Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [128]
“I could indeed, and would be glad to. We’re not busy tonight.”
“Ita, you see, you don’t know me from a hole in the ground.”
“That’s true, but I’ll get to know you,” she reassured him.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I want someone who doesn’t know me.”
“Oh, yes?”
“It’s easier to talk to a stranger. Will you tell me—am I for the chop?”
Ita had been asked this question before. It was never easy to answer. “Well, you know your illness is serious and that we’re at the stage where all we can do is make you comfortable. But you’re not on the way out tonight.”
“Good. But some night soon, do you think?”
“It won’t be long, Muttie, but I’d say you’ve time to sort things out.” Ita was reassuring. “Is there anyone you want me to call for you?”
“How do you know I want to sort things out?” he asked.
“Everyone does at night, especially their first night in hospital. They want to make speeches and talk to lawyers and they want to talk to all kinds of people. Then, when they’re leaving here, they’ve forgotten it all.”
Muttie’s eyes beseeched her. “And do you think I’ll get out of here?”
Ita looked him in the eye. “I tell you, as sure as I know my own name, you’ll go home from here and then you’ll forget all about us. You won’t remember me and my cups of tea anymore.”
“I will indeed remember you and how kind you are. I’ll tell everyone about you. And you’re right, I do want to make speeches and talk to lawyers and tell people things. I hope to do it all from home.”
“Good man, yourself, Muttie,” Ita said, as she took his empty teacup away. She knew he didn’t have long, but she’d do her best to make his mind easy. She sighed. He was such a warm little man. Why was he being taken when so many grumpy and sour-faced people were left for years with nobody involved in their lives? It was beyond understanding. She and Sean sometimes said it was very hard to believe in a kind, all-knowing God when you saw the random way fate worked. A decent man with a huge family and group of friends was about to die.
Sean would have similar stories from being a policeman. A kid who had joined a gang and had been caught on his first outing, faced with a criminal record; a mother who had no access to money of any kind, shoplifting to get food for her baby and ending up in court.
Life was many things, but it certainly wasn’t fair.
It was clear that Muttie wanted to go home, so they contacted the palliative-care team. Two nurses would visit him each day. After three days, Ita handed him over to a small crowd of people, all of them delighted to see him coming home. Two of Muttie’s children, Mike and Marian, together with Marian’s husband, Harry, had arrived from Chicago, which shocked him.
“You must be made of money that you fly all that way just to see me. Aren’t I grand? I’m going home today and Ita’s going to come to see me,” Muttie added.
“Oh, trust him to find someone else the moment I leave him out of my sight!” Lizzie said, with a laugh of pride in the notion of Muttie the Lothario.
· · ·
Muttie’s Associates from the pub were anxious to see him when he returned. Lizzie wanted to keep them at bay, but her daughter Cathy wasn’t so sure.
“He relaxes when he’s talking to them,” Cathy said.
“But is it sensible to have six big men in the sitting room when he’s so tired all the time?” Lizzie wasn’t sure how much relaxation that would involve. Cathy knew that she was trying to restore order to the home; her brother and sister were, she knew, going to be staying for some time. They all realized their father only had a very short time to live.
Much as Lizzie and Cathy wanted to keep Muttie to themselves, with only the family around him, he did seem to blossom when friends, neighbors and Associates visited. He had always been a man who loved talking with others. None of that side of him had disappeared. It was only his little thin body that showed any sign of the disease that was killing him.
Hooves sat at his feet most of the day. He stopped eating and lay in his basket listlessly.
“Hooves and I,” said Muttie, “we’re not able to get up and about