘Enough of your cheek, Bella.’ Will put his medical bag down on the small table in a corner and sat on the end of her bed. ‘This isn’t my girlfriend. And you know that threat isn’t going to work because you’re not ready yet. Remember our little chat last week?’

He glanced over at Sophie, who was beginning to feel she was intruding in the relationship between these two people who were as close as a doctor and patient could be. Bella smiled with her eyes but her mouth remained in a grim line, suggesting she was in more pain than she let on.

‘Who is she, then?’

‘Dr Sophie Carmichael. She arrived this morning from Sydney to join the practice for a few weeks. Do you mind her sitting in?’

A look of disbelief flashed across Bella’s face, as if the last thing she’d expected was for Sophie to be a doctor.

‘Well, good for you, Sophie Carmichael.’ She turned her head slightly to address Will. ‘Of course I don’t mind. Two heads are better than one.’ She made a move to reposition herself on the pile of pillows behind her head, then grimaced and seemed to change her mind. ‘You make sure you look after her and she might even stay more than a few weeks.’ She turned to Sophie. ‘Once you get to know him, he’s not as bad as—’

‘Enough, Bella. This isn’t a social visit.’

Bella fixed her gaze back on Will and elevated an eyebrow. ‘Of course not.’

‘So what’s been happening? How can I help?’

‘Shelley insisted on calling you just to check. She thinks it’s a blockage. I’ve not had a bowel movement for four days and I’ve got a new pain.’ She pointed in the vague direction of her navel. ‘And the nausea’s a bit worse.’

Will got up and retrieved a file from the table where he’d left his bag and then returned to Bella’s bedside. He looked across at Sophie. ‘Shelley’s one of the palliative care nurses.’ He turned a couple of pages of the file Sophie assumed contained the nurse’s notes. ‘Your morphine dose has gone up in the last few days.’

‘I vomited a couple of doses of the liquid yesterday and had to increase my night-time tablet.’

‘What are you eating?’

‘Not much.’

‘How about fluids?’ Will didn’t labour the point.

‘I’m keeping down a bit of water.’

Sophie admired Bella’s uncomplaining courage, and as she watched Will examine his patient with large, gentle hands she felt admiration for him too.

‘Well, what’s the verdict?’ Bella said when he’d finally finished. ‘No beating around the bush.’

‘I’m fairly sure the tumour is pressing on part of your intestine, causing a partial blockage.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means your food and drinks are passing through very slowly. It’s probably why your pain and nausea are worse.’

‘Oh.’

Sophie could see the stoic acceptance on Bella’s face. She seemed to sense she didn’t have long to live and trusted Will to do what he felt was best to make her last few weeks comfortable.

‘I’ll contact Shelley and ask her to organise for you to have your morphine by injection.’ He went on to explain the device that would deliver a steady dose of the analgesic via a needle inserted into the fatty layer under the skin and a gadget called a syringe driver. It would overcome her problem of vomiting oral medication. ‘One of the nurses reloads the medication daily. We can also mix in other drugs if needed, like an anti-emetic for nausea.’

Bella looked exhausted. ‘Shelley said she’d come back this afternoon after you’d been.’

‘Good. She can set up the pump. I’ll also ask her to collect some dexamethasone from the pharmacy. If there’s any swelling due to inflammation in the intestine, it should reduce it and might ease the blockage. It should help with the nausea too.’

‘Okay. Best you two get on with enjoying the rest of your weekend.’ Bella seemed to muster a last ounce of energy to wink and then she closed her eyes and sighed. ‘Go on, then.’

Will and Sophie exchanged glances.

‘I’ll call in again Monday, Bella.’

The patient was breathing slowly. She appeared to be asleep, so the two doctors quietly left the room. Will made a quick phone call to Shelley before they went downstairs.

‘Bye, Brad,’ Sophie called as they let themselves out the front door.

The boy acknowledged their departure with a grunt and continued his game.

‘How is Brad coping with his mother’s illness?’ Sophie asked as she buckled her seat belt in the passenger seat of Will’s roomy old car.

‘I don’t think he is.’ Will sighed and started the engine. ‘I’ve tried to talk to him but he seems to have shut everyone out—including his mother. Bella worried about him at the beginning of her illness—she was diagnosed with cancer a week after Brad’s fourteenth birthday—but she doesn’t talk about him now. I think it upsets her that she can’t give him the support she wishes she could. She told me a while back she’d run out of emotional energy.’

