AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“D’you want me to call an ambulance?” Niamh asked.
I didn’t even have to think before answering. “No.”
“But I mean, all this – it looks like he’s taken a hell of a lot, Lilith,” she said.
I sat back on my heels. “Right, so we call for an ambulance. What do we report? Twenty-five-year-old white male, nine stone wringing-wet, five feet ten, sexual abuse survivor with a history of opiate and benzodiazepine addiction, two previous suicide attempts and one very fucking recent psychotic episode. Needs medical attention for alcohol poisoning and temazepam overdose, and a side order of creative self-harm with a cigarette. You’re the bloody nurse here, Niamh – what do you think they’re going to do with him once they’ve emptied his stomach and stuck him back together?”
“They’d section him,” Niamh said in a tiny voice.
“And will that be a private room with three therapists to every patient, and a Zen garden for a view?” I asked.
“No,” Niamh admitted. “He’d maybe spend a few days in a single room, but then he’d probably be moved to a communal ward.”
“That’s pretty much what I guessed. Believe me, I am not letting the man I love spend the next decade or three drooling his way around a mixed psych ward whilst I chase enough signatures to get him out.”
I did my best to find a calmer tone before continuing. “Look, if the auditory hallucinations had kicked in or he was totally out of it I promise you I’d be on the phone to the ambulance right now, but if I can get your fuckwit of a brother’s participation we’ve still got time to get him to bring the lot back up.”
She stared at me. “Can you do that? I mean, it doesn’t sound all that safe…”
“Niamh, I’ve just about got a fucking degree in it. My mother made five serious suicide attempts of her own before she got lucky and had God knows how many accidental overdoses; after I’d dealt with the havoc it caused the first time I decided to sort it out myself from then on. And don’t you dare bloody slump on me Strachan,” I ordered as I automatically hauled Finn into a better upright position. “She only succeeded in killing herself because she got smart and waited until I was at school for the last one.”
I really didn’t want to remember any of this. ‘Havoc’ was putting it mildly: threats of foster care, social workers, residential homes – for me and my mother – had haunted me throughout my teenage years. I’d only avoided being part of the dreaded System through a judicious combination of lying through my teeth to the authorities and running away to a series of artists’ squats that were scattered around London, always one step ahead of those who were trying to do The Right Thing.
Niamh looked between me and her beloved brother, clearly terrified. “I can do this,” I assured her in the kindest voice I could manage. “And I swear, if it looks like the temazepam has dissolved and is working its way around his bloodstream, then we call that ambulance. Okay?”
Niamh finally gave a nod of surrender. “What do you need?”
*****
Even though it had been years since I’d last had to do it, I could remember the technique as if it were yesterday. Niamh watched in silence as I spooned the correct amount of table salt into a mug of warm water and stirred it until all the grains had dissolved. Once I’d checked that Finn was still sufficiently conscious for the procedure to work I held the concoction to his mouth. “Swallow,” I ordered.
“Ah Christ…” Finn grimaced and tried to pull away.
“Uh uh.” I put my hand under his chin. “This or an ambulance and hospital, Strachan. Your choice.”
“M’ s’rry,” he said, but managed to drink most of the contents of the mug in one go. The second the mug was empty he started to retch.
“Bowl,” I ordered, and Niamh handed me a yellow plastic washing up basin. I rubbed Finn’s back with my right hand and he gave a moan of pain and doubled over. “There’s a good man,” I murmured and kept running my palm down his spine. “Nearly there.”
As soon as I’d said the words, he gave one last heave and black vomit erupted from his mouth and nose and splashed into the bowl.
When Finn had finally finished virtually parting company with his vital organs I inspected the contents of the basin. The foul liquid was dotted with a scattering of tiny white tablets, some whole and others in fragments. “Hardly dissolved at all. Looks like we’re good.”
Niamh cast me an incredulous glance and I attempted a smile in return. “Well, you know what I mean.”
*****
Half an hour later and between us Niamh and I had managed to half-walk, half-drag Finn into her and Feargal’s bedroom, where he could start to sleep off the effects of his latest misadventure.
Niamh gave a light tap on the door before she came back in to see us. “How’s he doing?”
“Asleep.” I stood aside so she could see her brother on the bed behind me. I answered the second question without it being asked. “And yes, properly asleep, not comatose, and lying on his side. He’s still completely pissed, but I can keep an eye on that. I think he’s claimed your bed, though. We could probably move him in a few hours- ”
“Ah God no, let him rest. There’s always the couch and Sinéad’s bed for us. I’ve sent her to stay with her friend tonight – thought it was probably for the best? You two take our room, yeah? I’ll sort you some night things if you want? Toiletries, a nightie, stuff like that?”
Every utterance was a question, a check that she was still doing things right. I’d clearly terrified her. “That would be great,” I replied and fumbled around for the right words of apology, but just as I was about to speak she stepped away.
“Oh, and you’ll need a toothbrush. I’ve got a spare one under the kitchen sink. I’ll be back in a sec.”
