uni.’
‘ If she can find one that’ll take her.’
‘I’m sure there’ll be no problem. Loads of kids go travelling before going to university.’
‘Only if it’s a proper, planned gap year and the offer of a place has simply been deferred. Her grades were too appalling for her first-choice university. I was the one phoning Clearing, but she turned her nose up at anywhere else.’
‘She could do retakes.’
‘Don’t you think we suggested that?’ Fran looked skyward and shook her head. The complex emotions of love, anger, and anxiety swelled in her throat.
‘Why Thailand?’ Dory asked quickly, as if sensing her welling emotions. Fran cleared her throat and reached for her glass of wine.
‘Kim and Flora had already arranged the trip and Mel just tagged along, using Mum’s inheritance money.’ She gave her sister a wobbly smile. ‘Honestly! I am still so cross with her.’ Fran cleared her throat.
‘What does Peter say?’
‘You know Peter, anything for a quiet life. As long as no one’s making a fuss he’s happy to go with the flow. Let’s change the subject; you didn’t find the lesson too exhausting?’
‘I’m fine. Doing art may be a novel experience and it’s definitely going to be a challenge, but maybe that’s what I need.’
‘I’m glad you got something out of it. You seem … you look so much better.’
It was true. Dory’s hair, which she’d had cut short when she’d started to lose it, had thickened and was glossy. Even the silver threads gave the blonde a rather attractive ash tone. Her hazel eyes, which had been suffused with a weary disengagement, as if everything was too much trouble, were now bright and interested. Her complexion was still pale but now that her weight had decreased, her face had lost its puffiness. She was even wearing a bit of make-up.
‘What was wrong with me last time we saw one another?’ asked Dory.
‘I’m not talking about last week. I mean last year, Mum’s funeral.’
‘I’d not long been diagnosed. I’m back to normal now, though I sometimes wonder if an element of the problem was mental. You know … mind, body, spirit? I just wasn’t happy.’
Was that a dig? ‘But I didn’t know the unhappy bit, did I? You didn’t tell me you weren’t being looked after.’
‘Malcolm wasn’t a monster, he did look after me. We just didn’t notice we’d fallen out of love with one another till I became unwell. I resented it then but now I feel almost sorry for him. It must be hard to find yourself in the role of carer for someone you’ve no affection for.’
‘But that’s just the point … he didn’t care for you. He’s a doctor, for God’s sake. But he carried on working, running the clinic, leaving you to fend for yourself.’
‘I wasn’t at death’s door. As far as he could tell it was either psychosomatic …’
‘He thought you were making it up?’
‘No. Well, perhaps he wondered if I was exaggerating, or being a bit of a hypochondriac, or I was suffering from one of those ME-type things, in which case there was nothing he could do. The only mainstream advice offered for ME sufferers is rest. There are plenty of alternative self-help therapies on the internet but of course they did sod all, as Malcolm predicted, and just made me feel more of a failure. It would have driven me nuts to have him fussing round me all the time. I wasn’t confined to bed. I didn’t need my pillows plumped. The clinic was our livelihood. It would’ve done neither of us any good if he’d allowed the business to run into the ground to give me gold-star nursing care.’
‘But he should’ve got another opinion, sent you off for tests. He was negligent, Dory, there’s no two ways around it.’ Fran was frustrated and puzzled by her sister’s attitude. The man had not only failed to diagnose her condition, but had seemed to lose all interest in her just because she was ill. And, to add insult to injury, had started an affair with a
‘ If she can find one that’ll take her.’
‘I’m sure there’ll be no problem. Loads of kids go travelling before going to university.’
‘Only if it’s a proper, planned gap year and the offer of a place has simply been deferred. Her grades were too appalling for her first-choice university. I was the one phoning Clearing, but she turned her nose up at anywhere else.’
‘She could do retakes.’
‘Don’t you think we suggested that?’ Fran looked skyward and shook her head. The complex emotions of love, anger, and anxiety swelled in her throat.
‘Why Thailand?’ Dory asked quickly, as if sensing her welling emotions. Fran cleared her throat and reached for her glass of wine.
‘Kim and Flora had already arranged the trip and Mel just tagged along, using Mum’s inheritance money.’ She gave her sister a wobbly smile. ‘Honestly! I am still so cross with her.’ Fran cleared her throat.
‘What does Peter say?’
‘You know Peter, anything for a quiet life. As long as no one’s making a fuss he’s happy to go with the flow. Let’s change the subject; you didn’t find the lesson too exhausting?’
‘I’m fine. Doing art may be a novel experience and it’s definitely going to be a challenge, but maybe that’s what I need.’
‘I’m glad you got something out of it. You seem … you look so much better.’
It was true. Dory’s hair, which she’d had cut short when she’d started to lose it, had thickened and was glossy. Even the silver threads gave the blonde a rather attractive ash tone. Her hazel eyes, which had been suffused with a weary disengagement, as if everything was too much trouble, were now bright and interested. Her complexion was still pale but now that her weight had decreased, her face had lost its puffiness. She was even wearing a bit of make-up.
‘What was wrong with me last time we saw one another?’ asked Dory.
‘I’m not talking about last week. I mean last year, Mum’s funeral.’
‘I’d not long been diagnosed. I’m back to normal now, though I sometimes wonder if an element of the problem was mental. You know … mind, body, spirit? I just wasn’t happy.’
Was that a dig? ‘But I didn’t know the unhappy bit, did I? You didn’t tell me you weren’t being looked after.’
‘Malcolm wasn’t a monster, he did look after me. We just didn’t notice we’d fallen out of love with one another till I became unwell. I resented it then but now I feel almost sorry for him. It must be hard to find yourself in the role of carer for someone you’ve no affection for.’
‘But that’s just the point … he didn’t care for you. He’s a doctor, for God’s sake. But he carried on working, running the clinic, leaving you to fend for yourself.’
‘I wasn’t at death’s door. As far as he could tell it was either psychosomatic …’
‘He thought you were making it up?’
‘No. Well, perhaps he wondered if I was exaggerating, or being a bit of a hypochondriac, or I was suffering from one of those ME-type things, in which case there was nothing he could do. The only mainstream advice offered for ME sufferers is rest. There are plenty of alternative self-help therapies on the internet but of course they did sod all, as Malcolm predicted, and just made me feel more of a failure. It would have driven me nuts to have him fussing round me all the time. I wasn’t confined to bed. I didn’t need my pillows plumped. The clinic was our livelihood. It would’ve done neither of us any good if he’d allowed the business to run into the ground to give me gold-star nursing care.’
‘But he should’ve got another opinion, sent you off for tests. He was negligent, Dory, there’s no two ways around it.’ Fran was frustrated and puzzled by her sister’s attitude. The man had not only failed to diagnose her condition, but had seemed to lose all interest in her just because she was ill. And, to add insult to injury, had started an affair with a
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