LEANNE started bleeding heavily again during the long flight home. It was evident that she had lost a lot of blood and both Ruth and Ruby were getting seriously worried about her. Ruby, especially, was nearly hysterical: she was continually trying to get Leanne to talk to her—to give some account as to what had happened to her—however unpleasant.

In the end Ruth had to take charge of matters once again. She decided that it would be best not to head straight for home, but to make for Kampala where there was a good hospital. Having set the course and made sure that the autopilot was functioning smoothly, she turned to Ruby first, and endeavoured to calm her down, to soothe her.

“Leanne’ll be all right: I’m sure she will. We’re taking her straight to hospital—once they get a blood transfusion into her she’ll be right as rain—you’ll see. It’s the emotional scarring I’m worried about. And such a young girl too—barely fifteen! So awful! What has come of this world? Is it all down to the Change? Has the human race given up?”

Ruth was not expecting Ruby to answer these purely rhetorical questions, but Ruby ceased her sobbing for a moment.

“Of course it’s the fucking Change!” she snarled, furiously. “You would know if you’d lost a kid to the Change. Everybody’s like that now. We just go on—until we all die. That’s all that’s left for us. Death.”

“Please, please, Ruby—please don’t despair. There are still good things on this Earth of ours. It doesn’t have to be Moscow—that was a mistake. We can go back to Rupert. And I think that, for all his faults, you still have feelings for him. Am I right? And should we now tell Leanne that Rupert is her father?”

“You have no right to tell me what my feelings for Rupert are! And maybe I should remind you, Ruth, that it was you who nearly let on about Rupert being Leanne’s father. Back in the sick-bay. Stopped just short of blurting it out—you idiot! I don’t know whether Leanne’s took it in. I hope she did not. And maybe she’s now going to die without ever knowing it. That would be best.”

“How can you say such a thing, Ruby! Leanne won’t die, she’ll live—I know she will live. We just have to get her to hospital as quickly as possible. No thanks to you of course…”

The quarrel continued sporadically for some time—but at least it stopped short of becoming violent. Leanne, Ruth hoped, was unaware of the spat—she was drifting in and out of consciousness, and delirious at times. Secretly Ruth wasn’t sure of her assurances about Leanne’s coming through this—though she dared not let Ruby in on her uncertainty. In the end Ruby ran out of argument and sobbed herself to sleep. Ruth, much relieved, occupied herself with checking their course on the autopilot from time to time, and in between times watching over Leanne, checking her pulse and breathing. She wished she had a sphygmomanometer in order to check the girl’s blood pressure—but the car was not equipped with one. It would have to wait until they reached the hospital.

They were passing over South Sudan—still more than a thousand kilometres to go until they reached Kampala—when Ruth’s anxiety over Leanne increased. Ruby, Ruth was relieved to notice, was still sound asleep and it seemed best not to wake her. Leanne’s breathing and heartbeat were becoming irregular and she seemed to be sinking into a coma. How Ruth wished she still had all her nursing skills!—but she had retired from nursing a long time ago. There was emergency oxygen in the car: intended for use if the car lost pressure at high altitude, but it would have to serve. Ruth quickly rigged up an oxygen feed for Leanne. She wished she had thought to stow a medikit in the car.

Then Leanne went into cardiac arrest.

Ruth did what she could: applied CPR and after several minutes was relieved when Leanne once again showed a pulse, and was breathing—albeit irregularly—but was still unconscious. This was now an emergency. Had Leanne been without oxygen to the brain for too long? Should Ruth wake Ruby? Better not: there was nothing they could do now until they got to the hospital.

Ruby woke just as the car was making its descent towards the hospital car park in Kampala. Ruth said nothing about the crisis she hoped she had managed to overcome. Let the doctors explain things to her.

It took a few minutes to get Leanne taken into the Emergency ward. Ruth explained that Leanne had lost a lot of blood, and then explained to the doctor in a whisper, whilst Ruby was occupied with tending to her daughter, about the cardiac arrest. The doctor was of course immediately very concerned: she quickly arranged for a blood transfusion, an ECG, and a brain scan. There was nothing the two women could do, now, but sit and wait.

It was now that Ruth decided it was time to contact Rupert. She explained the emergency situation, but they both agreed that nothing could be served by Rupert coming over to Kampala. It would be better for him to stay at the villa to watch over his animals.

“There’s something I ought to tell you,” added Rupert over the video link. He looked shaken. “Some idiot tried to set fire to the place. Bottle full of some inflammable stuff—sort of oil I think—and a burning rag stuffed in the neck, tossed through a window during the night. Luckily I was there and able to smother the fire before it did much damage. And I went out to try and catch the hooligan, but he’d disappeared of course.”

“Good gracious, Rupert! Did you call the cops?”

“No point. They wouldn’t come, not if no-one got killed. You know how useless the cops are these days. But whoever it was might try again. I’ll have to be on the alert.”

“Well, Rupert, you’ve got to stay put of course—but please take care! And don’t worry about Leanne—she’s in good hands and should recover physically. As to the emotional damage from the rape—that’ll be harder to cope with. We’ll all have to work at that, when she comes out of hospital.”

When she comes out of hospital, thought Ruth as she closed the connection. That’s a significant ‘when’. Leanne was still in a coma, and the doctors weren’t saying much. Perhaps she had suffered too much brain damage after all. What will happen when Ruby finds out? Leanne is everything to her—and she has suffered so much loss!

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

*

“Ruth! Ruth! Come quickly!” Ruth shook herself awake and sat up in the makeshift bed she had been sharing with Ruby for the past few nights. Ruby was not there and it was still dark. Quickly she put on a dressing gown and made her way to Leanne’s ward, where she found Ruby kneeling beside the bed.

