The Pharmacist

Alice sat by Millie’s bed, holding her tiny limp hand. How could I ever have doubted her very existence? she asked herself. But she knew the answer. The blame for everything which had transpired of late lay solely at Rachel’s feet.

Sarah had gone home the previous evening when the news that they’d found Millie came through. Brenda initially accompanied Alice to the hospital but was persuaded to go back to Melkinthorpe to sleep. It’d been such a trying day and the strain was beginning to show in both women. The nurse suggested that Alice might like to go home too, but having found her granddaughter, she couldn’t bear to leave her again and so they brought pillows and endless cups of tea to make her comfortable.

A doctor explained that Millie would sleep through the night and probably be quite groggy the next day. They’d taken blood from the sleeping child. Further tests would establish precisely what drugs she’d been given and if there would be any long-term effects on her organs. Alice silently prayed that Millie would recover fully but was acutely aware that the psychological effects of recent events might have a more lasting impact on her granddaughter than the physical.

Would Millie be surprised to see her when she woke, she wondered. For all Alice knew, Rachel might have told the child that she was dead. She wouldn’t put anything past her daughter now.

The concerns that she and Tom had felt for Millie’s welfare floated into her mind and out again, the reasons they’d moved, the actions she’d been going to take – it was still a bit hazy, yet in there somewhere. And then there was Tom. Alice hardly dared to think about Tom. Where was he? Was he alive, and if so, why had he not come to her? The answer to the question in itself almost convinced her that her husband must be dead, but how and when? It was too dark and painful to contemplate.

Alice must have dozed off in the chair and awoke when a nurse came in to take Millie’s blood pressure and other vital signs.

‘The doctor should know the results of the blood samples we took last night when he comes round later,’ the young nurse told her. ‘Would you like to freshen up before your granddaughter wakes?’

Alice took the opportunity to do so, returning quickly and just in time to see the little girl begin to stir.

As Millie opened her eyes, fear and confusion crossed her pale, sad face, but on seeing her grandma, she reached up from the bed and snaked her arms around Alice’s neck. Nestling into the warm thin little body, Alice found it difficult to hold herself together, but she knew that somehow, she would find the strength to do whatever was necessary to protect this child in the future. The two clung together in silence for a few moments until Millie pulled away.

‘Where’s Mummy?’ she asked.

‘She’s gone away for a little while, but I’m here to look after you now.’ It was the best explanation Alice could think of at the time.

Millie looked around the unfamiliar room, ‘Where are we, Grandma?’

‘We’re in the hospital, sweetheart. You were poorly, but the doctor’s made you better and he might even let us go home today.’

A look of unease flitted across Millie’s eyes. ‘To Mummy’s house?’

‘No, to my house. Would you like that?’

Millie smiled, the colour returning to her cheeks. ‘Will Granddad be there, and Barney?’

Alice swallowed hard to keep her tears at bay. ‘No, my love, it’ll just be you and me. We can do anything you want to do, bake cakes, go to the park or read stories, anything.’

‘Shall I get dressed now?’ Millie attempted to get out of bed, but her grandmother patiently explained that they needed to see the doctor first. The little girl was about to ask more questions but became distracted by the breakfast trolley arriving, and she took delight in the novelty of the little cartons of orange juice and being able to choose whatever she wanted to eat.

It would, no doubt, be a long day. Alice had no idea if she’d be allowed to take Millie home after the doctor discharged her. But why not? She was the child’s grandmother, and Rachel had abandoned her, hadn’t she?

Alice was tired after the traumatic events of the previous day. Sleep had been fitful and peppered with dreams and scenarios, which, in the light of day, she tried hard to shake off. The realisation that her daughter was capable of attempting to have her placed in a home, inventing such horrendous lies and abandoning her own child, was too much to comprehend, and what else had Rachel done? Dispelling such unbearable thoughts, Alice turned her attention back to Millie. The child needed reassurance and love, and her grandmother determined that she would be the one to offer it.