“You have five. And then you need to leave Keya to sleep.” The nurse turned and strode away.

Sujin leaned over Keya and said, “I got hold of the cafe - they’re all worried, by the way, and hope you feel better soon. Gilly wanted to come over, but I told her I wasn’t sure about visiting hours in the critical care unit. That only made her worse. But, eventually, I spoke to your sister, and she’s fine. She can’t understand why you are ill as you both tasted the same things, and she has no side effects.”

“It takes time,” Keya warned.

“I know. Which is why I told Maitri to go to Cirencester Hospital to get checked out. She protested. So I asked Gilly to take her, and she seemed delighted to have something to do.”

“Thank you,” said Keya, suddenly feeling weary again. She closed her eyes.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Keya woke the next morning feeling groggy and stiff. She wriggled her toes and gently raised both legs to check they still worked. They did, and she didn’t feel any tingling, which she thought was a good sign.

Next, she tried her right arm. She was able to move it out of the white sheets which covered her. It took a lot of effort, and it was slow going, but finally she placed it on top of the sheets and lay back with relief.

Turning her head and her thoughts to her left arm, she concentrated really hard. Nothing. Her arm wouldn’t move. Feeling her heart start to beat faster and the panic set in, she took a deep breath, held it, and breathed out. Everyone had told her panicking would only make things worse, and she knew they were right.

She lay back listening to the rhythmic sigh of machines and the beeping of others.

“You awake, Keya?” called Peggy.

“Yes,” Keya replied.

Putting her right arm to use, she managed to shuffle her body into a half lying, half sitting position. It wasn’t great, but at least she could see Peggy and the rest of the ward.

Peggy smiled and acknowledged, “You slept a lot. Do you feel better?”

“I do,” Keya admitted. “And you?”

“I like my own bed. And there’s too much noise in here. Hopefully, they’ll let me out after the doctor has checked me over this morning. Just a false alarm, I’m sure.”

Keya hoped her neighbour was right, although she had her reservations. Why would they have kept Peggy in overnight in the critical care unit if they weren’t concerned about her? Or me for that matter, Keya thought.

A light-blue clad orderly appeared at the entrance to the ward, pushing a trolley holding several tall stainless-steel flasks.

“Oh good. Time for a cup of tea,” Peggy said, and she reached down to a cable dangling below her bed and pressed a button.

A different navy blue-clad nurse from the previous day pushed past the drinks trolley and approached Peggy’s bed. “Good morning,” she said curtly.

Peggy ignored her tone and said, “Can you help me and my friend to sit up, so we can enjoy our morning cuppa?”

“Of course,” and the nurse helped Peggy sit up, rearranging her pillows behind her back.

Peggy smiled at Keya. Did Peggy really need so much help?

When the nurse approached Keya, she observed, “You’ve managed to move yourself a bit. What movement do you have in your arms?”

“None in my left still, but my right is working better.”

“Good. The doctor will visit after breakfast.”

Keya was grateful for her tea, even though she felt like a small child as the orderly held the grey plastic cup up to her lips so she could sip from it.

“Better than home, this is,” said Peggy cheerfully. “And we get to enjoy breakfast in bed, too.”

Breakfast was a choice of cornflakes, Weetabix, or bran flakes. Keya chose bran flakes, which were served in a grey plastic bowl, a strawberry yogurt, and a slice of brown toast with orange marmalade.

It wasn’t gourmet, but it was simple, and Keya found she was hungry, since she hadn’t eaten the night before.

A young orderly in a light-blue uniform arrived at Keya’s bedside and said, “I’ve come to help. Would you like me to feed you?”

No, Keya thought instinctively. But what if she couldn’t feed herself? She looked down at the table, which had been swung across her bed. Its supporting stand and wheels were to her right.

“Can you raise the table?” she asked.

“Of course.”

But even with the table raised, Keya couldn’t spoon cereal on her own and raise it to her mouth. In the end, she allowed her cheerful helper to collect a spoonful of bran flakes and lift it to her lips, where she was able to spoon it into her own mouth.

It was laborious and Keya felt self-conscious, but whenever she looked across at Peggy, her neighbour smiled and nodded her encouragement.

The assistant also helped her eat her yogurt, but at least she could grip her toast herself and lift it to her mouth. Eating was not going to be fun until her right arm was working properly, and by the end of the meal, she felt exhausted.

“Thank you,” she said to her cheerful helper, who wheeled the table out of the way.

“No problem. And I’m on duty all day, so if you need any help with headphones or the like, just call?”

“How?” Keya asked.

The orderly reached under her bed and scooped up a cable like the one next to Peggy’s bed. Attached to it there was a flat red button. “With this. Do you want to practise pressing it?”

Feeling rather ridiculous at having to practise anything so simple, but realising the orderly wouldn’t leave until she did, Keya pressed the button.

“Excellent,” the orderly praised her as if Keya had reached an important goal. Perhaps she had.

The nurse appeared at the entrance to the ward and the orderly left Keya, and said as she approached the nurse, “I was just checking Keya could use the call button. What would you like me to do now?”

The two blue-clad figures left the ward.

A few minutes later, the senior nurse reappeared with the doctor who’d seen Keya the previous day. They approached the first bed and drew the curtain around it.

“Derek should be here after the doctor’s rounds,” Peggy said. “What about you? Is that attentive young man coming back to see you?”

“I don’t know,” Keya admitted. It was a Saturday, so she wasn’t sure who’d come to see her. People had plans. Millie and Ryan were running the Cotswold Way. Millie. The Cafe. She was supposed to be covering.

She should call someone, but she couldn’t. She didn’t have her phone.