One hundred and twenty-one: Grandpa Alistair

"You should tell me where the new place is," I said. "Just in case."

"Let me think on it," Alistair rubbed his cheeks and then gave me a strange look out the corner of his eyes. He suddenly came more alert. "Jean. You're planning something."

"Am I?" I tilted my head. "I suppose I am. I'm just thinking about going out the side door, while you're all busy at the front and back doors. I'm just thinking. If Kiran wants to come and get me, he'd want the media involved as a distraction at the front. Then he'd come from the back. Hence I should go out the side on a complete other day at a complete other time when no one is expecting it. The only pity is that I don't know the city as well as I used to and I have no normal clothes. Or shoes. Or underwear."

"Oh. I'm glad you reminded me," Alistair scratched his chin. "I found Eleanor and your old Boss. They survived the war intact and are struggling to patch up the office building again. Shall I ask Eleanor to help you go buy your things. She knows your size, right?"

"I think my size has changed," I looked down at myself.

"I'll bring her to visit one of these days then," Alistair said. "All right. I'll be back tomorrow and we can discuss what your plan is."

"Take tomorrow off," I told him. He honestly looked like he might sleep for three days.

"The day after then," Alistair nodded at my concern.

After walking him to the ward doors, which was as far as I was allowed to go, I returned to my bed where I slept for so long and was so difficult to rouse that the medical staff were worried. They were discussing lengthening my stay and insisted that all and any interviews be put on hold in case it set me back again. It was three days later before Eleanor was allowed to come and visit with Alistair. If I wasn't wrong, he'd been ill. He looked shrunken, his face pale, and he had a cough.

"Go back home," I pointed to the door, the moment I saw Alistair. "You need more rest."

"So do you," he gave his dry laugh, shaking his head at me. "You've lost weight again, haven't you? You haven't been eating again, right?"

"I've been eating," I protested.

"As much as a mouse," said a cheerful nurse as she passed by, leaving another supplement drink on my table that I looked at with a sigh. "Chocolate flavoured today," she told me.

"Oooo-kaaaaay," I grimaced.

Eleanor laughed at my childish reply and helped me get the straw out of its plastic wrapper, shake up the drink and stick the straw in for me.

"Jean," she gave me a hug that I returned. We held each other for a long time, before she held me at arm's length to give me the telling off I hadn't had since I'd entered hospital. "All right," she said half an hour later. "I'm done. Now tell me. How are you?"

We chatted, we walked around the ward and Eleanor had wisely brought some measuring tape to make sure she knew what size I was now. She stayed for lunch and dinner. I didn't even notice when Alistair had disappeared. She managed to get at least half my meals down my throat without me throwing them back up. That was good. I don't know why I had trouble keeping food down anymore.

That night, I managed to sleep through the night. I felt lighter and happier than I had for a long time. She came back a few days later with a few bags of clothes and we had a little fashion show behind the closed curtains of my room. After she'd left, I found a fifty note tucked away at the bottom of one bag.

I didn't see Alistair until the weekend. He looked a lot better. We hashed out my plan to the fine details and I memorised the map. Very quietly, he told me the address of where my new place was meant to be.

"I'm trusting you on this," he told me in a voice that no one else would be able to hear. "I'm not supposed to tell you. Don't let me down. If they know that I was the one who let you loose, I'll be the one inside a cell."

"If I let you down," I told him, "it'll be because I got waylaid. Not for the lack of trying to get there in order to save you from your unreasonable bosses."

"So you know they're unreasonable too?"

"Don't we all?" I snorted. "I think I'm about ready. What do the doctors say?"

"They're happy for you to leave in a few days," Alistair said. "The truth is the official plan is set for Tuesday, but your Psychiatrist is fighting to keep you another few days. He says that he still wants to observe you one more day. The Physiotherapist is agreeing with him, saying that they'd rather you were a bit more steady on your feet, however the pressure from the other doctors and therapists are starting to drown them out. So it's most likely that Kiran's plan is happening on Tuesday."

"I'll leave tonight then," I told Alistair. "When the nurses change shifts. I'm sorry about the paperwork this is going to give you."

"Nevermind. I'll have supper waiting for you," Alistair said, rubbing his cheek. "My wife should be willing to make a little extra and let me bring it over."

"You have a wife?"

"I never told you?"

"No."

"I have a wife and three children. Two boys, one girl. They're all older than you are. All married with children of their own."

I laughed with delight.

"Gramps," I called him with a nudge to his shoulder.

"Just got a new grandkid yesterday," he grinned.

"Congratulations, Grandpa Alistair. My regards."

"Thanks," Alistair smiled. "My wife, Gracey, knows about you, but not my children. She'll probably come and check on you every now and then in your new place. That all right with you? She can't wait to meet the other daughter I adopted during the war. She'll fatten you up in no time."

"I hope so," I grinned.

"I'd better give this to you now then," Alistair handed me a bracelet with a little reluctance. He made a face when I looked askance at him. It looked like a watch, but it was in reality one of those tracking bracelets. One of those things that told people when I wasn't where I was meant to be. It looked remarkably like the one Kiran had made me wear during the war. "In case something happens," he explained. "So I can find you."

"There's no bomb in this one, is there?" I asked. "No trigger that will make a bomb somewhere go off?"

"I was assured that there wasn't," Alistair reassured me.

"Doesn't mean that there isn't any," I scowled. "Okay. Go. Go play with your new grandson. I know you can't wait to go home. You've been fidgeting with your phone ever since you got here."