Read Online This Is How It Ends by Kathleen MacMahon - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kathleen MacMahon
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voice messages, a litany of excuses and promises. I should be able to get away tomorrow, he’d said when she called him back, there’s a flight first thing in the morning. Everybody loved the show, he told her. There was a gallery in New York interested.
Great, she’d said, that’s brilliant. Good for you.
His art was shit, she’d always known that. But she’d never really admitted it to herself before. It didn’t seem to matter, not until she was lying there in the hospital. The hospital was when, suddenly, everything seemed to matter.
A man is tested only a few times in his life, that’s what Hugh said afterwards. He will seldom recognize the test when it comes along. And by the time he realizes that it was a test, it will be too late. But how he behaves in that moment, that’s what defines him. That’s the mark of the man. Needless to say, David did not pass the test.
He did bring her to the hospital. In fairness he even went as far as the waiting room with her. He waited with her until she was seen by a nurse. But he was late for his flight, and if he missed the flight he would miss the opening. He couldn’t miss the opening, Addie understood that, didn’t she? As she was being led in for the scan, he was already out on the street, wild-eyed, flagging down a taxi. When the doctor pointed to the screen and showed Addie the fluid flooding her abdominal cavity, as he pointed out where it was seeping right up towards her chest, which would explain the pain under her collarbones, when they showed her the extent of her internal bleeding, Dave was sitting in the taxi, barreling through the port tunnel towards the airport. As she was being prepped for surgery, as the anesthetist was being told to hurry, there was no time to waste here, he was trying her phone again while he stood in the queue for airport security. Let me know how you get on, he said to the answering service. Then he turned his phone off before putting it into a basket and sliding it onto the belt of the scanner.
He did try her once more before he boarded, but her phone rang out. He ordered a vodka and tonic when the drinks trolley came round. As soon as he’d finished the drink, he fell asleep. The stewardess had to wake him to tell him to straighten up his seat back for landing. When he called her again from baggage reclaim, it was Della who answered the phone, her tone distinctly chilly. They were able to save Addie, she said, but not the baby.
Ignorance is bliss. It never even dawned on David that this was a test. It never once occurred to him that he had anything to reproach himself for. Not even when he swung into the hospital three days later, a box of duty-free chocolates in his hand, the review from the London Independent rolled up in his pocket to show her.
His timing was unfortunate. As he came out of the lift, he walked slap bang into Hugh.
HE WENT STRAIGHT from the hospital to the nearest Garda station and claimed he’d been assaulted. The Guards had no choice but to come to the hospital. After all, a complaint had been made. They had to question all the witnesses. They followed Hugh into his office for a chat, the soles of their big boots squeaking on the lino floor.
Hugh admitted everything straightaway, he was quite unapologetic. “I gave him a bit of a hiding, that’s all,” he said. “He had it coming to him.
“The fellow’s a cad,” he said, by way of explanation. “A cad and a bounder.” And the Guards chuckled at that swashbuckling language. They were highly amused by the whole thing. This was light relief for them, a break from the drunks and the smackheads. They both leaned over to shake Hugh’s hand before tucking their notebooks into their breast pockets and trundling off.
They wouldn’t be taking this one any further. You never know when you might be needing a doctor.
THAT WAS THE LAST they saw of David. He never dared to show his face again.
When Addie got home from the hospital,
Great, she’d said, that’s brilliant. Good for you.
His art was shit, she’d always known that. But she’d never really admitted it to herself before. It didn’t seem to matter, not until she was lying there in the hospital. The hospital was when, suddenly, everything seemed to matter.
A man is tested only a few times in his life, that’s what Hugh said afterwards. He will seldom recognize the test when it comes along. And by the time he realizes that it was a test, it will be too late. But how he behaves in that moment, that’s what defines him. That’s the mark of the man. Needless to say, David did not pass the test.
He did bring her to the hospital. In fairness he even went as far as the waiting room with her. He waited with her until she was seen by a nurse. But he was late for his flight, and if he missed the flight he would miss the opening. He couldn’t miss the opening, Addie understood that, didn’t she? As she was being led in for the scan, he was already out on the street, wild-eyed, flagging down a taxi. When the doctor pointed to the screen and showed Addie the fluid flooding her abdominal cavity, as he pointed out where it was seeping right up towards her chest, which would explain the pain under her collarbones, when they showed her the extent of her internal bleeding, Dave was sitting in the taxi, barreling through the port tunnel towards the airport. As she was being prepped for surgery, as the anesthetist was being told to hurry, there was no time to waste here, he was trying her phone again while he stood in the queue for airport security. Let me know how you get on, he said to the answering service. Then he turned his phone off before putting it into a basket and sliding it onto the belt of the scanner.
He did try her once more before he boarded, but her phone rang out. He ordered a vodka and tonic when the drinks trolley came round. As soon as he’d finished the drink, he fell asleep. The stewardess had to wake him to tell him to straighten up his seat back for landing. When he called her again from baggage reclaim, it was Della who answered the phone, her tone distinctly chilly. They were able to save Addie, she said, but not the baby.
Ignorance is bliss. It never even dawned on David that this was a test. It never once occurred to him that he had anything to reproach himself for. Not even when he swung into the hospital three days later, a box of duty-free chocolates in his hand, the review from the London Independent rolled up in his pocket to show her.
His timing was unfortunate. As he came out of the lift, he walked slap bang into Hugh.
HE WENT STRAIGHT from the hospital to the nearest Garda station and claimed he’d been assaulted. The Guards had no choice but to come to the hospital. After all, a complaint had been made. They had to question all the witnesses. They followed Hugh into his office for a chat, the soles of their big boots squeaking on the lino floor.
Hugh admitted everything straightaway, he was quite unapologetic. “I gave him a bit of a hiding, that’s all,” he said. “He had it coming to him.
“The fellow’s a cad,” he said, by way of explanation. “A cad and a bounder.” And the Guards chuckled at that swashbuckling language. They were highly amused by the whole thing. This was light relief for them, a break from the drunks and the smackheads. They both leaned over to shake Hugh’s hand before tucking their notebooks into their breast pockets and trundling off.
They wouldn’t be taking this one any further. You never know when you might be needing a doctor.
THAT WAS THE LAST they saw of David. He never dared to show his face again.
When Addie got home from the hospital,
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