The Faerie Tree (9 page)

Megan never knew how close she came to the truth when she accused me of being away with the fairies but she gave me the opening I was looking for.

I put down the pile of shirts I was carrying and took hold of her hands. “I'm sorry. I'm so worried about what's happened back home – I'm going to have to see for myself.”

She nodded. “That's understandable. When are you thinking of leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

She never asked if I would be coming back, and I never told her that I wouldn't. The weather was awful so she lent me some waterproofs from the shop. I felt bad about those for a long while, until someone made me understand that perhaps Megan knew, after all, that they were a parting gift.

Izzie

Chapter Nineteen

On Boxing Day morning Claire and her friend Sasha want to go to Winchester for the sales. Early. Very early. I buy them breakfast at Nero's then leave them to shiver in the queue outside Next. Thick tights or not, their skirts seem impossibly tiny for this time of year. What are they thinking? Perhaps I'd rather not know. I escape down a side street towards the cathedral.

Inside the world is muffled. A few worshippers thread their way through the unmanned pay stations to morning prayer, but I'm not here to join them. Instead I study the parish notice board and amongst the posters for carol services and Christmas appeals I strike gold – the Winchester Churches Nightshelter is not far away in Jewry Street. I fight my way back through the bargain-hunters but once I am outside the red brick building I hesitate. What will I say if I find him?

I need not have worried. There is hardly anyone around, but the volunteer who answers the door tells me she worked a fair bit in the run up to Christmas and has never seen Robin, or anyone vaguely fitting his description. She suggests I try Hyde Street Hostel instead.

Hyde Street has the air of being a little more open. A man in
overalls is painting the inside porch and just beyond him is a window with the word ‘reception' etched onto the glass. The woman sitting on the other side slides it across when she sees me.

“Can I help you?” she asks, in a surprisingly posh accent.

“I'm looking for someone who might be staying here. He's called Robin Vail. Very tall man, straggly hair and a beard.”

“I'm sorry – we can't divulge details of our residents.” She folds her arms over her cashmere jumper.

“Why ever not?”

“They have a right to privacy,” the woman snaps.

“But he is one of your residents then?”

“I didn't say that.”

“You implied it.”

She draws in a sharp breath. “I was speaking hypothetically.”

But I know she wasn't. “Can you at least pass on a message?”

“I told you, I was speaking hypothetically.” She spells the word out as though I am too stupid to understand it.

“Oh for god's sake; I'm his oldest friend and I want to help him.”

The woman slams the glass shut in my face and I explode. “You miserable old cow! Get off your high horse and think about people's feelings for a change.”

I turn on my heel and march towards the door. The man in overalls leaps up to open it and I thank him.

“Try the hospital,” he whispers. “I heard he was taken there.”

I watch the car exhaust plume behind a Mini waiting at the lights. Robin is ill. What sort of ill? I waver, but perhaps he needs someone even more. I don't walk straight to the Royal Hampshire; I go back to Caffé Nero, treat myself to a caramel latte and phone them on my mobile to ask which ward Robin is on. Shawford; visiting three ‘til eight. Easy.

Claire casts the die when she texts. She and Sasha have bumped into a friend from college and they want to go to her house for the afternoon. I offer to pick them up at five. So I'll have to come back to Winchester anyway.

I go home. I have lunch. I wonder what to wear. In the end I decide not to change in case Claire notices. I don't want to tell her about my search for Robin in case it all goes pear-shaped. I have a horrible feeling it will, but the last few days have made me realise that the way I behaved years ago is at least in part responsible for Robin's predicament. I have to see if there is anything I can do to put that right.

The thought keeps me going all the way to the hospital and all the way to the ward. The Christmas tree on the reception desk winks at me as I wait for a nurse to pass. I ask her where I can find Robin. If she is surprised he has a visitor she doesn't show it and I traipse after her almost to the end of the largest room on the ward.

There are green curtains with a horrible zigzag pattern around the bed and she peeps inside, before pulling them part way back.

