Chapter 20: Chocolate in the night

Tuesday 29-May 2007

Chris hadn't been working on his homework for very long when his mind once again turned to Shahia — how was she doing? He pulled out his phone and sent her an SMS message: A & m in bed asleep. All ok. Hope h is all right

Hopefully that would reduce her worries.

A few minutes later, his phone rang.

"Hi."

"Yeah, it's me. Thanks for the message."

"How's it going there?"

"Yeah, okay." He could hear her weariness. "It looks like he's going to be all right. They think he's got the flu, and it came on hard just as he had hit the wall from his soccer training, so it looked a lot worse than it was. They put him on a drip to stabilise him. They're doing some blood tests to be sure, so we're going to be a few more hours yet."

"And you, are you okay?"

"I'm going to be all right, I think. I've been holding it together, pretending to be the adult. At first, they gave me a bit of a run around, but then the doctor intervened. He said it's not their problem, but they've got this pastoral nurse person who came and talked to me. I had to tell her everything, and she wanted to get the department out here."

"Oh, no!" Whatever happened, that couldn't be good.

"Fortunately the doctor intervened again. He said not to, that he'd write a letter to the department, but I've got a suspicion that he's just going to write a note in the record that it needs to be done, and then 'forget'."

"Wow."

"Anyhow, I have to go, it's raining bad out here, and I'm not supposed to use my phone inside. I'll call you later. See ya."

"Hang in there. I'm fine here. Bye."

He called his dad to let him know that he'd probably be out till about midnight, and they agreed that he'd call when Shahia got home, whenever that was. "Hang on," he said, "check whether she needs a lift. If she does, I'll do it, doesn't matter what time it is."

Chris sent Shahia a message about that, and then went to check whether Alyssa was asleep. She was, and he decided to let her sleep — he'd wake her later. While he was there, he stole Hassan's blankets off his bed, arranged them next to the heater, and then settled down to his homework again, enjoying the peaceful sound of the rain on the roof.

Maybe a half hour later, Maria started crying. Gently, Chris tip-toed into her room and saw that she'd lost her dummy. He stuck it back in her mouth and stroked her back for a while, like he'd seen Alyssa doing.

While he was doing that, he looked around the dimly lit room. This was Shahia's bedroom. There was a pile of clothes — looked like school uniform ‑ on the floor at the end of her bed, but other than that, it was very tidy.

His eye was drawn to her chest of drawers. There was a photo of her parents on the top. He looked at them for a while, wondering. What kind of parents produced children as good as these? Impressive. Then he cast his eyes down a little. The top two drawers, they'd contain underwear...

He tried not to think of Shahia like this, but, damn, she was pretty sexy when it came to it. While he was doing housework earlier, he'd taken the washing off the drying rack and folded it. Some of it had been Shahia's underwear, so he'd left that for Alyssa to do, since she was helping him, but he would've liked to have taken a closer look.

What kind of underwear would a private school class princess have? Surely it would have to include some pretty racy stuff? He'd probably never get a better chance than this to check out a teenage girl's underwear. Maria was all settled down, so gently, as quietly as he could, his heart beating loudly, he started to pull the first drawer out.

He'd only got it out maybe half an inch, when he hesitated. What was he doing? This wasn't some class princess's fashion underwear he was going to look at: this was Shahia's private things, his friend, who had trusted him to look after her sisters while she took Hassan to hospital. But she'd never know...

For a moment he swayed, unsure what to do, and then he recalled Shahia's words: "people I can trust deeply, like you".

No, he wasn't going to do it.

Gently, he closed the drawer and went back to his homework. He sat down, and closed his eyes. That was close ‑ how easy it was to betray your principles. Or perhaps it was: how hard to really live up to your principles.

Just after midnight, he got a message from Shahia saying that she would be home in a few minutes. He woke Alyssa up, and together they made Hassan's bed with the blankets he'd left by the heater. They'd just finished that when Shahia and Hassan arrived home in a taxi. He went out with an umbrella to help get Hassan in through the storm.

Suddenly the small house was a whirlwind of activity for a few minutes, until they got Hassan changed into his pyjamas and settled under the warm blankets and Alyssa back in bed.

Chris followed Shahia out to the kitchen. As they went in the kitchen, she turned and fell into him. He caught her and gently lifted her, carrying her out to one of the lounges.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just so tired."

"Had anything to eat?"

She shook her head. Chris smiled at her. "Thought that might be the case. How's pizza sound?"

Her only response was grunt, and Chris decided to treat it as a yes.

He watched her while he heated the pizza up in the microwave. She didn't move, just sat there staring at the other side of the room. Now she was the one who'd hit the wall.

He brought her a plate full of pizza and a drink of milk. She sculled the milk, just gone, and then listlessly started working on the pizza.

It was like watching a flower blossoming in front of him. She gradually straightened, perking up, her colour improving. He could almost predict the moment she looked at what she was eating.

"Home made pizza? This is good!"

He smiled at her. "Starting to feel better?"

She nodded. "Yes, thanks. You need to go home."

He could hear in her voice, though, that she wasn't quite ready for that. He nodded. "Yeah."

He called his dad's phone, and his mum answered.

"Hi mum, Shahia's just got home. Hassan is okay, but she's a bit strung out. I'm going to come home in about an hour, I guess."

"Chris, there's no way you're riding home in that storm out there. I'll come and pick you up. I'll come at one o'clock, is that okay?"

"Okay, thanks, see you then." Actually, he was surprised that she didn't insist on coming right away. It was a gesture of support for both of them that was quite touching.

He put his phone away and spoke to Shahia. "She's going to come and pick me up in about forty-five minutes."

Shahia smiled. "Thanks for staying with me."

"No problems. So, Hassan is okay?"

"He's just got a flu, you know, bed rest for a couple of days, and then we'll see. But they said I did the right thing to take him to hospital."

"That's good. It can't have been an easy decision."

"Chris, thanks for kicking my butt before I left. If you hadn't done that ... Anyhow, I acted like an adult, and I survived. That doctor was great. Every time it looks like it's all over, someone stands up and helps. That doctor, the district nurse, Mr Cartwright, Leslie, and most of all, you."

She paused for a minute, lost in thought.

"Anyway, how did you do?"

Ahh, the million dollar question. "Yeah, we survived. It was pretty hairy for a while, but Alyssa and I sorted ourselves out and turned into quite a team."

Shahia's face lit up with a brilliant smile. "Oh that's great, I'm so happy she's finally starting to accept you."

"She has, I think, but it wasn't easy. She had a panic attack first."

"Oh?" Shahia was concerned. "I knew she wasn't happy, but ... what made that happen?"