Monday morning, life went back to normal – or as normal as anything ever was, these days, without Jim or Henry there to share it. Amy started the day by waking up to the shrieking alarm, and fumbling for the light switch, only to remember that Henry wasn’t there to take for his early morning walk.
She collapsed back onto the bed, and tried to feel grateful for the extra half hour’s sleep. It wasn’t the same as having a furry companion to brighten her morning, though.
It was the last week of the school term, which meant there were carol concerts to get through, assignments due in, friendly fallings-out over presents, and what seemed like endless requests for money or food or bottles from the school. Stumbling out of the bedroom twenty minutes later, Amy tripped over Sookie on her way to the bathroom, and bit her tongue to keep from swearing. Loudly.
At least someone seemed to be making the most of the dogless house. When Henry had been at home, Sookie had gone out of her way to avoid him. Now, the cat seemed to be underfoot all the time.
‘I think she’s missing Henry,’ Claire said, bending down to pet the cat – instead of getting her coat on ready to leave for school.
‘I think she’s gloating,’ Jack answered. ‘She’s probably glad that she’s the only pet.’
‘I think it’s cold outside and she likes to be inside by the radiators,’ Amy said. ‘And we need to get going, so will you two hurry up!’
Eventually, they were ready to go, and Amy got the joy of forcing her way through traffic to drop them off at two different schools – the local secondary for Claire, and the nearby sixth form college for Jack.
The kids safely at school and college – where she hoped Jack would be staying for all his classes, for once – Amy raced to the doctors’ clinic where she worked and prepared to try and get through another day.
The only problem was, focusing on the patients she was trying to help was growing harder and harder as her first break approached.
She needed to call Jim. She knew that. She needed to tell him about Henry. And she absolutely had to do that before he arrived at the house the next evening and realised that Henry wasn’t there.
Of course, she had quite a few other things she’d like to say to Jim too, but they might have to wait until after they’d dealt with the immediate crisis.
‘Amy? Do you have a moment?’ Dr Fitzgerald appeared in her doorway, in between patients. He always looked faintly rumpled, Amy thought, in a distracted, absent-minded professor sort of way. But she’d sat in with him on meetings with a few patients, and she knew he was sharp as anything when it came to medical issues. Even better, the patients liked and trusted him. That went a long way.
‘Of course.’ Amy pushed her chair away from her desk and turned towards him. ‘What’s up, Doctor?’
‘Please, call me Luke.’ He waved a sheet of paper vaguely at her. ‘Somehow, I’ve got stuck with booking the table for the surgery Christmas dinner.’
Amy grinned. ‘Newbie privilege.’
‘And I’m sure I feel very honoured,’ Luke said, drily. ‘You’re coming though, aren’t you?’
Amy pulled a face. ‘I’m not sure …’
‘Oh, come on. Please? For me? If this dinner is a failure I’ll probably have to leave and find a new surgery, just to get over the shame. And I like it here. My flat is a five-minute walk from work and, apart from anything else, Daisy loves exploring the park across the road.’
‘Daisy’s your Dalmatian?’ Amy asked. ‘I’ve seen you walking her a few times, when I’ve taken Henry out in my lunch break. She’s gorgeous.’
‘Thank you. And Henry … he’s a corgi, right?’
‘Right.’ Amy’s smile dimmed. ‘Actually … he’s missing at the moment. We took him to London on Saturday and he ran away.’
Luke’s expression was stricken. ‘Oh, Amy! I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help? Put up posters, make calls, anything.’
‘You’re very kind.’ Amy felt tears pricking behind her eyes. It seemed like a long time since anyone had been that kind to her.
‘I just know how much it hurts to lose a pet you care about,’ he said. ‘When I got divorced … my wife kept our dog. That’s when I got Daisy. But much as I love her, it doesn’t make up for the dog I lost. So seriously, anything I can do, just ask.’
‘Thank you.’
‘And I’ll put you down for the Christmas dinner,’ Luke said, backing out of the room to let a mother with a small baby in. ‘You need something fun to look forward to!’
How could she argue with that?