“Leanne spoke! She said ‘Mummy’ quite distinctly.”

“You were here when she spoke?”

“Of course. The night nurse came and told me she was showing signs of waking up. Of course I came as quickly as I could—I didn’t even stop to wake you—sorry.”

As they watched, Leanne appeared to stir once again. Her hand, which Ruby was holding, clasped Ruby’s fingers. She mumbled, almost inaudibly, “Rupert!”

“ ‘Rupert’! Why does she ask for Rupert?” whispered Ruth.

“I don’t know.”

But Leanne’s eyes were open and she was speaking again, her voice slurred and hard to follow but quite coherent:

“I want Rupert. I want my Daddy.”

“But darling, your Daddy’s not with us any more. He died. Don’t you remember?” said Ruby.

“I know now. Rupert—Rupert is my real Daddy.”

“She heard me,” whispered Ruth to Ruby, shamefaced. “I thought I’d caught myself in time—but I didn’t. Leanne’s a clever girl. Well, now it’s happened—so do we confirm it? Tell her the truth?”

“I think we’d better,” replied Ruby.

“All right,” continued Ruth out loud. “Yes, Leanne my dear, ‘Uncle Rupert’ really is your biological father. The one you thought of as ‘Daddy’ up till now, poor Hugh: he was your stepfather. But Uncle Rupert doesn’t know this—not yet.”

“How can he not know?” pleaded Leanne, weakly. “Surely he must have slept with Mummy. Had sex with her.”

Ruth was somewhat taken aback at Leanne’s way of putting things, but she tried not to let it show. She glanced at Ruby, but Ruby wasn’t saying anything. So: “Yes, dear,” Ruth continued, “but then your Mummy left him and went to live with Hugh. And started sleeping with him. That was before either of them even knew you were on the way.”

“Will my real Daddy come to see me, then?”

“We’ll have to see,” replied Ruby, speaking up for the first time. “You should rest now, my dear; you’ve not been well.” Then in a whisper to Ruth: “I knew this would happen. Didn’t I warn you about that little faux pas, Ruth dear? So what’s going to happen now? How will this new emotional shock affect Leanne, in the state she’s in? And should we fetch Rupert here, after all?”

Leanne persisted. “Will I see Daddy before I die?”

Ruby was shocked. “Who said anything about dying? You’re not going to die, my dear!”

“The doctor did. At least, I think she was the doctor. When I first came in. I could hear her faintly, although I couldn’t speak: I couldn’t answer her. I think she said something like “this one’s a goner.”

“Well, that doctor deserves a rap on the knuckles, that’s all I can say,” remarked Ruth. What else had Leanne overheard, while seem­ingly in a coma? Or had she dreamt it? “Leanne, you’re going to be quite all right, and we’ll be going back to Rupert’s—to your Dad’s—as soon as you’re well enough to travel. You’re not about to die—nor are any of us.”

“Everyone’s going to die, in the end. That’s what we were all being told—at the school, before—before…”

“It’s all right, Leanne. You don’t have to continue—”

“But I want to, Auntie Ruth. It’s true: when those horrid men did those—things—to me, I wanted to die—along with everyone else. But now I’m with you and Mummy, I want to stay alive. I want to stay alive long enough to be back with my real Daddy. Please!”

“You will, darling. I promise.”

*

When the doctor returned, it was Ruby who confronted her, despite Ruth’s having urged her to hold her peace.

“Did you, or any of the doctors, tell my daughter she was dying?”

“Of course not,” replied the doctor, resentfully. “Why would I do that? Or any of my colleagues? Your daughter is making good prog­ress—considering what she went through. I’m still worried about that cardiac arrest though. But you did an excellent job, Mrs Shoenberger. Without your intervention on the way here, we would have lost her. But as things stand, the ECG doesn’t show up anything abnormal. We think she’ll be fine. Which leads me—”

“Well—my daughter declares,” insisted Ruby, interrupting, “that, although apparently unconscious at the time, she overheard someone say ‘this one’s a goner’.”

“Well it wasn’t me—that’s all I can say. Perhaps one of the porters who brought her in … we’re losing a lot of patients these days … so many brought in DOA—dead on arrival. Do you want me to make inquiries?”

“No—NO!” intervened Ruth. “Please let it rest. Leanne’s upset and worried enough as it is. Best if she thinks it’s just something she imagined—or dreamt.”

“Very well,” said the doctor. “I was about to explain to you, we’d really like to keep Leanne here for a few days longer, but we can’t spare the bed space. I’m sorry. There are too many people being brought in with more urgent needs than hers. It’s all chaos outside, as you surely know—and we’re getting overwhelmed. We’re discharging Leanne this evening. I take it you have transport?”

Both Ruby and Ruth were dismayed at this piece of news. Ruby was minded to argue the case: “but it’s far too early!” but in the end she decided she’d had enough of arguing. Nor did Ruth feel inclined to demur. She merely stated “We have our aircar outside—but I wasn’t expecting to leave so soon. Can I get it quickly re-charged for the trip?”

So it was that a few hours later, the three of them were airborne once again, and heading straight for Rupert’s villa. At least the journey was much shorter this time, only a little over one-and-a-half hours, and it passed without incident. When they touched down, late at night, Leanne insisted on alighting and walking to the villa without help—a little unsteadily. Rupert was standing at the porch to greet them, and Leanne practically flung herself into his arms.

“Oh—Daddy!—Daddy!” she cried, weakly but clearly enough for Rupert to hear.

“What the—?” was Rupert’s first reaction.

“It’s true, Rupert,” said Ruth, calmly. “We’ve known for some time—Ruby and I—but we didn’t know how or when to tell you. Yes, Leanne is your dau—”

She got no further, because Rupert had fainted.