It's A Good Day So Far: Chapter Thirty Seven: A Child Is Born

Chapter Thirty Seven

‘Kate, we’d like you to tell us what happened yesterday. You’ve nothing to worry about and I want you to know that you aren’t in any trouble. Just take your time and tell us in your own words.’

I looked at dad and he smiled at me but it was tense and worried. He gave a little nod.

My first attempt to speak came out as a croak and I had to start again. I’ve got a cut at the corner of my mouth and when I talked, it cracked open and started to bleed. I winced.

‘Look, you can see that she’s upset, do we really have to do this now?’ Dad said, and he sounded really stressy.

‘It would be helpful to us, Mr Bell. Katie has suffered a serious injury and we need to know how it happened.’ She looked at me. ‘Katie?’

‘This is ridiculous. I’ve already told you exactly what happened; I don’t see why you have to get the same story from my daughter.’ He folded his arms and looked sulky.

‘I was in my room, sitting on my bed. I was reading a book. Do you need to know what it was?’

She smiled at me, ‘No, its okay, we don’t need that much detail, just the relevant facts will do. You’re doing well. There’s nothing to be worried about. Go on.’

‘Well I was reading Water for Elephants and Mum came into my room.’ I didn’t know what to say after that and she was there, with her pen, ready to write the next thing that came out of my mouth but I couldn’t say it. I didn’t want to. ‘I, um, put my, um, book down and I must’ve got off the bed and then my Mum lost her balance and fell into me and I accidentally fell into my wardrobe and hurt my face and then I fell down on the carpet and hit my head.’

She didn’t write anything. She just looked at me, in a stern way. ‘And what was your Mother’s mood when she came into your room?’

‘Um, I dunno, really, just normal, I suppose.’

‘So she didn’t shout or say anything that you found confusing or upsetting?’

‘Um, no, I don’t think so.’ I was saying lots of ums because I didn’t know what to say and my dad was shaking his head and I couldn’t look at him. And I knew that it was bad and that they wanted me to get my Mum into trouble.

She put her pen down and just looked at me for a few seconds. ‘Katie, we know that isn’t how it happened. We’ve already had your Dad’s version and he’s told us how your Mum was hurting you. Now we want to hear it from your point of view, so let’s start again, shall we?’ I started to cry.

‘Mum didn’t hurt me, not on purpose. I fell on my wardrobe, that’s all.’

Katie, love, please just tell the ladies the truth, this isn’t helping. It’s all right, love. Everything’s going to be okay.’ Dad sounded tired.

‘Katie?’ said the woman.

I went sulky, big tears were splashing on the edge of my sheet, but I couldn’t say the truth, I just couldn’t.

‘Katie, we’re not here to do anything bad. We’re here to help you and your mum and dad. You’re a minor,’ do you understand what that means?’ I nodded. ‘Well, you were badly hurt and we have an obligation to make sure that it never happens again. We just need to talk about it and then see what we can do to help your Mum. It might be that she needs a bit more help around the house. That’s what we’re here for.’

I looked at the police lady, ‘You’re not going to put my mum in prison?’

She laughed, ‘No Katie, I promise you. Your Mum’s very poorly. We know she didn’t mean to hurt you. We just need to find ways to make you all safe?’

‘So,’ said the other woman, ‘Are you going to tell us what really happened?’

‘I fell into my wardrobe.’ There was something about her that I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her and I couldn’t betray Mum.

She sighed, ‘Has your mum ever hit you before, Katie.’

‘Oh, for Goodness sake,’ Dad said, ‘of course she hasn’t.’

I was shocked, ‘No of course not. She’s never hit me. She’s a good Mum.’

‘It’s come to light that she attacked her carer three weeks ago. Did you know about that, Katie, were you there?’ This was the first I’d heard of it.

‘No,’ I thought back three weeks. Molly had stopped coming and June was Mum’s carer now. ‘My mum would never hurt anybody. She isn’t like that.’

The social worker closed her book and stood up and the police lady copied her. ‘Katie, if you won’t tell us anything we’re just going to have to make do with what we’ve got from your dad. You’re an admirable young woman, trying to protect your Mum like that, she’d be very proud of you. I’ll be seeing you again Katie and I do hope you decide to talk to me because we only want to help you.’

They left and Dad came over and hugged me. He said that I shouldn’t lie and that I should have told them the truth, but he wasn’t mad with me. I wanted to be happy because Andy was coming but I couldn’t stop crying.

‘Katie, I’m so sorry for what happened to you. It’s all my fault. I only went to get a screwdriver out of the garage and I heard you screaming from down there. I can’t ever leave you alone with Mum for a second from now on, it’s not safe. And when the baby comes he’s going to have to be watched constantly, every minute of the day. When I went home last night I put a lock on your bedroom door, love. It can be locked from the inside or the outside and when you’re in your room I want you to keep the door locked at all times, you understand?’

