Recovery - 18. Chapter 18

That night, Alex had a shocking telephone conversation with Frank and Bonnie. They accused him of all kinds of things, but primarily of not caring about Kei’s recovery, restricting him to second class care, and denying him the very best opportunity for getting better. He’d responded with the same anger he’d received, and eventually hung up, after making his opinion of the Princes absolutely clear.

However, after he hung up, he sat down and started thinking. Then, he rang his mother.

“Are they right, Mum? Am I being unfair to Kei? Holding back his recovery? Should I try to persuade him to go to the rehab place?”

“Well, that’s up to you, Alex. Frank and Bonnie definitely have a point. There are much better facilities at the clinic than we could ever hope to provide here.”

“That’s what I thought,” Alex said, with a sigh. “I guess I should—.”

“Before you go too far down that road, there are other things to consider. There’s more to recovery than just the facilities. More important things.”

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter what the facilities are like, Kei’s not going to make progress unless he works hard. Think carefully about what he’d feel if you tried to persuade him to go, and if he agreed.”

“I know. I have been thinking about it.”

“Have you? Have you really?”

“I don’t understand.”

“What do you think Kei would feel if you told him you thought he should go?”

“He’d be upset, maybe feel a bit betrayed.”

“That’s all?”

“Mum, just come out and say what you’re thinking.”

“Kei’s terrified his parents are going to snatch him away to some scary place where he’ll be alone, and, most importantly, without you. His only security is the promise we made that we’ll make sure he’s listened to. For one thing, it’s important to him to feel he has some control. There are a lot of things in his life at the moment he has no control over.”

“That’s true,” Alex said, frowning.

“Also, especially after yesterday, he’s feeling very vulnerable. Remember what he begged you, Alex – not to make sure he was listened to, or to talk sense to his parents, or to help him, or support him. He begged you to save him. If he thinks for one minute you’ve gone over to their side… and make no mistake that’s what he would think, he’d feel incredibly vulnerable, betrayed, even scared.”

“I… didn’t think of that.” Alex’s mind whirled off down new avenues, all of them dark. He fidgeted in his chair and rubbed his temple. But his mother hadn’t finished.

“And what if he did go? How would he feel when he was there? Lost? Abandoned? Depressed? Would he work hard? Would he want to get better? Would he believe you still loved him, and were there for him? No matter how much you reassured him, called him, visited him, would he truly believe you’d be there for him when he came out?”

“I…don’t know.”

“It’s huge credit to you that you’re thinking of what’s best for Kei, but before you make any decisions, think about it all.”

Alex sighed, then sunshine broke through the dark clouds in his head and he grinned. “I have made the decision, Mum. No matter how good that place might be for Kei, it would destroy him, destroy us and I won’t let that happen.”

“I trust you to make absolutely the right decision for both of you,” Rose said. “Hey,” she continued, her voice taking on a more businesslike tone. “It’ll be Easter soon. Have you thought about getting something nice for Kei? There’s a big feature in the chocolate shop. You can get a giant Easter egg and have a picture put on the front of it.”

“What kind of picture?”

“Anything you like. Take a photograph in and they’ll get it transferred to rice paper and paste it to the front of the egg.”

“Wow. Thanks, Mum, I’ll take a look.”

****

Over the next three days, Alex came to realise what a close call he’d had. No one had grasped at the time quite how traumatic his parents’ visit had been for Kei. Alex noticed a difference the very next day. Kei was quiet, morose, didn’t want to go to the canteen anymore. He spent most of his time dozing, and hardly spoke to anyone.

Tom was as worried as they were, and told them Kei had stopped taking an interest in anything, and spoke only when he absolutely had to. Alex did his best to draw Kei out but nothing he said or did seemed to be getting through to him.

On the third day, Alex was unsurprised to have a call from the hospital in the morning, inviting him to a meeting with the doctor. He called his mother and headed off straight away.

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t know why I asked to meet with you this morning,” the doctor said when he and Rose were seated in his office.

“Kei’s been really down lately.”

“It’s more than just down, Alex. It’s almost as if he’s given up. The stuffing’s been knocked out of him, and frankly I don’t know what to do about it. It’s got to the stage where I asked our hospital psychiatrist to speak to him. Now don’t overreact,” he said at the alarmed expression on Alex’s face. “It’s not unusual to get a psych assessment with these patients. You can imagine it’s not the most pleasant and uplifting situation to be in.”

