After the meeting with the consultant, Daniel and his aunt went back to see his father. When they opened the door, it was like cracking off the top of a bottle as the ventilator hissed. It was only the second time his aunt had been in his father’s room and Daniel could sense her discomfort. They sat down in the plastic chairs either side of the bed and Daniel watched her looking around the room, not seeming to see his father at all until she folded her arms and dropped her chin on to her chest like a tiny bird getting ready to roost.
‘Daniel,’ she said in a whisper. ‘Your father and I haven’t spoken in a very long time, at least not what people would call a normal conversation.’
‘Dad? I’m here with Aunt Jane. She’s staying at home, looking after me. She’s here now with me.’ He stopped to see if his aunt might say something, but she didn’t. And then he took hold of his father’s hand. ‘I’m not sure how long she’s going to be staying or whether you even approve, but she’s helping to keep things ticking over till you wake up. It’s the summer holidays now. I don’t know if you remember that or whether the part of you that cares is even listening.’ He sat forward in the chair. ‘Because it’s only the machines that tell us you’re still up and running. But we’re here just in case you can hear. In case it makes a difference to you. And because it must be fucking boring lying there.’
There was a little cough from his aunt. Something disapproving muttered into a cupped hand.
But Daniel kept staring at his dad, waiting for a smile, until he gave up and looked at his aunt, his eyes fixed on her until she cleared her throat and leant forward in her chair.
‘Hello, David, Jane calling.’ She smoothed her hands down the trousers of her suit. ‘David, I’ve come to stay like Daniel said. I’m looking after him so there’s no need to worry. You just work on getting yourself better. I’m sleeping in the spare room. Which is nice. The bed’s fine. Springy.’
‘Tell him how you’re feeling,’ Daniel urged.
She folded her arms and leant back in the plastic chair. She smiled as if remembering some past remark. ‘Oh, your father won’t care about that.’
‘But I do,’ said Daniel, and he perched further forward on his chair.
‘Well.’ She paused. ‘Well, I feel sad. Your accident was a terrible thing—’
‘Tell him you’ve come to say sorry,’ hissed Daniel. ‘That you’re putting an end to whatever went bad between you.’
Her eyes shone as if she had been slapped. ‘Daniel, it’s more complicated than you think.’
‘Then tell me what happened and I’ll tell you what to say.’
She rubbed at a spot on the moulded plastic arm of the chair. ‘No. It’s between me and your father.’
‘But it might help. He might hear. It might do something.’
‘I’m sorry. But I’m not able to do what you want.’
‘You don’t want him to get better.’
‘Of course I do, Daniel, but—’
‘But what?’
‘But however much you want him to wake up there’s nothing you or I can do to make that happen. We’re just going to have to wait. Daniel, you need to accept how things are. I know it’s hard. That none of it makes sense.’
When she reached out, Daniel thought she might touch his father’s arm. But her hand stopped short and landed on the bedspread and smoothed out the wrinkles that had gathered there.
‘He can’t just be lying there with nothing going on,’ said Daniel. ‘Where’s the rest of him? Where’s Dad?’
But his aunt shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Daniel, really I don’t.’