For the Love of Music (Sixty Minute Romance) (6 page)

“But he is going to be
alright, isn’t he?” Asked Anne urgently.

“I hope so. It is going to
be touch and go for a few days. He is barely conscious at the moment and the
doctors don’t quite understand why he has reacted so badly to the new drugs. It
is very good of you to come.”

They spoke little for the
hour it took to get to Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The car dropped them off and
Anne followed the Colonel to the intensive care ward.

There had been no change
in Ed’s condition and they were allowed to see him although he was fast asleep.
Ed was wired up to a couple of monitors which were efficiently scanning and
beeping away. There was also the occasional bit of activity in other parts of
the ward. Here in Ed’s section, nothing was happening. Anne sat there and began
to wonder why she was there. The Colonel talked to her once more about the
turnaround there had been in Ed, since the music sessions had started. Anne
said that she felt very awkward about Ed, the way he was with her. After about
two hours, Anne left the room to get some air. When she came back into the ward
some time later, Ed was sat up on the bed and the Colonel was nowhere to be
seen.

“Nice boots.” Ed
whispered.

“Thanks, I didn’t bother
to get changed after tonight’s concert. That’s why I’m dressed like this. The
Colonel came and picked me up. I came straight away.”

“Thanks for coming.” Ed
could only whisper and kept opening and closing his eyes.

“I could be in trouble
here. The doctors don’t seem to know what’s wrong. I wanted to thank you for
not rejecting me and giving me a chance. It looks like you won’t have to worry
about me fancying you after all.” Ed closed his eyes for some minutes after saying
this which was just as well as Anne had a tear running down her cheek and was
barely keeping herself together. She wanted to reach out and hold his hand, but
was afraid.

A nurse came in to check
Ed.

“You’d be better coming
back later. He’s gone off again.” The Colonel came in behind the nurse.

“I’ll get my car to drop
you off at home, if that’s OK.” The Colonel ignored Anne’s tears and picked up
her things for her. He walked her to the waiting car and noted down her phone
number.

“I’ll keep you updated.
Hopefully, he will pull through.”

“Can I visit him? Is that
OK?” Asked Anne.

“Yes, definitely, just
check with the ward sister that there has been no change in his condition for
the worse.” The Colonel had touched Anne’s arm to reassure her.

“I hardly know him,
Colonel.” Anne said, her eyes filling up again.

“You should get to know
him, if you get the chance. He would be worth it.” The
‘if you get the
chance’
line finished Anne off and she awkwardly hugged the Colonel for a
moment before breaking away and getting into the back of the awaiting car.

It was the middle of the
night and the drive only took about thirty minutes to get Anne home. She had
thought about ringing Sandy up on her mobile, but she wouldn’t answer at this
time of night. Sandy never knew where her mobile was anyway. In the end Anne
thanked the driver and went straight to bed.

She awoke the next morning
to hear her mobile ringing. She answered and heard Gail saying.

“Hello Anne, is everything
alright? What happened last night?”

Anne went through the
events of the night. In the coolness of the morning she didn’t feel quite so
overwhelmed by the sight of Ed being so ill. Gail was turning out to be a good
friend and offered some comforting words to Anne.

“The band is going out for
lunch today, to celebrate our top billing at Replay. I know it might not be a
good time, but we really want you to come, if you are up to it. We thought the
Hard Rock Café would be appropriate, and Carlos is paying.”

“Well, if Carlos is paying,
I’m coming. I’ll see you there.” Anne jumped out of bed and for some reason
felt that today was a better day than yesterday. She rang the hospital to find
out that Ed was stable, which was an improvement for him. Anne told the nurse
that she would probably visit on Sunday. She took a deep breath and looked in
the mirror opposite her bed. She was a mess. So she set about showering and
getting ready for her day in central London. Two hours later, she stepped out
of her front door to face the world afresh. Today was going to be a good day.

