Faye's Diary

Chapter 22: Take Me To Plymouth

Over the next few weeks, I had lots of visitors but I got very restless. I had set out to find my sister and had ended up in hospital. I wondered if Lilly and Dan knew where I was. Were they worried about me?

Then, a horrible thought came to me. What if Lilly and Dan had phoned Charlotte to see if I’d arrived safely, and thus ruining the surprise. I sighed and sat up in my bed. I decided to go out for a walk around the hospital. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to but I was feeling much better and I was due to be going home in a week. The drip had been taken out of my arm that morning too. That had really hurt and I looked at my hand where a large, brown, ugly plaster was stuck there. I sighed.

Standing up shakily, I realised that I hadn’t walked without assistance for three weeks. This knowledge shocked me so much that I almost fell over. I took a few shaky steps, as my legs got used to moving again. Once I had gotten used to walking though, I was able to walk all around the hospital. I had just gotten to the bottom floor when I heard a telephone ringing. It was obviously a noise that I’d heard millions of times before, but when the only real noise you had heard was the droning beep of the hospitals equipment then the simplest of noises could set off a brainwave.

I can use a phone to call people outside of the hospital. The idea was so simple, it was almost stupid. I could call Lilly and Dan. I pictured their number written on the note-pad by their front door and felt thankful that I had remembered it.

I walked slowly and painstakingly up to my room to get the change that was on my bedside table. When I got there however, there were three nurses in my room.

“There you are, you shouldn’t be up in your current condition. I know that you are being discharged in a week, but you are still not very strong. Here, let me help you into bed,” my usual nurse said, whilst the other two looked on in concern.

“I just wanted to use the phone, and anyway, I’m fine,” I said.

The nurse gave a sympathetic smile, “I know its hard being cooped up in here all day, but I absolutely insist that you stay in bed to gather up your strength. We’ll bring a portable phone to you, ok?”

I nodded and waited for a phone to be brought to me, which it was. I remembered their number that had been written down on the notepad in their hall. I dialled it and prayed for an answer.

“Hello? Who is it?” A woman’s voice came through the telephone and I was so happy I could have cried.

“Lilly? It’s me, Faye.”

I could hear the smile creep into her voice and it made me feel warm inside. “Faye! It’s lovely to hear from you,” she didn’t ask how I knew her phone number. I think she secretly knew anyway. “Have you found Charlotte? It’s been three weeks and she hasn’t called or anything. I didn’t want to ring her and spoil the surprise for you but I was getting rather worried about you. Are you ok?”

“Lilly, the day that I left your house I was hit by a car. I’m still in hospital but I’m being released next week.”

The silence on the other end of the phone rang in my ears. “Lilly, say something.”

I heard a soft sob on the other end of the phone and suddenly, “Who the hell is this? What have you said to my wife?”

“Dan, it’s only me, Faye. I didn’t mean to make her cry, I just told her why I haven’t seen Charlotte yet. I got hit by a car on the day I left your house.”

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

I heard Lilly in the background say, “We should have dropped her down to Plymouth instead of sending a child out there on her own.”

I said that it wasn’t her fault and Dan agreed and passed me back to Lilly. “What happened, are you hurt badly?”

“I had quite bad injuries to my head and back, and my legs are pretty weak, but I’m not paralysed or anything, so I guess it’s not too bad.”

This news didn’t seem to calm Lilly though, but make her worse. I waited for her to calm down and scanned the room I was in, to make sure no-one was listening and then said, “Lilly, I still want to see Charlotte though but when I get out of here, I’m going to have to go home with my Mum and she won’t let me out of her sight. And it will be hell living with her again after this.”

Lilly seemed to understand where I was heading, “But if you got out before you were properly discharged then you could run away again.”

“Exactly, only my legs are too weak for me to walk too far or run too  fast, so is that offer still open for a lift down to Plymouth?” I asked uncertainly. I knew it was a lot to ask and I felt really mean asking it, but if it was the only way I was going to be able to see my sister, then I had to at least try.

She seemed to think for a while and then said, “Well, it would be, if you weren’t in hospital. But Faye, I could get into serious trouble for child theft or something.”

“But my Mum won’t call the police; she’s too scared of losing me like she did Charlotte. And anyway, even if she did - which she won’t - you’re taking me to see my sister who is family, and she is eighteen years old. That has got to count for something hasn’t it?”

“Well, I don’t know Faye, Dan is nodding but I really don’t know.” There was a pause and then she said, “Ok, I suppose so; you’d just go on your own if not anyway.”

“Thank you so much, I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you. It’s the summer holidays too in a few days too; do you think she could come back down with us?”

 “For sure! I’ll pick you up tomorrow evening, is that ok?” She said and I agreed.

I put the phone down and promptly fell asleep once again. I dreamt, of course, about Charlotte.