Doctor Who_ Relative Dementias - Mark Michalowski [73]
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘I came to find you. And Gran.’
‘There was no need, everything’s fine.’
But Michael could see that her smile was forced, her jaw tight.
‘Are you on leave, then?’ she asked. ‘Your father didn’t say anything. I sent you a letter. Maybe it missed you.’
He gave a shrug, realising how dry his mouth was, and tried to remember how his speech was supposed to start; but she didn’t give him a chance.
‘It’s lovely to see you, Michael. Gran will be so pleased. She keeps talking about you. I think she feels a bitembarrassed about being here, you know. But Doctor Menzies says she’s responding to the treatment, which is good, isn’t it? I don’t know how long –’
‘Mum, listen –’
‘– she’ll be here, but it probably won’t be long. And then I thought she could come and stay with your father and me for a while. Just ‘til she gets back on her feet. Maureen’s been marvellous about looking after Gran’s place – she told me she doesn’t know why Gran needs a cleaner, the place is so spotless.’
‘Mum, I’ve got something to tell you –’
‘Let’s see if Mrs Christmas will rustle us up a cup of tea. You look like you could do with one. Aren’t they feeding you properly? I know what UNIT catering’s like, but it’s not –’
‘Mum!’ He squeezed her hand tightly – too tightly, he realised, as he saw her wince. ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’
‘Sorry.’ She looked shocked – almost offended that he’d interrupted her so forcibly, started a tiny crack in her shell. ‘Go on, what is it?’
‘I’m not here on leave,’ he said slowly. ‘I’ve gone AWOL.’
She frowned as if he were speaking a foreign language. ‘I don’t understand. What d’you mean?’
‘Absent without leave, Mum. I’ve run away.’
She stared at him blankly, and he felt her hand go very slightly limp in his, felt her withdraw from him. ‘But you were really happy there. What’s changed?’
He took a deep breath, scrabbling about in his head again for the speech he’d been working on, but his mouth was running ahead of his thoughts. ‘Nothing’s changed, Mum. It’s just not working out.’
‘But you were so happy,’ she repeated, like a mantra that would make everything true and bright and whole.
‘No, Mum. No I wasn’t.’
‘When did this start? Are you sure about this? You can’t just run away – they’ll court-martial you. Your father. .’
‘It’s nothing to do with Dad. This is down to me.’
This time she pulled her hand away completely ‘But he’ll be heartbroken, Michael. You know how much it meant to him that you got into UNIT.’
‘I know, Mum. That’s what makes it so hard.’
‘Have you told your father yet? Does he know about this?’
Michael shook his head; the scene was playing out just as he’d feared it would. ‘No, Mum, he doesn’t know. Nobody knows. That’s the whole point. I’ve had enough of UNIT. I want out.’
Ace and Alexander spent a frantic few minutes trying to get the radio to work, but finally had to concede defeat.
‘What now?’ Alexander asked.
‘I dunno. The tweedies might be happy that were cut off. If they were going to do anything to us, they’d probably already have done it, not just wrecked the radio.’
Alexander got to his feet. ‘We should go and tell John what’s happened.’
Ace nodded. ‘You take the dinghy and tell him. I’m going to keep an eye on the tweedies. At least if they come for us, we’ll get a bit of advance notice.’
‘You sure? Wouldn’t you be better coming to the boat with me?’ ‘Maybe, but I think I’d rather know exactly where they are.
For all we know, they’ve got a boat of their own, or they can swim like fish or something.’ She looked around the camp. ‘If there’s anything you think you might need, take it now – just in case you don’t get a chance later. Keep an eye