Grazia Book Club: SVaughanAuthor’s Little Disasters
I’m on my way to see a patient. Ten months old: fractious, irritable. She’s vomited, according to A&E, though she hasn’t a fever. She may be no more ill than Sam, my eight- year- old who’s just had a chest infection, though it’s odd to bring in a child who’s not genuinely poorly this late at night. The junior isn’t happy to discharge and asked me to come down. My heart tips at the thought of a complicated case.
Then a child with an immunosuppressant condition and a virus was brought in by ambulance, and just after he’d been admitted, I had to deal with a three- year- old with croup. The mother’s anxiety made the situation far worse, the poor boy gasping for breath as she distracted our attention. Often parents are the most difficult part of this job.
I check with the sister in charge, and glance at the patient’s notes: Betsey Curtis. My heart ricochets. Betsey? Jess’s Betsey? The baby of a friend I know well? Jess was in my antenatal group when I was pregnant with Rosa and she with Kit. Together we navigated early motherhood and then our second babies, though we’ve drifted apart since Jess’s third.
Jess’s baby is lying on the bed, tiny legs splayed against the paper towel coating its plastic surface; large eyes watchful, her face a tear- streaked, crumpled red. I’d forgotten how pretty she is. Almost doll- like, with thick dark hair framing a heart- shaped face and a cupid’s bow of a mouth. A thumb hangs from one corner and her other fist clutches a dirty rabbit. It’s the toy I bought her when she was born: an unashamedly tasteful, French, velveteen rabbit.
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