‘And—the patients?’
‘All okay.’ Then Harrie frowned. ‘All okay, except Mrs K.’
‘Oh.’
‘She—she went during the power cut.’
‘But—I thought she’d been given a few days more.’
Harrie screwed up her nose. ‘Those predictions—they’re never really certain, are they?’
‘No, I suppose not.’ Mary picked up her card and turned to go.
‘Oh and Mary—’ Harrie clearly had one more piece of good news for her.
Mary turned back.
‘The hall’s been flooded, so—
Mary finished her sentence: ‘—so today’s commemoration ceremony has been cancelled.’ Harrie nodded.
‘I came in specially for that!’ said Mary. ‘Some of my old clients were going.’
‘I don’t think they’d have come in, anyway. But so many of the girls are away: I’m sure there’ll be things for you to do.’
‘Spose so.’
Mary felt oddly deflated. Her water-borne adventure, all for nothing. She should’ve stayed at home. Would Em be okay? She headed for the canteen, which seemed more crowded than usual. Looking round, Mary realised that most of the people there had stayed overnight and were having breakfast. There was Ayesha, who shared her office, tucking into what looked like a full English.
Mary got a coffee and walked to Ayesha.
‘Hi Ayesha! I had one hell of a journey into work.’
‘Yeah?’ Ayesha continued eating.
‘Yes, the road had turned into a raging river.’ Mary sat down opposite Ayesha, disappointed that she showed no interest in her saga. ‘But look at you: full English!’
‘I stayed overnight—slept badly. That power-cut and all the trouble afterwards woke me up.’
‘Harrie said that Bob couldn’t get the generator to work.’
Ayesha put her knife and fork down. ‘It was chaos, absolute chaos. People running about, up and down the corridors, shouting, flashing torches and lights from their phones… And when the power came back, alarms went off, lights were flickering, monitors beeping… No one could sleep through all that. I stayed awake for hours.’
‘And so—the full English…’
‘Yeah, I need all the carbohydrates I can get.’
Ayesha started on her second slice of toast.
‘I heard about Mrs K,’ said Mary. ‘That—that wasn’t because of the power-cut, was it?’
Ayesha stared at her. ‘Of course not. A saline drip doesn’t need electricity.’
‘But the consultant said—she had a few more days…’
‘They can’t be certain, can they?’ Ayesha spread more butter on her toast. ‘Whatever happened, she wasn’t wired up to anything vital. It wasn’t the power-cut that did for her.’