“Someone to see you, Robin love,” she says.

He is propped up on a mound of pillows and holding an oxygen mask over his face. His eyes flicker with surprise. He closes them.

“Would you rather I came another time?”

He pulls the mask away to speak and there is a ghost of a smile. “I thought I was hallucinating – I'm pumped so full of drugs I might be.”

“And we're going to keep pumping them into you until you can breathe properly again, so you might as well lump it.” The nurse laughs as she pulls the curtain back around us and it makes me feel more comfortable.

I perch on the chair next to the bed.

“So, how are you?”

“Better than I was. Chest infection coupled with hypothermia. They've only just stopped checking to see if any of my toes have dropped off.”

He is making a joke of it but my eyes fill with tears. This is so rubbish – I have to be strong.

“Thank you for coming, Izzie,” he wheezes. “I meant what I said about hallucinating – I really thought I was.”

“I wasn't sure you recognised me at the Buttercross.” The plastic digs into my fingers as I grip the edge of my seat.

“Soon as you walked into me – you haven't changed that much.”

“It's twenty years…” I venture.

“I know. What have you been doing all that time? You have a daughter? A husband?”

“I have a wonderful daughter, Claire, but her father died at the beginning of September.”

“Oh, Izzie – that must have been tough.”

“Well we're through the worst of it now… first Christmas and that. You'd know.” I bite my lip; should I have said it?

“First Christmas, first birthday, first anniversary – but you move beyond it, Izzie, really you do.”

Robin's speech is becoming more laboured and he reaches for the oxygen mask.

“Am I tiring you?” I ask.

“A bit – but I haven't had a visitor before. Makes me reluctant to let you go.”

He is speaking between gulps of oxygen. I want to touch his hand but the drip is in the way. “I'll come back – tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He nods, and with the mask over his face, closes his eyes. I slip through the curtain and almost collide with a metal trolley stacked with cups. Apologising to the woman pushing it, I hurry away.

Chapter Twenty

Claire is so full of her day she doesn't ask about mine and I'm glad. It's not that I want to hide Robin from her, exactly; it's just hard to come to terms with them colliding on the same page of my life.

I need to see Robin again before I come clean with Claire but I don't know how to lie to her. I toss and turn most of the night, but I am saved when over breakfast she asks, somewhat tentatively, if I'd mind her going over to Sasha's for tea and maybe even to sleep over if I won't get too lonely. I don't know why she worries but I assure her I'll be fine and as it's a nice, crisp day, suggest we go for a walk in the New Forest and have a pub lunch together. It'll be time for us away from this memory-ridden house – I can't quite square the Robin thing with Connor's ghost either.

If anything I am even more nervous about my second visit to the hospital. After dropping Claire at Sasha's I go home and this time I do get changed and put on a bit of makeup. Nothing dramatic; a nice embroidered T-shirt and cardigan over my jeans, with just a touch of mascara and lip gloss. I feel I should take Robin something but I don't know what. I don't know what he likes to eat these days, whether he reads, if there's anything he needs. In the end I opt for a chocolate orange – pretty safe ground at Christmas.

It is past seven o'clock when I reach the hospital. This time I find Robin's bed without assistance but he doesn't raise his head from the local free-sheet folded on his lap until I speak.

“Hello, Robin – how are you today?”

In truth he seems better, but mainly because his beard is tidier and now that his hair has been washed I can see it hasn't lost its chestnut sheen.

“Izzie – it is you. I didn't look because every time I have it's been someone else.”

Something catches in my throat – has he really been waiting for me to come since three? “I had to drop Claire off at one of her friend's first,” I explain.

He smiles. “Oh, no, I'm not saying you're late – I just thought you'd changed your mind.”

“Not at all.” I move the plastic chair closer to him and sit down.

“Well a lot of people would have – it's not everyone who spends Christmas visiting a tramp in hospital.”

“I'm not visiting a tramp – I'm visiting a…” I pause, groping for the right words, “an old friend.”