“No, I guess not. What did the shrink say?”

“No surprised there either. Kei sinking into depression, and something needs to be done. If not, then the next step is medication and or therapy.”

“I don’t want that. Kei’s got enough to cope with.”

“But that’s the point, Alex, he’s not coping.”

“I know, but I can….”

“Alex,” Rose said, putting a hand on his arm. “You know Kei needs more help than you can give him. He’s not responding to you either.”

“But why? Why is he like this? He was fine. He was going…. It was that meeting with his parents. I could kill them for what they did.”

“It was unwise, yes and his depression certainly seems stems from there. He was obviously traumatised more than we realised. But the question is not where do we place the blame, but what do we do now to help Kei. Have you thought about what’s going to happen when he leaves hospital.”

“What…what’s going to happen? I don’t….”

“Where is he going to live?”

“With me, of course.”

“Is your house suitable? Does it have appropriate access for a wheelchair? Space on the ground floor for a bed and the equipment he needs to get in and out of bed, shower, go out? Are there steps to your front door? Are they wide enough?”

“I… I hadn’t thought.... I…. I just assumed.”

“Before Kei can be released anywhere, social services will need to make an assessment. They can help you make alterations, obtain the right equipment and all that stuff, but they can’t do anything without the raw materials, and that means a suitable house.”

“I have a suitable house,” Rose said. “We have a bungalow on our property. We rent it out as a summer home, but we’re happy to make it available for Kei.”

“Mum, you can’t do that. You rely on the income from that house.”

“Not really. It pays for holidays and extras we can do without. You and Kei are more important. Before we bought the house, it was occupied by an old couple. They went on from there to a residential home. It’s got wide doors and ramps and all kinds of things. Occasionally we rent to someone in a wheelchair because of that.”

“Mum…. I can’t….”

“Alex, you can’t deny this is the ideal solution. You and Kei will be able to live there together. You can have privacy, but be close enough that either your father or I can come down whenever we’re needed to help, and we’ll be at hand if anything goes wrong.”

“But… but you’ve never…. Why haven’t you mentioned this before, given me time to think about it?”

“Because I only thought about it myself a couple of days ago, when we had a query about renting the house. I spoke to your father about it and he agrees. You know what he’s like, he loves a challenge, and he’s happy to make whatever changes that need to be made. He’s a carpenter,” she qualified to the doctor. “He’ll happy as Larry.”

“That sounds ideal,” the doctor said, surprised but pleased. “I’ll make arrangements for a social worker to come out and make an assessment as soon as possible, today if I can.”

“Today? What…? Are you talking about letting Kei out?”

“It’s not a prison, Alex,” the doctor said with a smile,” and it’s going to take some time for things to be put in place, but I’m beginning to think that the sooner we get Kei out of here, the sooner he’s going to start bouncing back.”

“That would be wonderful, amazing. I’m sure that if he’s home, somewhere he can feel at home, feel safe… We can not tell his parents where he is. He’d feel so much better. When can we do it? When can I tell him?”

“Slow down, Alex. Like I said it’s going to take time to make the arrangements.”

“But if he knows….”

“I have another suggestion,” Rose said quietly. “Now don’t get angry with me, Alex,” she said and his stomach clenched.

“Why? What?”

“I’ve been looking into some facilities… much closer to where we live.”

“No. He won’t go for that. I know he won’t. You were the one who made me realise that.”

“I know. He won’t go for a rehab centre, but there is one place, I’ve been looking at. It’s a spa that deals exclusively with people like Kai, who have difficulties walking. They won’t do anything with his speech, but they will help with his balance problems. They have a pool where he can swim every day, and strengthen his leg muscles. They do massage and all kinds of alternative therapies.”

“But…”

“It’s less than an hour away from home, and it’s not too expensive. We can afford a couple of weeks. You can go there while the arrangements are being made, if that’s okay with you.” She deferred to the doctor.

“I’d have to look into it but, yes we might be able to work with that.”

“And I could go with him? I could stay there with him?”

“Yes.”

“How soon?”

“It depends on when the facility has a place available, and how soon arrangements can be made.”

“But it could be soon, really soon? I mean days?”

“Yes, yes it could be.”

