Hindsight by A.A. Bell Read Free Book Online Page A

to take her on holiday. Consider it a year’s probation, same as anyone who challenges their status as a ward of the state. It’s a trial period, during which you’ll both need to demonstrate how wisely you can budget. I’ll keep tabs on that too, naturally, but it’s not really me you have to impress. It’s the review committee, remember, and they’ll be tough nuts to crack. Without full disclosure of Mira’s real condition, you’ll both have to behave like angels or else they’re likely to order a thorough investigation and not only to ensure there was no incompetence or misdiagnosis in the first place. A client must have a chronic and irremediable condition before the status of a state ward is approved initially. That’s why severely handicapped orphans are usually wards for life.’
    ‘So we’ll buy the weirdest herbal remedies and document gradual but continual improvements,’ Ben said. ‘I can dummy up some reports that backdate until the first day I worked with her. And you can add those to the ones that start from the day she switched to living here voluntarily.’ He added the last part a little louder, as if to ensure Freddie only heard the right whispers in case a week in lock-up wasn’t long enough.
    ‘Great,’ Sanchez replied, then a soft flurry of movement suggested she’d also said something with her hands, and Ben moved slightly in his chair too, as if answering.
    Mira frowned at them. Hey, asking me to talk with my hands is one thing, she complained, using sign language for the deaf to speak to both at once. But if you’re talking secretly right in front of me … you promised weeks ago not to do that ever again. Then she offered both hands in the air, palms open and fingers splayed, to assist in a switch to finger Braille and offer one of them the chance to respond silently.
    She felt large warm hands greet hers, matching thumb for thumb and finger for finger.
    Relx, Ben typed, as awkwardly as ever using the simplest form of finger Braille. He wasn’t nearly so good at it as Matron Sanchez. Coodnt ne way I hurt to much.
    O sori! Mira pulled her hands away, remembering his crippled shoulder. She’d grown used to slowing down and over-simplifying her finger Braille to ensure he understood her, but she felt slow in the head now too, since she should have figured that much herself.
    ‘Okay, so let me get this straight,’ Mira said, still guarding every word to limit Freddie’s ability to manipulate her life. ‘I can live here voluntarily, but still challenge my status as a ward of the state — and if I win, I can then spend all my money however I choose, with no need to ask for permission from any guardian, even if I still live here?’
    ‘You’ll be free enough to make the same mistakes as anybody,’ Ben replied.
    Fine by me, she read from the lips of the ghost matron. I’ll bring all the paperwork to the hospital, Ben . It may take a few days …
    ‘Fine by me,’ echoed the invisible now-Sanchez at nearly the same instant. ‘So long as you pay rent and meals, same as everyone.’
    Mira shivered at the coincidence — not the first time she’d been amazed by the little ways history had of repeating itself. However, the ghost matron soon ended the lesson, staring straight at Mira and mouthing a silent apology before hurrying out — while at the same time, Mira heard the invisible now-matron opening and closing her desk drawer again.
    ‘Hold still please, Mira.’ Sanchez set something down on her desk nearest to Ben which sounded a little too much like a medical kit as she opened it. ‘One more needle, I’m afraid, Mira. Just a blood test.’
    ‘Blood test?’ Mira’s heart pounded harder inside her chest, suspecting something already in the syringe. ‘I only had one yesterday!’
    ‘Starting today, every week for the next six weeks at least, sorry. Day before you leave, day of; it’s procedure. We need to ensure your body continues to flush out all the residual