Ten minutes later, Amy waved goodbye to a red-eyed baby who’d just suffered through his injections (and his teary-eyed mother who’d watched and held him). Once they were gone, Amy checked in with the reception desk to make sure she had time to take her break – and phone Jim. She tried to pretend that she wasn’t hoping for some sort of emergency or walk-in patient that meant that she didn’t have to make the call. But there was none.
With a sigh, she headed back to her desk and stared at her mobile phone.
She had to tell him. And really, what right did he have to be mad? She might have lost their dog, but he’d walked out on them all first.
In fact, she’d never have taken them all to London if Jim hadn’t left to run off with Bonnie.
Which meant that, really, this was entirely Jim’s fault. Just like everything else that seemed to be going wrong in their lives at the moment.
That thought made it a lot easier to press the right buttons to place the call.
‘Amy?’ Jim sounded just as he always had when she’d called him at work – impatient, and slightly annoyed. ‘Is this important? Only—’
‘Yes,’ she said, quickly. If they didn’t have this conversation now, it would only be worse later. ‘It’s important.’
Jim gave a heavy sigh. ‘Is it money? Or the kids? Is it—’
‘It’s Henry. He’s missing.’ Her heart clenched again as she said it out loud.
‘Amy, can’t you deal with this? I really don’t have time—’
‘And I do? I’m already looking after everything else you left behind here, remember.’
Jim was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Have you tried looking in next door’s garden? You know he loves hunting the squirrels there.’
‘We lost him in London. On Saturday.’
‘In London? What the hell did you take him to London for?’
Because I was trying to make Christmas special again. Because I’m doing it all on my own here, and that’s your fault. Because Henry deserved a day trip too – because he’s more a part of this family than you are, these days.
Amy took a deep breath, and held all those thoughts inside. ‘Does it really matter now? What matters is getting him back.’
‘Right. Right, sure. Okay.’ Jim exhaled slowly. ‘So, what have you done so far?’
Glad to be back on firmer, factual conversational ground, Amy explained all the steps she’d taken to try and find Henry – and how none of them had worked.
‘Okay, so you’ve done all the obvious stuff,’ Jim admitted. ‘That means we need to come up with something new. Something innovative.’
‘Great,’ she said evenly, trying to hold her tongue at his implication that she’d only done the basics. ‘Any ideas?’
‘Not yet.’ Jim sighed down the line. ‘How are the kids taking it?’
‘Not great,’ Amy admitted. ‘You know how much they love that dog.’
‘Yeah.’
The door to the office Amy was using opened, and Shireen from the front desk stuck her head in. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered, pulling an apologetic face as she motioned towards the phone. ‘But Lacey’s just called in sick – stomach flu, so she’ll be off a couple of days. Do you think you could stay and cover the after hours slots tomorrow night?’
Three months ago, Amy would have said, let me call my husband, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Now, working late had become a logistical nightmare – and Shireen knew it, which was probably why she was looking so guilty about having to ask. Amy sighed. She knew her friend wouldn’t have asked if she wasn’t desperate. They seemed permanently short-staffed at the surgery at the moment, and Shireen was the one who had to try and make the whole thing work.
Pretty much like Amy was stuck doing at home.
‘Tell you what,’ Jim said, unaware of Amy’s new dilemma. ‘I’m on some course that finishes early tomorrow. I’ll come round earlier than planned, get there for when Claire comes home from school, so I’m there when Jack arrives too. Maybe they’ll have some ideas, and we can work on them together.’
‘Are you sure?’ Amy asked. ‘Only, they need me to work late tomorrow night. So if you could stay with Claire until Jack gets home, at least …’
‘No problem,’ Jim said, firmly. Then, more quietly, ‘It would be really nice to spend a bit longer with Jack and Claire, actually.’
Amy smiled, a little sadly, and nodded at Shireen, who gave her a grateful thumbs up.
‘That’s great,’ Amy said. ‘So, I’ll see you tomorrow then, I guess.’
‘Yep. See you then.’
‘Bye.’ It wasn’t until she’d hung up that Amy realised she’d forgotten to warn him that his son might not be entirely happy to see him.
Oh well. He’d figure that one out for himself, soon enough.