THE ANNOUNCEMENT Part 5

Kim stood looking at the front door of the house, mobile phone in one hand and a wheelchair in the other. The removal men were still sat in the removal van and, through their open window Kim could hear them grumbling. They were desperate to get home that night and they could see that possibility quickly disappearing. Kim put the key into the front door and heaved a sigh of relief. At last, she was in their new home. A smell hit her as she entered the hall, but she told herself that this would disappear as she left windows and doors open to air the house. Preparing to ring Ron in the hospital to tell him that he could inform the hospital staff the there was now a wheelchair waiting for him, she had no idea of the chaos that was about to ensue. All that she could think of was getting Ron home. She had been separated from him at a critical time when they should have been together, and all she wanted was to see him and have him safe again. Ron was hoping that an old work mate would go to the hospital and pick him up and bring him to the new house but it was a three hour trip. He was a good mate though and Ron thought that he would be able to persuade him.

Kim found that the wheelchair would go through the doorways in the new house so that was one worry less. However, it was obvious that the removal men did not care at all where they placed the boxes and they placed many of them in the garage. Kim was powerless to stop them and all the men were interested in was getting home. The kitchen was soon filled floor to ceiling with boxes such that Kim could not even get to the kitchen sink. It was impossible even to get a drink of cold water and she was parched. The bathroom was full as well and Kim could have cried, so thirsty was she. The men were brutish in their demeanours and she did not want an argument with them. She had had enough and she just wanted rid of them. She needed time and space to herself. Maybe her brother would come and help her to sort the boxes out. She would be alright. But she was hungry too and there was no food. She had intended getting fish and chips but there was not a fish and chip shop close by. Soon, Ron would be home, all being well, and then things would all be alright. They would get through somehow. Fortunately there was dog food in her car and she was able to feed the dogs even if she could not feed herself. The dogs seemed happy enough, exploring their new home. They were not dogs to be phased.

As Kim waited for Ron to be brought home, she knew deep within herself that they would be alright. They would cope, together. At nine o’ clock Ron arrived home, in his mate John’s car. Then the problems began. John was not a small man but somehow or other he had to get Ron up the two steps and in through the front door. Ron never had been able to put weight onto his left leg and had always relied on his right leg, but this was the one that he had injured and he could not put weight on that now. Unable to put weight on either leg it seemed an impossible task to get him into the house. However John took much of Ron’s weight and eventually got him in. Kim had never been more relieved in her life. She had her Ron back again. It seemed an age since she had heard that sickening thud in the kitchen back at the old house. But he was home now. It was all that she had wanted. Seeing the way in which the removal men had piled the boxes up in the kitchen John took down the top box and then apologised that he could not stay and do more, for he was two hours away from home and it was already very late. He did clear a way through to the kitchen sink however. At least Kim could get to water now. Her whole body ached and all she wanted was her bed. Ron would have to sleep in the recliner chair that John had deposited him in. He was very quiet and not at all how she had expected him to be. She was almost too tired to care now, however. Sleep. That was what she needed.

Kim wended her weary way up the stairs knowing that there was no bedding, and so she laid on the bare mattress. She had no idea how they were going to get the house sorted out now, and she was facing being the sole Carer of Ron who now could not walk at all. The experience had changed him. He was taciturn and there seemed to be little connection between them. Still, in a couple of days things might have changed.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT Part 4