There Should Be More Dancing by Rosalie Ham Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t look like a carer.’
    â€˜I don’t want to look like a carer. You’d be Margery.’
    â€˜Mrs Blandon to you.’
    â€˜You’re alright then?’
    â€˜I’m stuck. You can help me out, if you wouldn’t mind.’
    Anita said, ‘There might be something broken.’
    â€˜I’d certainly know if I’d a broken bone, don’t you think?’
    â€˜We’d better call an ambulance just the same.’
    Cheryl had warned her that the old lady could be cantankerous, but Anita saw terror in her eyes. ‘Mrs Blandon, it’s okay. You don’t necessarily die if you go to hospital these days.’
    â€˜Now listen here, I’d know if there was anything broken, and I tell you there isn’t. Just help me out.’
    â€˜You’re bleeding.’ Anita carefully peeled the bandaids from Margery’s papery shin. ‘Ouch. That’s nasty. Right on your tibia.’
    â€˜Do you always state the obvious?’
    â€˜Stay there,’ Anita said and winked. In the kitchen she flicked the kettle on, then collected pillows and a blanket. She propped Margery up in the bath and tucked the blanket around her. While Margery drank a cup of sweet black tea Anita sat on the back step smoking a cigarette. ‘Tell me what happened, Mrs Blandon.’
    â€˜I slid, very gracefully I must say, on spilled shampoo.’
    â€˜You’re real lucky, you know. One of my other ladies, Mrs Razic down the street, slipped in the bath but she wasn’t holding on. She’s got stitches.’
    Margery said, ‘I’m perfectly alright and you can tell my daughter, Judith, that I am not going to a nursing home.’
    â€˜You should get a flatmate, an international student since you’re so close to the uni. You could have been there for days.’
    â€˜A flatmate’s not going to stop me from falling.’
    â€˜No, but they help around the house and they’d help you out of the bath.’
    â€˜This is the last time I’ll fall in the bath, I assure you.’
    â€˜We’d better get you checked out by your doctor.’
    Margery panicked. ‘As I’ve said, I’m quite alright!’
    â€˜Okay, okay, don’t give yourself a stroke. But what if something goes wrong with you later because of this fall and I get thrown in jail? I can’t afford to have any sort of trouble.’ Any sort of trouble wasa very real threat to Anita, since she held her job on a probationary basis through her Corrective Services officer.
    â€˜That’s right,’ Margery said, ‘just thinking of yourself. I thought you were here to help me .’
    â€˜I am,’ Anita said, sitting on the edge of the bath. ‘And you do need to see a doctor.’
    â€˜If you tell Judith,’ Margery said, ‘I’ll phone the council and tell them you stole my pearls.’
    â€˜Yeah, right,’ Anita said, ‘and I’ll phone the ACAT team and tell them you need to go to a home.’
    â€˜You’re an appalling person.’
    â€˜You started it.’ Anita got a kitchen chair and put it beside the bath, dug around in her work basket and found dressings. She tenderly cleaned Margery’s bleeding shin, creased the skin back into place and covered it with a clear plastic dressing, then she got into the bath behind Margery and wrapped her arms around her chest. ‘I’m going to lift you up, alright? Trust me.’ She knew that Margery had never felt so vulnerable or useless, knew that she wanted to cry but was too furious, afraid of slipping again, and didn’t really trust someone the size of Anita to bear her weight. She also knew she no longer had a choice.
    â€˜One, two, three,’ Anita said and felt Margery’s slight body stiffen against her, but she eased her up, rested her on the edge of the bath then slid her over to the chair. Anita was probably the only other person on the