The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 289
“Mum, what is it?” I cried, even though I already knew.
She looked up at me with a pleading in her eyes.
“Pain,” she said, gasping for breath. “Help me, Amy,” shecried.
Although this had happened before, I hadn’t expected it tobe happening right now. I remember quite clearly that this had happened thefollowing day, on my birthday. She had collapsed in pain just like now, and Ihad phoned an ambulance and she had been taken into hospital.
Why was it happening now, a day early? Had our row and hersubsequent upending of the rum bottle triggered the pain early? Whatever thereason, I had no alternative but to follow the same course of action as beforeand phone for an ambulance.
A few hours later I was sitting by her hospital bed as sheslept. I was in one of the very wards that I would soon be employed in.
I knew that soon a doctor would come round to give me the inevitablenews that she had advanced liver cancer. Getting there a day early wasn’t goingto make one iota of difference. She would never be going home again. From here,it would be a hospice which was where she would end her days.
I had known from the outset that there would be nothing Icould do but at least I had confronted the problem with her and got someindication of how she was feeling. Now I could try again, in the past, whenthere might still be time to turn things around.
It would be three more years until I got another chance.
Chapter Fourteen
2007
I was back in my bedroom again, three years before mymother’s death, wondering if I would be able to get through to her this time.
I had not seen her since that awful day when I had ended uptaking her to hospital because I had arrived abroad on both my next two tripsback in time.
After I had finished my nursing degree, I had decided towork abroad with the Red Cross for a few years before I settled down to work atthe hospital. They had been richly rewarding years – hard work, and harrowingat times, but without doubt they were the best years of my adult life.
On New Year’s Eve 2009 I found myself in Indonesia, helpingout in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. There had been a number of disastersin the Asia-Pacific region that year which had led to a strong Red Crosspresence in the area. Before arriving in Sumatra, I had been giving aid in thePhilippines which had experienced an extremely destructive typhoon.
I had been part of the team deployed to help out with theaid effort. Even though several weeks had passed since the earthquake by thetime I arrived in Sumatra, the signs of devastation were everywhere.
My job included everything from dealing with the aiddeliveries coming in from abroad, to helping the locals rebuild their shatteredcommunities.
On New Year’s Eve I found myself in a small fishing villageon the Sumatran coast where a Red Cross team was helping to build a newemergency centre to provide temporary shelter for families of the localfishermen.
This was intended not only for use in the current disaster,but also to be robust enough to withstand future earthquakes. It was beingbuilt on the highest land in the area, which also took into account the risk ofassociated tsunamis. After what had happened to Rachel, this was a projectextremely close to my heart.
I spent the night in the village, celebrating New Year withthe locals. Despite the recent disaster, all the villagers were determined toface 2010 with a renewed sense of optimism. Very few could speak English butthis didn’t matter. We had a shared bond that transcended language. We sang,danced and partied all night around a large bonfire on the beach.
The next day, I travelled to the warehouse in Padang tocontinue work in co-ordinating the relief effort.
The following year I found myself in Australia. I wasn’tworking there, but doing the obligatory backpacker thing, exploring thedelights that this huge country had to offer.
This was the year after I had finished my degree when I wascombining Red Cross work with travelling. I was in my early twenties at thetime and remembered my trip to Australia fondly. The one thing that would havemade it better was some more money as I was travelling on the absolutebreadline, but I had planned to do something about that.
When I arrived on New Year’s Eve, I materialised on BondiBeach, where I was lying on a towel soaking up the hot Southern Hemispheresunshine. Just as when I had arrived in Indonesia, this was another welcome respitefrom the endless drudgery of freezing cold British December days I had beenenduring for what seemed like forever.
One feature of being so far from home was that I arrived onthese trips in the daytime. In Sumatra I had been in the middle of buildingwork on the shelter and this time it was already early afternoon, hence thesunbathing. This was infinitely preferable to arriving at night when I wouldhave found myself in the grotty hostel with several other people.
I had no intention of going back to the hostel tonight. Iwas getting pretty good at planning things in advance by now, and knowing I wasgoing to be in Sydney on this date, I had made preparations to make my stayinfinitely more comfortable than before.
One of the things I remembered about Australia was howpopular horse racing was over there. Unlike in the UK, where alcohol andbetting shops didn’t mix, here things were a lot more relaxed. It seemed manypubs had betting facilities on tap along with the beer.
Although horse racing had never been my thing, I had done myhomework before the trip and now knew all about the TAB which stood forTotalisator Agency Board. This was the Australian equivalent of our Britishbookmakers and I was intending to win some tidy sums of money to help my New Yearcelebrations along a bit.
There were many things I had wanted to do in Sydney, butjust hadn’t had the money. I was fresh out of college, with very little