A Taste for Malice Read Free Page B

chaos of thought.
    ‘But why are you looking so funny?’
    Christ. She was actually awake. After three weeks in a coma, Angela was finally awake. Wonderful. Shit. Oh my god. What was he going to do?
    ‘Daaaaad.’
    ‘What, son?’
    ‘You’ve gone all funny again.’ The muscles of his chin were bunched in that pre-warning sign of impending tears.
    ‘Sorry, baby.’ He knelt down. ‘Daddy doesn’t mean to frighten you.’ He deliberately brightened his posture and voice. ‘That was the hospital. Mummy’s awake at last.’
    ‘Yeaaahhhh,’ he yelled and jumped up and down. ‘Is she coming home? Is she?’
    ‘She’s still not well enough, son.’ Before Ben’s face crumpled he added, ‘but we can go and see her now.’
    Another yell followed, before his expression altered once again, bottom lip on full tremble. ‘But I’m wearing my jammies, Daddy. You have to change me.’
    ‘That’s okay, son. They see lots of people in their pyjamas in hospital. It’s practically the law.’
    All the way to the hospital Ben maintained a torrent of questions from the backseat.
    ‘A coma is a long sleep, isn’t it Daddy?’
    ‘Will she have any new teeth?’
    ‘Did she have nice dreams at night and scary ones during the day?’
    ‘Why do you always just say, “Mmmmm” when I ask you something?’
    His final question was the one that had been preying on Jim’s mind ever since the phone call.
    ‘Will you go back to living with Nana and Papa, Daddy?’
    For six months prior to Angela’s immobilisation, they were separated and Jim was living with his parents. As soon as the extent of her injuries became clear, he thought it wise to move back into the marital home. It would be best all round, he explained to his parents, less upheaval for Ben. It would be bad enough not seeing his mother without having to move to a new home. An additional benefit was that he would be closer to the hospital, therefore saving time and money on travelling to and fro.
    She had sustained multiple injuries during a head-on collision with another car. The nursing staff weren’t sure at first if she would pull through, but despite her long list of injuries, her heart kept beating.
    Flesh and bones healed faster than her mind and she entered what Jim described to Ben as a very, very long sleep.
    ‘With head injuries like this we have no way of knowing what damage will have been inflicted on the patient.’ Dr Bodrum intoned during one of his early visits. ‘Any number of things can have happened, the least of which is memory loss.’ Jim thought his smile was meant to be encouraging, a notion that was at odds with the information. ‘We must wait and see.’ Another smile.
    Jim prayed for memory loss. Sounds cruel, but then he could have his family back. He could care for Angela; teach her to fall in love with him again before her memory recovered. Or perhaps, once she was in a better health he could tell her the truth and trust that her reaction would be the best for everyone concerned.
    Until he saw an awake and alert Angela he had no idea what to expect. If it turned out that she was suffering from memory loss he had to be the one to tell her the truth of their situation. That meant limiting contact with friends and family until he was in the position to judge the state of her mind.
    He leaned down until he was on the same eye level as Ben.
    ‘Mummy might not remember us, buddy. She might not even remember that I was living with Nana and Papa before the accident.’ Ben’s eyes were large with amazement that this might happen.
    ‘Mummy might be sick for a little longer. We will all need to live together until she’s better. But it might make her more sick if she knew that I was not living at home, so can you be like Mummy and forget that ever happened?’
    Jim put his arms round Ben and held him close. He felt sick. He closed his eyes tight against the guilt.
    And so the lies began.

Chapter 3
    There’s a line of trees on the road