When she arrived at the
Hard Rock Café, everyone else was already there. There were lots of hugs and
kisses from everyone. Carlos explained that an act called ‘Wailing Angels’ had
dropped out of the lineup and that he had already, two weeks previously, put
the Kovergirls on the reserve list, in case they would be needed.

“Cheers to the Wailing
Angels.” Said Naze, offering her glass up to the others in celebration. Carlos
also told them that the gig paid handsomely and that they could each receive
about two-thousand five hundred pounds as their cut for the concert. It was a
great celebration and Anne felt the weight of the previous night fall off her
shoulders. At about four o clock, they finished their meal and went their separate
ways.

Anne phoned Sandy, who
miraculously answered straightaway.

“Hi Sandy, It’s so good to
hear your voice.” Anne went through the events of the last twenty four hours,
finishing with the news of the band’s top billing at the Replay festival.

“That’s fantastic, you
must have got a lot better than when I last heard you.” Sandy was as tactful as
ever.

“Well, we have as a matter
of fact, as you will hear if you can be bothered to come and see us one day.”
Anne was a little peeved at Sandy’s honesty.

“Anyway, I’ve got a favour
to ask you. I need a lift to Stoke Mandeville tomorrow, to see Ed, and wondered
if you could take me?” Anne thought she would rather go with Sandy than the
Colonel, nice as he was.

“That’s fine. Does this
mean that I get to see him?” Asked Sandy.

“If he is well enough, you
can see him, but that probably will not happen. He is really not well.” Anne
was a bit cautious about Sandy meeting anyone. Strange things always seemed to
happen when she did.

Anne took the tube home and
set herself up with a plateful of nachos and a long night of television. She
fell asleep flicking the television screen between
‘Britain’s Got Talent’
and
‘The Voice’
. She eventually awoke in the middle of the night, to a
blood curdling scream, coming from a late night horror movie on the television.

Sunday morning was sunny
and frosty, but promised to be a good day. There had been no emergency calls
from the hospital or from the Colonel. No news was good news, as far as Anne
was concerned. Sandy arrived at five to eleven, looking cool and sensible. She
had a brand new, huge Toyota 4 X 4, which she was just about in control of.
Paulo had decided, that her old Citroen Saxo was not safe enough for her. At
least if she had an accident in the Toyota, she would probably not be too badly
hurt.

“Nice Car.” Anne was
impressed.

“It’s much better.  I can
see over all the other cars.” Said Sandy.

Anne got into the car and
they were off. Anne still didn’t drive which made days like today difficult,
but as long as she lived on the outskirts of London and near the tube, it
didn’t create too many problems. She handed Sandy forty pounds for petrol and
they chatted away about Paulo, Giorgio and Ed and other men from their past.
Sandy’s list of men was huge and full of disasters and problems. Paulo had
rescued her, from a sad litany of short term boyfriends. They were due to get
married in a few months’ time. Anne had only ever had a few boyfriends and only
Giorgio had come close to being serious.

“Paulo said that Giorgio
will be coming home soon.” Said Sandy, looking for a reaction from Anne.

“And how would he know
that?” Asked Anne, somewhat suspiciously.

“I don’t know. He must
have got a phone call or something.” Replied Sandy. She never asked the right
questions. Anne decided that Giorgio was an inappropriate subject of discussion
today and they sat quietly for the last part of the journey.

It turned out, that Stoke
Mandeville Hospital is like the centre of the world, on Sundays. Everyone wants
to come and see their loved ones on a Sunday. So it took about half an hour to
find a parking space big enough, for Sandy’s giant Toyota 4 X 4. Most of the
spaces were way too small. Anne got out, and slowly and nervously, guided Sandy
into the space they eventually found.

As they walked towards the
entrance the Colonel came out, now back in full uniform. He saw Anne and came
across quickly. Without thinking he hugged her and kissed her on both cheeks
before standing back.

“You are a very lucky
girl, Miss Richardson.” He said.