A painful mix of sadness and helplessness churned in Sophie’s gut. The combination of poverty, illness and social isolation had delivered a cruel blow to this family. It wasn’t fair.

‘Isn’t there anything more that can be done for Bella?’

‘What do you mean?’ Will frowned.

‘She needs twenty-four-hour care … It’s not fair on her son. There must be somewhere like a hospice … In Sydney—’

Will’s grimace deepened.

‘We’re not in Sydney.’

Her boss seemed to want to wind up the conversation, but Sophie was determined to have her say.

‘Isn’t there residential care for the terminally ill here?’

Will began to back out into the street but braked at the kerb as a car sped past, the young driver going way too fast. He put the gearstick in neutral, wrenched the handbrake on and took a deep sighing breath.

‘I wish there was … for patients like Bella.’ Will’s voice was thick with emotion. ‘Do you think I don’t know that Bella, and hundreds of people like her, deserve pampering and dignity in their last days? Or at least to have the choice of where and how they die. Particularly those who have little in the way of family support.’ He paused. ‘But who pays?’

Sophie looked away and began fiddling with her watch band.

‘The government?’ she suggested quietly.

Point made. Sophie felt foolish, naive and totally put in her place.

The hospice she was familiar with was a private facility attached to one of the major private hospitals, paid for by wealthy patients and their health insurance funds.

Will put the car in gear, released the handbrake and looked in the rear-view mirror but he didn’t start reversing. He hadn’t finished.

‘The only government-funded hospice in this city is always full and is basically a converted wing of an old, now-defunct psychiatric hospital. And palliative care seems to be way down the list of priorities for Heath Department funding. I honestly think Bella is better off staying at home. At least for now.’

Will eased the car onto the road.

‘She has access to twenty-four-hour advice, home visits through the palliative care service, and both she and Brad have chosen the home-care option.’

Will accelerated.

Sophie understood his frustration. She had a lot to learn—not only about working in Prevely Springs but about how much of himself he gave to his patients. She glanced at her companion. He had dark rings under his weary eyes and his tense grip on the steering-wheel indicated he wasn’t as relaxed as his tone suggested.

What drove him to work so hard? As an experienced GP, surely he could choose a less demanding job. No one was indispensable.

But looking at Will … He seemed attached to his work and his patients by steadfastly unyielding Superglue.

Maybe she could be the one to ease his burden, to help him discover that there was a life away from work, to bring on that gorgeous smile she’d seen light up his face at least once that afternoon.

Purely as a friend, of course.

As if sensing Sophie was watching him, Will glanced at her as he slowed, approaching a corner.

‘What’s up?’ he said, crinkling his brow in a frown.

Nothing that your amazing smile won’t fix.

‘I’m concerned about Brad.’ Which she had been before she’d become distracted by the enigmatic man sitting next to her. She continued. ‘What sort of life does he lead? What’s in store for him in the future?’ She paused to take a breath, aware she had Will’s full attention. ‘How can a fourteen-year-old shoulder the responsibility of being the primary carer for his mother? It should be the other way around.’

Will accelerated around the corner and Sophie recognised the street where the clinic was located. ‘All valid concerns.’ He sighed as if the weight of the whole world’s problems rested on his shoulders. ‘He seems to have shut the real world out and replaced it with a virtual one, I’m afraid. I’m at a loss as to how to help him.’

‘Would it be okay with you if I tried to talk to Brad?’ Sophie knew it was an impulsive offer, and any support she gave would be a drop in the ocean compared to the Farrises’ hardship, but the boy seemed so isolated and withdrawn. She wanted to do something positive for Brad and Bella.

‘You’d have nothing to lose because I’ve got little to offer him at the moment.’ Will looked almost as weary as Bella. ‘Maybe twelve or eighteen months down the track …’

His voice trailed off, as if he’d started a conversation he didn’t want to finish, but Sophie was interested.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s a long story.’

‘I’m not in a hurry.’

He rewarded her with another of those charismatic smiles, apparently surprised she was interested.

‘I’m in the process of trying to get a youth-focused community centre up and running.’ Will parked on the road, a block away from the clinic. ‘See, over there?’