“Can I tell Kei.”

“Let’s wait a little while and see what we can arrange first. I wouldn’t want to raise his hopes.”

“Alright.” Alex felt slightly crushed. As exciting as it all felt, the fact he couldn’t tell Kei and ease that dull pain in his eyes, soured the whole thing for him. He couldn’t believe it was real, couldn’t have faith, not yet.

It was hard to walk away from the hospital. Alex wanted desperately to see Kei, but he was in speech therapy and not available. Rose dropped him off then hurried away to make plans. Alex didn’t know why she couldn’t make plans with him, and was quite sulky about it.

The three hours before he was able to go back to the hospital were the longest of his life. He couldn’t settle to anything, and was worried to hell about Kei. What would happen to him if this plan didn’t come off? Or if it didn’t work? What if they went to the spar and brought him home and he was still depressed? Would he have to go on anti-depressants? Would they work fast enough to let him make progress or would the time lost be too much to make up? Would he ruin his whole life because of those evil monsters?

Alex was sorely tempted to call Kei’s parents, to tell them what harm they’d done, but his desire to never see or speak to them again won over his desire for revenge, and he kept silent. Surprisingly, Rose wasn’t there when he got to the hospital, and neither was she answering her phone. Alex was a little surprised, as she’d always been there before. He shrugged it off. Knowing his mother, now the opportunity had arisen, she would be plotting and making all kinds of plans.

He thought about effectively going back to live with his parents, and realised it wasn’t a bad option at all. When he first left for university, he couldn’t wait to get out of there. The sleepy country town had seemed so small and claustrophobic. He’d craved the life and excitement of the big city.

Having spent almost a year there, he was more than happy to go home, especially as he was taking the best part of the outside world back with him.

Kei was asleep when he arrived on the ward. There seemed to be a lot of activity around the next bed and Alex was surprised to see Tom up and dressed. He looked good in jeans and a tshirt, a lot younger and more relaxed.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m being sprung,” Tom said with a grin. “Just waiting for my wife, and I’m out of here.”

“That’s great news. I’ll miss you, though. So will Kei.”

Tom frowned. “That’s what I’m worried about. I’ve had a word with Nick, and he’s going to keep an eye on him, as best he can.” He nodded to the bed next to his, which was occupied by an exhaustingly optimistic young man, whose red head bounced up and down in agreement.

“I’ll take care of him, Alex. I promise.”

“Thanks Nick.”

Tom dropped his voice. “Not sure if he’s going to make him better or worse, and, in fact, what I had a word with him about wasn’t helping, but not helping, if you see what I mean.”

Alex had to stifle a snort. “I see exactly what you mean.”

“But I think Bill will take over from me as Kei’s guardian angel. He can even get out of bed now.”

Alex smiled and shook Tom’s hand. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.”

“I hope we’ll keep in touch,” he said.

“For sure.”

Alex looked up when Tom’s wife arrived. She was dressed in jeans, with her hair swinging behind her in a ponytail. It was hard to remember the tight corporate clone who had clacked into the ward the first time he’d seen her.

“Hey, baby. Ready to blow this joint?”

“Oh, I’m ready baby. I’m so ready. Can’t wait to get home.” A look passed between them that made Alex blush. It was even hotter than those he shared with Kei. Being married seemed to have a lot going for it.”

“How’s Kei today?” Tom’s wife said softly, glancing at Kei.

“I don’t know. He’s been asleep since I got here,” Alex said sadly.

“Not too good,” Tom said regretfully. “He came back from therapy today in a foul mood. It’s the first time I’ve heard him raise his voice. I think he must have been in pain, because he was hitting out at everything, until he fell asleep. He hasn’t eaten a thing. His dinner ended up on the floor.”

“Oh no. He gets like that sometimes. It just comes from nowhere and it wears him out. The doctor said it was part of the brain injury. It might keep on happening forever.”

“Lucky you. Take me over, darling. I need to say goodbye.” Tom’s wife pushed his chair over to the side of Kei’s bed. “Hey kid,” Tom said, shaking Kei’s shoulder gently.

Kei murmured and stirred. Slowly his eyes flickered and opened over tired looking eyes. “Tom?” he said, then blinked them wider. “What…?”

“I’m going home, mate. I tried to tell you earlier but you were… not up to it.”