“I am?” Asked Anne.
Blushing at the Colonel’s unusually warm greeting.

“Sorry, I mean that Ed has
pulled through and is out of danger. It’s very good news.” The Colonel was
finding it difficult to remain calm, correct and in charge. He obviously had
great affection for all his men, including Ed.

“That’s great; I’ll go and
see him then. See you soon Colonel.” Said Anne

“I like that Colonel, he’s
a dish isn’t he?” Said Sandy.

Anne had left Sandy behind
and rushed in through the front doors. She waved to the girl on reception, who
was the one she saw on the Friday. Sandy was having problems keeping up with
Anne, such was her urgency to see Ed. She wanted to see for herself, that he
was well. Anne turned into Ed’s ward and squealed in shock at the site of
Giorgio, sat next to Ed chatting. Giorgio jumped up from his chair.

“It’s not you is it?” He
asked seriously.

“Of course it’s me, what
do you mean, why are you here?”

“I’m here to see my mate
Ed.” Said Giorgio.

“He can’t’ be your mate.
Ed, he’s not your mate, is he?” Anne was a bit flushed and frantic.

“Wow, this is the best
crash I’ve ever seen for ages.” Said Ed quietly and almost in awe.

“Giorgio! What are you
doing here?” Sandy had caught up and entered the ward.

“Just catching up with my
old buddy Ed. I had no idea, that the girl he has been talking about all morning
was you Anne.” Giorgio was equally stunned. There was a clear
‘penny
dropping’
look on his face, as he pieced together Ed’s description of Anne,
and realised that she was the musician friend he had been talking about for the
last hour.

Anne looked at Ed as if to
ask a question.

“Don’t look at me; I had
no idea that you knew Giorgio. Why would I?” Ed was still smiling and obviously
finding the whole situation very funny.

“Well I can see that you
are a whole lot better today Ed.” Said Anne. She meant it to sound bland but it
came out much better than that.

“I was very worried about
you Ed.” Said Anne quietly and meaningfully.

“Yeh well, the doc’s have
found out what went wrong. As soon as they changed around the stuff they were
pumping into me, I started to get better. I’ll be out in a few days.” Ed was
still talking quietly and a bit weakly, but he was obviously out of danger. A
nurse popped her head around the door to see what the noise was about.

“Keep it down a bit,
please.” She said to the room and then turned heel and left.

The next twenty minutes,
were some of the strangest that Anne had ever experienced. She mainly spoke
with Ed, while Sandy and Giorgio talked about old times and how Paulo was. She
was talking on one level to Ed but she wanted to talk about other things.
Having Sandy and Giorgio there made that impossible. So they talked about the
weather at least three times and even discussed where they liked to go on
holiday. It was not a good visit for Anne, but Ed seemed to be enjoying it fully.
He had a twinkle in his eyes and seemed unable to stop smiling.

As they were beginning to
run out of conversation, a small but spritely older lady entered the ward. She
was surprised to see the room so full of visitors. She spoke quickly and
lucidly.

“I’m so glad my boy has so
many friends. It’s lovely to see you all.” It should have been an awkward
moment but it was not. Two minutes later Ed’s sister walked in and Anne’s
embarrassment was complete. Her name was Fiona and she was a bit younger than
Ed. She was quite short and very slim. Her flouncy, red, floral dress was
perfect for her. Everyone shook hands and spoke to each other very easily. It
was a curious few minutes and Anne could see Ed looked very contented. At one
point he caught Anne’s eye, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if to say
‘this
is not a set up, it just happened’
.

Ed’s mum was keen for
everyone to stay, but in the end they made their excuses, and the three of them
left Ed alone with his mum and Fiona. Giorgio gave Ed a hug and it only seemed
natural for Sandy and Anne to give him a hug. Anne was very moved by this
parting and confused in her feelings.

“Thanks for coming.” Ed
whispered to Anne as they parted.

As they walked away from
the ward Sandy suggested a coffee at the café.