Sophie looked in the direction he was pointing. On the far side of a sports field a building of about the same vintage as the clinic stood neglected at the end of a weedy driveway. Several windows were broken and the parts of a low front wall that weren’t hidden by metre-high weeds were covered in graffiti. It had a chain-link fence around it, displaying a ‘DANGER KEEP OUT’ sign.

‘Looks like it’s ready for demolition.’

Will’s scowl suggested he didn’t agree.

‘That’s exactly what the council wants, but they haven’t got the resources to replace it. Since they closed the place down about a year ago they took away the one place local kids, like Brad and his mates, could hang out without getting bored and up to mischief. But if it’s up to bureaucracy, it’s unlikely to happen.’

Will tapped his fingers on the steering-wheel and for the briefest moment he looked desolate. Why was finding the fate of a rundown old building so painful?

‘So what’s going to happen to it?’

‘I’m trying to save it.’

‘How?’ Will was a man who seemed to have an insatiable need to take on projects that most people would discard into the too-hard basket. Surely he had enough to do, looking after the health needs of Prevely Springs, without taking on their social problems.

Will revved the engine and pulled out onto the road.

‘The cost of renovating and refurbishing is much less than a new build, especially if the skills of local people could be utilised. I’ve submitted a plan to the council and …’ His sigh suggested he wasn’t overjoyed with their response. He focused his attention on traffic as he indicated to turn into the clinic.

‘And …?’

He parked and turned off the engine.

‘To cut a long story short, they wanted detailed plans and costing to present to the building committee and if they approve it goes to a general meeting. But—’

‘Go on.’

‘The wheels of local government turn slowly. It’s unbelievably frustrating. Three months down the track, I’m still waiting for approval. But what’s turning out to be a bigger problem is that the planning department tells me I’m going to have to show the community can raise funds for half the cost of renovating a very old building that the council think is only fit for demolition.’

‘Before they give approval?’

‘That’s right.’ The smile was gone and Will looked despondent.

‘So it’s not going to be a help for Brad and kids like him any time soon.’

‘No.’

Will reached into the back to get Sophie’s bag, a signal that the conversation was over. But Sophie wasn’t about to be put off.

‘How much?’

Will could no longer disguise his disillusionment.

‘An impossible amount.’

‘Nothing’s impossible.’ Sophie knew about fundraising for the sort of amounts that would be impossible if you depended on cake stalls and bring-and-buy sales. For some of her mother’s friends, raising large amounts of money for charity was a very acceptable occupation.

‘How much?’

‘Two hundred thousand dollars.’

‘Oh.’

‘An awful lot of money.’

‘Yes, I can understand the problem.’

But not impossible.

Sophie didn’t want to labour the point when she had nothing tangible to offer. In Sydney in the same situation all she’d have to do would be to ask her parents to help. Her father would pull strings and know all the right people to ask for financial backing. And her mother revelled in organising high-profile events for charity. It helped that it was fashionable to donate to philanthropic worthy causes in certain circles.

But Prevely Springs was nothing like the eastern suburbs of Sydney. She doubted the community would even be considered worthy, let alone high profile enough to get the desired publicity that usually went with large donations.

Someone she hoped she could help, though, was Brad.

‘Can I go with you on your next visit to Bella Farris and I’ll try to break the ice with her son.’ At least she could attempt to break down some barriers with the withdrawn teenager.

‘Sounds great,’ he said, and the expression on his face changed to one of appreciation. Sophie felt a real buzz in response to her boss’s approval. ‘No harm in trying, but don’t expect too much. You might end up disappointed.’

Then Will promptly changed the subject, ending their conversation about Bella and her son and the future of the derelict building on the next block.

‘You must be keen to see the flat.’

At the thought of a comfortable bed, Sophie felt sudden overwhelming tiredness.

‘I guess I am.’

‘It’s only a short drive to Sabiston. You can follow me.’

‘Okay.’

Sophie glanced across at Will, who was concentrating on changing stations on his car radio. His face was blank. What was going on in his head? What impression had her unconventional intrusion into his life made? Their lives were so different. He appeared to be a very private person, not bound to convention or what people expected of him.

She could live with that.

Then she thought of Bella and her introverted son and realised how small her problems were in the grand scheme of things. She felt humbled and even more determined to make a go of it.