“Home? No, I….” Kei bit his lips and made himself smile. “I’m…glad. Good. You go home.”

Even though he smiled, it looked as if somewhere deep inside he’d died a little more. Alex pushed in beside the chair and smiled at him. “I’m here, babe. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be here.”

Kei’s smile became real for a moment. “Yes, Alex,” he said tenderly. “Always there.”

“Always. For ever and ever and ever.”

Kei nodded, looking brighter.

“Well, I’m off. You two better keep in touch. Once we’re both settled we’ll have to meet up for dinner. My wife is an excellent cook.”

“So…Alex.” Kei said, proudly. “Real…good…cook. Me…?” he shrugged. “Nope.”

“Hey babe, you have your talents. It’s not everyone who can burn a boiled egg.”

“Burned it?” Tom’s wife asked, a surprised expression lifting her eyebrows.

“Got writing, forgot he’d put it on, and burned a hole right through the bottom of the saucepan.”

“Oh goodness. You don’t sound safe to leave on your own.” They all smiled. “Tom’s like that. He once put a pizza in the oven and forgot to take it out of the plastic tray it came in. It melted all over the oven.”

“Woman, don’t you give away my secrets like that,” Tom said, trying not to laugh.

“It was weeks before we completely got the smell of burning plastic out of the kitchen.”

After hugging Alex and Kai, Tom allowed himself to be wheeled away, leaving Alex feeling lost and slightly panicky. He hadn’t realises how much he’d come to rely on Tom, keeping an eye on Kei, reporting back on how he really was.

“He’s gone.” Kei said with a trembling lip.

“Hey, you’re talking as if he’s your only friend in the world. That’s not true, and you’ll be out of here yourself soon.”

Kei looked crushed. “No. Long time.”

“It will only seem like a long time, hun. You’ll be surprised how soon you’ll be out the door like Tom.”

Kei shook his head. “I…. No. They…they say lots I do have I.” He sighed heavily. “I’ll be…long… A. Long. Time. Too long.”

“It won’t be. I promise. I’ll spring you as soon as I possibly can. You do realise don’t you that the harder you work the sooner you get out.”

“I know.” Kei sighed.

“But you’re not working hard, Kei. Everyone’s worried about you because….”

“What the… the…. What. The. Fuck. Do… do you… know?”

“What?”

“What know you how work I am hard? HarKei beat his hand away.

“No. Not know. Not you know. Not nothing you know. Not here. Not…have you be do know I hard.” He almost screamed with frustration. “Dammit. Can’t speak. Not know.”

“No, no I don’t know. I can’t know. I’m sorry, Kei. I wasn’t suggesting it’s not hard, or that you’re not working hard. It’s just….”

“What?” Kei snapped.

“You’ve just seemed to have lost your heart. You’re so… down. So…. The doctor said everyone’s worried.”

“Really?”

“Really. You have no idea how many people care about you.”

“Not true.”

“Yes, true. For a start I’ve had Maria on the phone every day. She’s going crazy because she can’t come down and see you. She’s hoping to come on the weekend with Jace. She won’t believe how much better you are.”

“Not better,” Kei growled. “Not ever better.”

“You think you’re not better? Kei, a week ago you couldn’t lift your arms. You could barely sit up without feeling sick. Now you’ve pretty much got the strength back in your arms and hands, you can sit up as long as you want, and it’s getting easier all the time to get you into the chair.”

“Hmm.”

Kei looked as if he was calming down a little, and Alex risked running his hand over Kei’s hair and exposed shoulder. “You are better and you’re getting even more better every day.”

“Bad… grammar,” Kei said

“What?”

“You words. Bad grammar.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Even. More. Better. That’s bad…grammar.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realise you were still a member of the grammar police.”

“Always.”

“Typical. You’ve lost all kinds of things, but you have to retain the ability to pick up on other people’s mistakes, and…. Oh. Oh, wow. I didn’t…. I just….”

“What?”

“Books. You can’t read them but you can listen to them. It never occurred to me. You can listen to any book you want, even your own. Paul was talking about this programme the other day. It converts word documents into speech. It will read to you whatever you write. You can listen to anything you’ve ever written, and any other book too. You can read again.”

Kei brightened. “I knew. Forgot but…knew. Get me. Laptop mine will can do.”

“Calm down. It’s not that exciting. Think about the words before you say them.”

