Chapter 19: Six Months

Five months later Felix was reading about delphiniums, with a hand on the curve under his shirt.

The woman in the bed said, "That's the wrong rose."

He looked up.

The catalogue slid off his knee.

Mrs. Froster's eyes were open.

They were hazel and clouded, and they were fixed on the page in his lap.

"The Old Lantern is pink," she said in a cracked whisper. "You read it as yellow. You've read it yellow three times."

Felix did not know what he said.

He found himself on his feet with the call button in his fist, pressing it over and over.

Nurses came.

The doctor came, and a second doctor, and Felix was moved gently out of the way to stand against the wall.

Through the legs and arms he saw her hand lift an inch from the blanket.

"Where's Casper?" she asked.

"At the scan," Felix heard himself say. "He's on his way. I'll call him now."

"Scan," she said, frowning. "What scan?"

He was already dialling.

Casper arrived a short while later with his coat open and his stomach round under a sweater.

He had run the whole way from the clinic.

He stopped in the doorway.

The nurses made room.

Mrs. Froster turned her head on the pillow.

"Casper," she said. "Look at you."

"Mom."

He crossed the room in three steps and went down on his knees by the bed with both arms around her.

She put one hand, shaking, on the back of his head.

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