for June

24. A Wolf in a Lamb's Clothing

Jo was pacing the floor in the emergency ward when a nurse approached them. "Are you Mr Gilligan's family?" she asked, peering from Jo to a dazed June sitting on a chair in an examination cubicle.

"I'm his older sister." Jo stopped pacing.

The nurse turned to June with an expression that asked 'and you?' which caused her to stammer uncertainly. "I," she began, unable to find the words. What was she really? A flatmate, a friend with 'benefits', or a girlfriend? She hesitated, even though the word 'girlfriend' would give her greater access to information.

"She's the girlfriend," Jo volunteered, seemingly comfortable giving June that title. "Is he okay?"

"He is conscious and communicating well, but we are still running some tests. We'll know better soon. It's looking like he sustained a concussion from the fall." She turned to leave but held off. "It'll be a few hours before he's cleared to go home. Perhaps the two of you would like to come back in a couple of hours rather than sit around here?"

"Yeah, we might do that, thank you." Jo nodded and picked her handbag off the floor, bending awkwardly because of the growling belly. Somewhere, a child was wailing loud, in competition with no one but itself. So loud in fact that Jo put her hand on her own belly and rubbed it. "Don't you ever scream like a banshee, you hear? No one needs to scream like that."

"Come on, June, before I yell at an infant." She grabbed June's arm and pulled her along the corridor and out of the ward. "Best we grab some grub and head home to look at this pest problem you two suddenly have."

They stepped out into a windy afternoon with the imminent smell of rain hanging in the air. "If there is one camera watching him, I'm sure there are more. With your photo disappearing, I bet my giant ass you are being watched," said Jo.

"Me?" June stopped mid parking lot. "Why would she watch me?"

"Chad has told you about this loony, yeah?" Jo took June's arm again, hurling them further ahead towards their car, and nearly in front of another entering the parking.

A honk sounded loud before them and a blonde woman stuck her head out the window wearing a sun hat several sizes too big and floppy on her head, accompanied by equally big sunglasses. "Eyes on the road, you idiots!" she screamed at them. "People have husbands to worry about without needing to visit prison for the manslaughter of numb-nuts." She honked again as Jo and June stepped back, and her tires squealed past them, before slamming her brakes on a bend to avoid crashing into parked cars.

"She tells us to keep our eyes on the road?" Jo huffed indignantly. "Keep your eyes on the road!" she yelled back despite knowing they were too far to be heard. She started back down the path towards their car, only to realise June was staring off after the road-rager. "What is it?"

"The woman looked familiar." June followed with a shake of her head.

♡

The drive home was a restless one for June, mulling over the woman from the parking lot. Despite the hat and the sunglasses that hid more than half the face, something told her she knew the woman. That annoying thought was making her most uncomfortable. Who was the woman and why did she bother her?

"You okay?" Jo asked, rummaging through the nooks and crannies around Chad's bed. "You're so distracted. You know he will be fine, right? The boy's got a thick head."

"It's not that." June pushed aside another lot of Chad's clothing and checked the corners of the cupboard. "It's the woman from the parking lot." She found nothing akin to a camera in the closet, so she moved onto the curtains, casually brushing her hand against the soft net.