“I know. I know,” Kei said crossly. “Excited. Yes. Get it.”

“What did your last slave die of?” Alex said, laughing as he reached for the laptop on the table beside the bed.

“Not listen…to…me.”

“Oh, very funny.” But it was. It was funny, and exciting, and just plain wonderful to see Kei smile.

They were listening to a book together when Rose appeared. “Oh hello, I was wondering where you’d got to.”

Rose smiled. “Ah well, I had some things to take care of. How are you today Kei dear? I must say you’re looking better.”

“Alex had such idea good. Books. Book talk…to me. Still read I can.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. I don’t know why no one thought of it before. Well, you keep listening Kei, I have to have a quick word with Alex. We won’t be long.”

Both Alex and Kei looked suspicious. “Why do I need to go somewhere? Can’t you say what you want to say here?”

“No. I need to speak to you outside.”

“What’s wrong?” Kei looked frightened and Rose smiled at him.

“There’s nothing wrong, dear. It’s just… I have some news and I want Alex to be the one to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Tell him what?” the boys said in unison.

Rose shook her head and smiled. “Alright,” she said. “I admit defeat.” She sat down and took Kei’s hand. “I don’t want you to get too excited now, okay, but I’ve been talking to some people and so has your doctor. The social worker has been out to look at our house, and there’s not too much needs doing to make it suitable for you.”

“What? What means that?”

“It means,” Alex said excitedly. “You’re going to be out of here soon, and you’re going to be living with my mum… well that little house in the garden.”

“Living? Your mum? Not you?” Kei’s lip trembled, and he looked on the way to becoming distraught again.

“Of course me, silly. But you can’t come back to my flat, can you? It has all those stairs, and narrow doors and stuff. It’s going to be all set up at the bungalow for you… for us. We can stay there as long as you need to.”

“Stay? You and me? Together?”

“You and me together, babe. Forever.”

Kei lit up like a candle. He squeezed Rose’s hand, and looked as if he wanted to bounce up and down on the bed.

“It’s going to take about a week or so to get everything in place, and then you move in.”

“A…week?” The excitement drained out of Kei like the air from a balloon. “A… whole…week?”

“It it really that long?” Alex asked. “At least you’ll know when you’re coming out and we make plans and—“

“No, Kei. You don’t have to stay here a week. I’ve been looking at a spa that caters for people with needs like yours. I’ve been in touch with them, and they’ve spoken to your doctor. They have a place and they can move you there whenever we like. Your doctor wants to carry out some assessments and check up on a few things, but you might be out of here tomorrow.”

Kei had gone very still. He looked from Alex to Rose, and he didn’t seem happy at all.

“What’s wrong?”Alex asked, almost bursting with excitement. “Didn’t you hear what she said? You might be out of here tomorrow.”

“Go where?”

“Oh Kei,” Rose said. “This is nothing like the place your parents wanted you to go. For one thing, Alex will be with you. It’s a spa. People go there on holiday, but they have a specialist staff. They have a pool and hydro-therapists, and masseurs, aroma-therapists — all kinds of alternative therapies. It’s near a beach, so Alex will be able to take you to see the sea. I haven’t been there, but it looks like such a wonderful place.”

“Alex?” Kei asked carefully. “Alex can come? For sure?”

“Give me your laptop,” Rose said. She tapped away furiously for a minute or so, then handed it back to Kei. He and Alex stared at the screen, and started flicking through some of the pages, pointing things out to each other.

“Really?” Kei said at last. “Really here? Me? And Alex? Tomorrow?”

“Maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Very soon.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Woah, there is one condition.”

“What? Anything?”

“You have to work hard. You’re going to have lots of assessments and if you don’t pass them you can’t go.”

“What kind?” Kei frowned.

“I don’t know. All the same kinds of things you’ve been doing, I would imagine. The important thing is that they’ve been worrying about you because you’ve been so down and not trying. If you try hard at everything they tell you to tomorrow then you’re free and clear.”

“Yes. I will. Yes.”

“You’re going to have to keep coming back though, you know that right? Not this hospital, but one close to us. You’ll probably have to go in every day to carry on the therapy, and you’ll have exercises to do at home.”

“Yes,” he said, more soberly. “I understand. I will.”

“Good. Well, who’s up for ice cream?”