“I’m worried, Jo hasn’t come to school today.” Susan fretted, “it’s not like her, what if Tanya got to her somehow?” She was fidgeting as she talked to her friends, swaying from foot to foot. "I sent her a text but haven't had a reply yet."

"Do you have her home number? Perhaps she slept in?" Abby suggested, trying to placate the nervous girl.

"Yeah, hold on I'll call her, her mum doesn't go out much so she should answer." Susan got her phone out and stood off to the side to make the call. She bit her fingernails as the phone rang, on and on. Eventually she gave up, even more concerned.

"No one answered, what does that mean? Surely it's not good?" She paced back and forth, "I spoke to her last night, she was fine, she didn't say they were going anywhere." She stopped and looked directly at Anne, "Anne, you know these things, what should I do?"

Put on the spot Anne looked at her side eyed, "Erm, trust that she will call you when she can?" She tried.

"That's no help, perhaps I should go to their house… no, that's no use, if they didn't answer the phone there's no one home. Unless their house burnt down, would the phone still ring? What if they all died of smoke inhalation in their sleep?" Susan's pacing was getting hectic.

"Susan! Stop it!" Heather said, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to stop pacing. "She will be fine. Honestly, there will be a perfectly sensible explanation and it won't be that they're all dead!"

Susan nodded but her eyes were still wide. "Perhaps I should find Tanya and beat it out of her, it's probably all her fault."

"Urg!" Heather threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Jenny, your turn!"

"Nuh uh, not unless I'm allowed to slap her." Jenny answered.

"That's it!" Susan exclaimed, grabbing her phone from her pocket, "I'll phone the hospital! If Tanya assaulted her then she will be there!"

Before any of them could persuade her not to, she had looked up the number and was on the phone, finger in her ear to block out the school noise and hunched into the wall to make herself heard.

"Thank you, yes... sorry to bother you... okay I will, thank you so much." The girls only heard snatches of one side of the conversation. But it sounded like Susan had been transferred to another department.

"Yes, I'll hold." She gave a thumbs up at the girls, making them wonder what the hell was happening. "Jo? Oh my, I'm so glad you're there…" she walked away down the hall, the whole conversation now lost to the girls.

"What the fuck? Jo's in hospital? Shit did Tanya actually get to her?" Abby asked her friends.

"Oh man, I totally thought Susan was overreacting! I feel so stink now." Heather said, dismayed. They all fell silent, watching Susan on the phone.

"No Susan, it's my mum, she was rushed into hospital this morning. I had to call the ambulance." Jo was leaning over the desk at the nurses station. "Yeah, she had super bad cramps, couldn't get out of bed and she had a fever. I'm so sorry I didn't call, by the time I thought to I was in the hospital and they ask you to turn your phone off." Jo felt bad for worrying Susan so badly that she was calling the hospital. "Yeah, I came in the ambulance, dad is still at work. They're rushing her into surgery, apparently they think it's an obstructed bowel." The nurse was looking at her with a patient stare which said 'it's not a public telephone' "Hey, Susan, can you possibly tell the office that I won't be in today? Thanks, I'd better go, I think the nurse wants to use the phone. Love you."

She hung up the phone, "Thanks, sorry for hogging it." She said to the nurse.

"It's no problem, is your dad coming in or do you need to call him?" The nurse asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, he should be here soon. He had to go home and get clothes and stuff for mum." The nurse nodded and smiled. "He's on nightshift so he probably won't stay as long as I do, he normally sleeps around this time of the day."

"That's fine, will you be okay getting home though? Your mum will probably be out of surgery in a few hours and we will know if everything went okay by then. You can wait until she wakes up but I doubt she will be compos mentis until tomorrow morning."

"Oh, I didn't think. Perhaps I should have asked my girlfriend if her dad might pick me up."

"If you want to call, just nip down to the foyer, you're allowed phones down there." The nurse suggested.

Jo wandered down the sterile corridors, she hated this place and it's pale green decor but she had spent an amazing length of time here visiting her mum. She knew where to get the best awful coffee and which dishes to avoid in the cafeteria, she knew where the toilets were which had actual hand towels rather than the ineffectual hot breath hand dryers. She also knew that the most uncomfortable chairs in existence lived in the foyer. Some bright spark had apparently decided to deter people from sleeping in them by moulding them to fit absolutely nobody's arse and to be impossible to lie on without bruising your ribs and hips.

She reached the foyer and went outside rather than try the seats. She dragged her phone out of her pocket and waited impatiently for it to turn on and get a signal. The low brick wall by the door was infinitely more comfortable than the seats inside, even being just over freezing point.

Her phone eventually booted and chirped loudly about her four text messages and six missed calls, all from Susan. She smiled, it was an oddly nice feeling knowing that someone cared enough to worry. She called Susan's number from her contacts, hoping they hadn't gotten back to class yet. It answered after two rings and Susan's worried voice said "Jo, are you okay? Do you need me to come down to the hospital?"

"No, it's fine, she won't be out of the surgery until after lunch and then won't wake for a bit after that. I was just wondering if you could possibly ask one of your parents if I could get a lift? Dad's going to be sleeping by then so…"

"I'm sure they can, I will call them now and text you once I know. What ward is she in?" Susan asked. Joe gave her the information and told her she loved her again before hanging up. Suddenly she realised that today may have been the first time she said that. She considered it, sitting on the wall in the cold. She meant it, she really really meant it.

An old man sat on the wall beside her. "You okay?" He asked, Jo realised she had tears in her eyes and wiped them away.

"Yeah, happy and sad tears. It's a bit… yeah." She trailed off.

The man pulled out his cigarettes and lit one, then seeing Jo's wistful look offered her one.

"Nah, I quit a few months back, I did it for my girlfriend. She would be disappointed if I started again." It was hard, times like this she wanted to smoke so badly that her hands shook.

"Good on you, wish I had quit when I met my wife, might not have this cancer killing me!" He said cheerfully, taking another pull on the cigarette.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Are you in for treatment?" She asked.

"Nah, nothing they can do. I'm visiting my wife, she got alzheimer's and now she has pneumonia too. The old person's friend they call it." He smiled and sighed. "At least we're pretty much going together." He looked at her and winked. "You tell that girlfriend how much you love her every chance you get. Once you get to my age those memories are the ones you hang on to." He pulled himself to his feet and stubbed out the butt against the wall, Patted Jo's shoulder and walked into the hospital.

Jo felt the tears start again, this time welling up in part for the old man.