LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘Well, I’ll try not to hold it against you,’ she said, and Juan laughed. Elsie peered at him for a while, slowly looking at his hair and then down to his boots before looking at Cate.

      ‘He’s a good-looking one, isn’t he?’ Elsie said.

      ‘You just caught him at a good time,’ Cate answered back.

      ‘That’s what I’m here for,’ Juan responded, and Cate felt her cheeks burn a little, because a good time was all that he was here for—and she would do very well to remember that fact.

      ‘So you don’t live in Australia?’ Elsie asked him.

      ‘No,’ Juan said. ‘I am here for a working holiday.’

      Elsie frowned for a while before speaking. ‘You’re a bit old for all that, aren’t you?’ And for the second time since meeting Elsie, Cate found herself suppressing a smile. Elsie was funny and wise and old enough to say what she liked and not care what others thought.

      ‘Never too old, Elsie,’ Juan said. ‘Surely you know that?’

      For the first time since their arrival it was Elsie smiling—at Juan. ‘You’re a charmer, aren’t you?’

      ‘Am I charming you, Elsie?’ Juan smiled back.

      Of course he was.

      Christine didn’t seem too impressed when they arrived back at the department. ‘Finally, the wanderers return!’ And she wasn’t too pleased to have been forced out of her office during Cate’s absence. ‘I’m going to go and do some work now,’ Christine said. ‘There are incident forms to fill in. I don’t want to leave them for you.’

      ‘Sure,’ Cate said, as Christine handed over the drug keys to her.

      ‘She’s a sour one!’ Elsie muttered, as she was moved over onto a gurney.

      Cate made no comment. ‘I’m just going to go find you a gown,’ she said to Elsie when she realised that there wasn’t one. Now, that was one thing that was going to change when she was in charge. Cate really hated it when the cubicles were not properly tidied and stocked.

      ‘Can’t I just wear my nightdress?’ Elsie grumbled, but Cate explained that she would need to take off her bra and necklace as the doctor would probably order a chest X-ray.

      First, though, Cate did a routine set of obs and then headed off in search of the elusive gown. The linen trolley was void of them—the staff from the wards were always coming down and pinching linen from the emergency trolley and so Cate often hid a few pieces as soon as they were delivered. She went to her secret stash in the storeroom, where she kept a few gowns hidden behind the burn packs.

      The phone was ringing as she made her way back and, with the ward clerk not around, Cate took the call—it was Maria, Elsie’s daughter.

      ‘She only just arrived in the department,’ Cate explained. ‘The doctor should be in with her soon.’

      ‘She’s talking?’ Maria checked.

      ‘Oh, yes!’ Cate smiled, because Elsie hadn’t stopped talking since she had laid eyes on her. ‘Should I tell her that you’re coming in?’

      ‘No, no,’ Maria said. ‘I’ll call back later this afternoon to see what’s happening. It doesn’t sound as if it is anything too serious. I don’t know why they called an ambulance.’

      ‘She developed chest pain,’ Cate said. ‘I’m quite sure it was more severe than even Elsie was letting on, though she’s very comfortable now.’

      ‘Still, I think an ambulance is taking things a bit far. We don’t want any heroics.’

      Cate blinked for a moment at the matter-of-fact way Maria addressed a rather sensitive issue. ‘Is that something that has already been discussed?’ Cate asked carefully. ‘Does your mother have a DNR order?’

      ‘No, but at her age surely we should just let nature take its course?’

      Cate continued the difficult conversation, explaining that Elsie was lucid and comfortable and that it was something Elsie could discuss with the doctor if she saw fit. ‘Is there any message that you’d like me to pass on to your mother?’ Cate asked.

      ‘Just tell her that I’ll call back later,’ Maria said, and then rang off.

      Cate let out a breath, and when the phone rang again, on instinct she answered it, though she soon wished that she hadn’t.

      ‘Can I please speak with Dr Morales?’

      ‘I’ll see if he’s available,’ Cate said. ‘May I ask who’s calling?’ As soon as the words were out she regretted them; she had made it clear that Juan was here but her mind had been so full of Elsie and her daughter that she had forgotten Juan’s little lecture from last week.

      ‘Tell him it is Martina.’

      She found Juan in with Elsie, taking bloods.

      ‘Sorry I took so long, Elsie,’ Cate said. ‘Your daughter just called…’

      Elsie rolled her eyes and dismissed the information with a flick of her hand. ‘You can ring her when I’m dead,’ Elsie huffed. ‘That will cheer her up.’

      ‘She’s going to call back later,’ Cate said, making a mental note to speak to whichever doctor Elsie was referred to, so that Elsie’s wishes could be discussed properly. ‘Juan, you’ve got a call too—Martina is on the phone for you, I’m very sorry, I forgot and I—’

      He interrupted her excuses. ‘Tell her that I am with a patient,’ Juan answered, labelling the vials of blood he had taken.

      ‘Just to have her call back in ten minutes?’ Cate checked, because Martina called fairly frequently. ‘Why doesn’t she ring your mobile?’

      ‘Because I’ve blocked her.’ He muttered something under his breath in Spanish but then winked at Elsie. ‘Excuse me, I need to take a phone call.’

      ‘Be nice when you do,’ Elsie warned, and Juan smiled and gave a small shake of his head.

      ‘It gets you into more trouble sometimes.’

      It did.

      Juan had tried being nice, had tried being firm, had been downright rude a couple of times and the calls had stopped for a while. But as the date of what would have been their first wedding anniversary approached, Martina was more determined than ever to change history.

      ‘Juan, I was hoping to speak to you.’

      ‘I’m at work.’

      ‘Then call me from home.’

      ‘Martina—’

      ‘You won’t let me properly explain,’ Martina interrupted. ‘And I’m hearing from everyone the ridiculous things you are doing—that You are going to do a season of skiing. Why would you take such risks?’

      ‘I’m not your concern, Martina. You made that very clear.’

      ‘I would have come round. Juan, please, we need to speak.’

      ‘Stop calling me at work,’ Juan said, and hung up and sat for a moment, thinking of the man he had once been, compared with the man he was now.

      Martina didn’t know him at all.

      She couldn’t.

      Not even he knew yet who the new Juan was.

      ‘Poor Martina,’ Elsie had said as Juan had left the cubicle to take the call and Cate had laughed. She loved old people, they knew about a thousand times more than the whole of the staff put together. It had taken Elsie about two seconds to work out what a heartbreaker Juan was.

      ‘I had one like that once,’ Elsie said, nodding to the curtains Juan had just

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