‘Dad, don’t say that. You’re overreacting. It’s Mum we’re talking about not some crazy person.’ But when I said that, I remembered the look on her face when she was picking my head up and slamming it down. That wasn’t my mother that was some crazy person.

‘Darling, I hope it never happens again. Your Mum’s back to her normal self, whatever that is. She’s calm and sweet and gentle but those women are right. We can’t ever let anything like that happen again. So from now on, doors locked at all times. I’ve put a lock on the nursery, too, so that when we put Andy down for a nap we can lock him in. It’s not ideal, Kate, but I don’t know what else to do, love. I’m at my wits end here.’

The doctor came in. ‘Mr Bell, we’re ready for you now.’

‘I’m coming too,’ I screamed. The doctor was about to disagree but my dad put his hand up to stop him.

‘Please, Doctor Khan. My family has been through a lot. Please let us do this as a family. Katie needs to see my wife before she goes into surgery, and then, I’d like her to be able to wait outside the room.’

He looked unsure and then nodded.

I ran into the bathroom to get dressed. I’d already seen my face the first time I was allowed to go to the toilet the night before, so it didn’t shock me. But it was bad, really bad. I looked like a monster out of a movie. I hoped that Andy wouldn’t be frightened when he saw me.

We went into Mum’s room and she was dressed in a hospital gown and had a blue hat on her head. This was the last time that I was ever going to see her pregnant. There were two nurses and a porter in the room and Doctor Khan asked them to give us two minutes alone before they took her down to surgery.

I didn’t expect her to recognise me what with my face all bashed up, but she did. ‘Katie. My Darling,’ she gasped. ‘Oh my goodness. You’re hurt. What happened to you, love?’ She opened her arms wide for me to go to her for a cuddle. She was the one person in the world who could make it all right. I wanted to run to her and feel her arms around me, but I remembered the look on her face when she was saying those horrible things to me and spit was flying out of her mouth and all over my face and I couldn’t move.

Dad had told me not to mention her having the baby because we didn’t want to frighten her, so I couldn’t even talk about that. I didn’t say anything and I didn’t move. I just stood there trying not to cry.

‘Steve, she’s hurt. Our little girl’s hurt, who did this to her? What have the police said?’ She tried to get out of the bed to come to me but she’d had an injection to sedate her and her legs were all wobbly. Dad calmed her and put her back in. I just stood there.

‘What happened Kate? What happened to you?’ She started to cry. And then my legs were moving and I went to her and grabbed her hand and put it up to my face, but not the sorest bit.

‘It’s okay Mum, it’s not as bad as it looks. I tripped over and fell into my wardrobe, that’s all. I’m okay.’

She stopped crying and looked at me again. ‘Oh, you clumsy girl, look what you’ve done to yourself. I bet you were wearing ridiculous shoes, weren’t you? You’re really going to have to be more careful, you know.’ And then she laughed. ‘My darling, it’s a good job you’re not married. Everybody would think that your husband had beaten you with a shiner like that.’

And I got mad. I wanted to scream at her, ‘You stupid cow, you did this to me. You hurt me. Not shoes, not a husband—my mother.’ But I didn’t speak at all. I was mad because she’d done this bad thing to me and she couldn’t even remember it. And I was mad because she was clever enough to make jokes about it, but she wasn’t clever enough to remember doing it. But I just kept holding her hand and stoking it against my cheek and reassuring her that everything was all right.

And then the porter and the nurses and the doctor came back and there were people everywhere. The porter joked that he ought to get paid double for wheeling two people. And Mum was frightened.

‘What’s happening? Who are you? Where are you taking me? Steve, Steve, What’s going on?’

And we were walking down the corridor and Dad was calming Mum and telling her nice things. And then I was sitting in the middle one of three plastic orange chairs, they were fastened together. And I heard Mum’s voice, high pitched and anxious. And then it was all quiet for ten minutes. And all I could hear was the fan whirring above my head. I wished Danny was sitting on the seat beside me. I wanted to feel him holding my hand.

And then I heard the cry. It was a big cry, but broken up as though the wind was taking half of it away. My little brother sounded very angry. And then he went quiet and I was so scared in case he’d come into the world alive and had decided to die. I couldn’t hear him. And I panicked. And I felt like bursting through the doors and telling them not to let my brother die because we need him so much.

But then the door opened and my dad came out with a nurse, and he’d got this huge beam on his face and a precious bundle in his arms. And he came over to me and leaned down and put the baby in my arms and I was going to say no, because I was scared of dropping him, or hurting him, or holding him too tightly, or not supporting his little head properly.

And then I was just holding him and it was perfect.