A Mother For His Child

‘I’m going to have a look at you, Matthew, to see why you’re feeling so bad,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll have to turn on the lamp here.’

He didn’t reply. He was burning up, beneath a heavy quilt, and didn’t even acknowledge her touch. She turned on the table lamp, lifted his T-shirt and found the spreading patch of rash. It was purple and blotchy, and her heart sank. Had she been too concerned with saving Kathy’s budget when she’d decided against calling an ambulance at once? This wasn’t poison ivy on top of a dose of flu.

Kathy was hovering in the background, and Maggie had to tell her, ‘I think he’s pretty sick, Kathy. He needs the hospital. I’m glad you called me early and didn’t wait this out.’

‘What is it, Dr Lawless?’

‘I’m afraid it looks like meningitis, Kathy.’

‘I’ve heard of that.’

‘There are several different types, some more dangerous than others. The meningococcal type is spread by saliva, and it’s so hard to get kids not to share drink bottles and lip salves, and that sort of thing.’

‘I’ll call the ambulance,’ Will said behind Maggie. ‘Where will I find the phone?’

‘Kitchen wall,’ Kathy answered.

‘Kathy, you’ll want to come too, won’t you?’ Maggie said.

‘Can I?’

‘Of course you can,’ She touched Kathy’s arm. It was trembling. ‘Do you want to put together a few things you might need overnight, and make sure you’ve got some cash?’

Kathy nodded, her mouth working. ‘Is he going to be OK?’

‘He’s going to get the best possible treatment, starting right now.’ It was all she could promise.

Kathy made her slow way out of the room. Maggie opened her medical bag, and then heard Will’s return.

‘You’re not going to wait for the ambulance?’ he said. ‘It’s on its way.’

‘No, I’m not waiting. I’ll put in an IV and run in as much fluid as possible. And I have some new antibiotic samples in my bag. Could you check them for me?’

‘See if any of them are worth a try?’

‘Yes.’ She racked her brains. ‘Can’t remember what’s there.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty well up on that stuff.’

‘I’m glad you’re here, Will.’ The words just slipped out. Will was probably as surprised by them as Maggie was, but he didn’t say anything.

Maggie got an IV kit out of her bag, found a good vein in the back of Matthew’s hand and swabbed the area. He stiffened and hissed as she slid in the cannula, but didn’t jerk away. Yes, it was safely in. She taped it in place and began to run in the fluid. There was nowhere to hang the IV bag.

She held it awkwardly until Will said, ‘Wait a second.’ He slipped through to the kitchen and appeared again with a wooden-backed kitchen chair.

‘Hang it on this. Ambulance should be here soon, and the hospital knows he’s coming. Can I look at those antibiotics now?’

‘Please. They’re all oral. I don’t know if it’s worth it. He needs intravenous.’

‘At this stage, let’s go with the idea that it can’t hurt.’

‘How much time did I waste by not calling the ambulance immediately?’

‘Five, maybe ten minutes. It’s not significant, Maggie. The fact that Kathy called early is the important part. If she’d waited till morning, or even another hour or two…Kids do recover from this.’

‘Some.’

‘Let’s try this. It’s broad spectrum, and pretty powerful.’ Will produced a sample packet of capsules and they managed to get Matthew to swallow one successfully.

The ambulance arrived within minutes, just as Kathy made her way back down the stairs. She put her swollen hand to her throat when she saw her son being carried out on a stretcher. Will held up the IV bag and Maggie took Kathy’s overnight bag and helped her to the vehicle.

‘I didn’t close up the house,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what I’m doing.’

‘I’ll take care of that for you, Kathy,’ Maggie soothed.

She expected Will to wait in the car, but instead found that he was following her back into the house as the ambulance pulled away, with sirens rising.

‘Better check that everything’s switched off,’ he said. ‘I’ll take a look upstairs.’

Maggie found some soup sitting in a pot on the stove. She poured it into a plastic container and put it in the fridge. Will appeared in the doorway just as she closed the door of the ancient appliance.

‘Any idea where she’d keep new batteries?’ he asked.

‘Batteries?’

‘The smoke alarm upstairs is yelping at me, which means it’s about to give out. And I bet the wiring in this place isn’t that great.’

‘No, probably not,’ she agreed. ‘Let’s try the drawers.’

Cutlery, dish towels, paper bags…Will reached the drawer next to the one Maggie was checking, and as he pulled it out she felt the brush of his arm on hers, like a streak of warm paint. He said ‘Aha!’ a moment later, flourishing the small, box-shaped nine-volt battery.

‘Oh, good.’ Maggie’s voice came out a little too high, and she stepped back out of the thick potency of his aura. Will had no idea he did this to her, thank goodness!

He added, ‘Now, I just need this chair again.’

He grabbed the stiff-backed wooden kitchen chair with one hand and carried it out of the room as if it weighed as much as a plastic coffee-mug. Maggie stood there, leaning helplessly against the sink as she listened to him, still bathed in the aftermath of that one tiny, accidental touch.

She heard his firm footfalls on the hardwood stairs, the scrape of chair legs, some clicks and snaps and rattles as he detached the smoke alarm, changed the battery and clicked it back into place. It was a job she’d done a few times herself since Mark’s death, but she always fumbled it, took three attempts to get the thing out and in again properly. She didn’t like it.

Tasks like that daunted her more than they should, given her capability in other areas. She was intelligent, but that didn’t mean she was good at practical household maintenance tasks. She was always glad that the whooping warning signal was so damned annoying, because it forced her to tackle the matter immediately. Even gladder, tonight, that someone else was here to do it. Someone male and strong and sure of what he was doing.

Will was back. He deposited the chair beside the table and said, ‘Done. Shall we go?’

‘Thanks, Will.’

He shrugged. ‘No problem.’

She wanted to push the point. Thanks for checking upstairs. Thanks for taking notice of that sound. Thanks for acting on it, when these aren’t your patients, and when a lot of people wouldn’t have bothered to make all those cognitive leaps. Dying alarm plus old wooden house plus slow-moving occupant equals unacceptable risk.