He shakes his head. “It's been such a long time.”

“Too long?”

“Well we can find out, can't we? Or we can start again from scratch.” A pillow slides towards me as he eases himself up the bed.

“What – like we know nothing at all about each other? Like nothing ever… happened?” As I wait for his reply, to my shame I know which option I'd prefer. And Robin chooses it.

“It's very nice of you to visit me, strange lady, but who are you?”

“Who…?”

“Name, rank, number… life story…” He says it as though he's playing a game, but at the same time he is pulling his mask towards him.

“OK,” I say. “I'll talk – you listen. And try to stay awake.” As he takes a draught of oxygen he raises his eyebrows. Whoever he is – I like this man.

“My name is Isobel O'Briain and I'm forty-four years old. I live in Bishop's Waltham with my wonderful daughter Claire. She's almost seventeen and she's studying for her As at Peter Symonds. I'm a teacher myself; I work at Fareham College – everything from adult numeracy to A-level maths.

“I did a degree in pure mathematics at Bristol University then I moved to Southampton and worked selling office supplies for a while. Then I got on a teacher training course but I'd only been working for a year when I had Claire. We didn't have much money so I went back as soon as I could but Connor – her father – was a musician so he worked irregular hours and between us and the crèche at the school it was fine.

“We moved to Bishop's Waltham when she was eight and we've been in the house ever since. It's a nice house, and we had a nice car and nice holidays…” I find my voice cracking; oh god, why do I have to be so fucking weak?

Robin takes the oxygen mask away from his face. “I'm sorry, Izzie – I didn't mean it to hurt. It was thoughtless of me – it must all be so raw.”

I try to stop my voice from shaking as I say, “Well you'd know.”

“Yes, and I also know the pain doesn't go on forever. You have to believe that – hold onto it. It took me too long to find out for myself.”

I bow my head. If only I'd understood back then.

“Come on,” Robin wheezes, “let's think about something else. I couldn't finish the crossword in the paper – can you help me?”

The rest of the hour passes quickly. I leave Robin with his chocolate orange and promise I'll be back the next day.

Chapter Twenty-One

This Robin thing has just got so very hard. Instead of coming home from Winchester on the motorway I take the country road instead. As I pull into a lay-by dusk is descending over the furrowed fields, the last of the pigeons mere shadows going home to roost.

At least I told Claire. Sasha's mother dropped her home just as I was finishing my second cup of coffee and trying to come to terms with the thought of breakfast. She breezed into the kitchen and gave me a big kiss before her eyes locked onto the wine bottle on the table. It was three quarters empty.

“Oh, Mum,” she said, “I hate thinking of you sitting here on your own all evening.”

“Don't be silly. I had a couple of glasses on Boxing Day and there's a couple left for tonight. And anyway – I wasn't here all evening; I went out.”

She gaped at me. “Where?”

“Remember that tramp we saw before Christmas, the one I knew from years back? Well you were right, Claire – I did want to know what happened to him. And he's in hospital.”

She leant back against the work surface, biting her bottom lip as she processed the information.

“How did you find out?” she asked after a few moments.

“It wasn't that hard. I just contacted a few of the hostels in Winchester and someone told me he'd been taken ill.”

“What's wrong with him?”

“Pneumonia and hypothermia. He told me they've only just stopped checking none of his toes have fallen off.” I laughed, encouraging her to do the same.

“He's got a sense of humour, then?”

“Claire; Robin is an articulate, intelligent man.” I stood up and opened the bread bin. Time for some toast.

“Then why is he on the streets?”

“I don't know.”

“Didn't you ask him?”

I looked up from cutting a thin, thin slice. “He's on oxygen most of the time – it's hard for him to talk. I didn't stay long. But I'm going again – there's no-one else to visit him.”

“Oh, Mum – you are lovely – there's not many people who'd spend their Christmas visiting a tramp.” It's more or less exactly what Robin said.