Emergency: Wife Lost and Found by Carol Marinelli

on the head not too lightly with the hairbrush, but of course she hadn’t. Pauline apologised quickly that the brush had slipped. So Lorna just sat there, enjoying the hot air on her scalp and Pauline’s idle chatter, even answering when it was merited, but her mind was in another place. James was a nice man—the fact she was here today proved it. He was also good looking, funny and sexy too, and one who deserved so much more than she was able to give him.
    ‘That looks better!’ Pauline deemed her dry enough to survive and Lorna stepped down from the stool. ‘You look almost normal.’
    It was a compliment. Today she’d not only had a bath but had graduated from pyjamas to leggings and was wearing one of James’s rugby shirts. If he had time at the weekend he’d said that he’d take her shopping so she could buy some clothes for her trip back home.
    ‘So are you going back to stay at your friend’s?’ Pauline shooed her over to the sofa where Lorna, just a bit drained now, was quite glad to lie down and chat as Pauline flicked the television on and settled in for another hour of a self-help show.
    ‘I leave on Sunday. My friend’s looking for a couple of rental properties for me, but I can stay there for now till something comes up.’
    ‘What about your parents?’ Pauline asked. ‘Why don’t you stay with them till you’re well?’
    ‘We don’t really get on.’
    ‘You see them, though?’ Pauline asked, tearing her eyes from the family disaster unfolding on the television screen, to the real live one in her living room.
    ‘I see them every couple of weeks, or at least once a month,’ Lorna said. ‘They live in Glasgow, I’m in the country.’ She gave a thin smile. ‘It works better that way.’
    ‘You should try and patch things up,’ Pauline said. ‘You only get one set of parents.’
    ‘We have patched things up.’ Lorna shrugged. A fortnightly or monthly visit and a weekly chat on the phone was progress, though she wasn’t about to tell Pauline that. Or that’s how things had been till she’d told them she was staying with James. Her mother had rung her only once since the revelation, talking in low, urgent whispers and insisting she move out, while her father, just as he had all those years ago, refused to even come to the phone.
    ‘And what about work?’
    ‘I should be able to go back the following week.’ Lorna yawned and answered at the same time. ‘Or definitely the next.’
    ‘So you’re not going to look in London?’
    ‘I don’t think so.’ Lorna gave a tired smile. ‘It didn’t exactly work out as I planned. If it hadn’t been for James I don’t know how I’d have managed. Maybe I’mbest staying put, where I’ve got my friends and support.’ She was so tired now she didn’t finish, just lay there half watching the TV before dozing off. She did not notice when Pauline tucked a throw rug around her and flicked off the TV before heading home to her own family. It was a lovely late afternoon sleep, and that was how James found her when he came home a couple of hours later. His plan had been to stay at work for as long as he could—but, given the hours he’d put in these past weeks, when the usually busy department had suddenly emptied, his loaded in-box was done and sorted, when May, on a late shift, had walked past his office and questioned why he was still there, he really couldn’t justify it.
    ‘Go home,’ May had scolded. ‘No doubt we’ll call you back the second you get there, but for now just go home.’
    It felt like home as he climbed the steps to his town-house, and that was what troubled him. He knew she was in there, and the wave of nostalgia that hit him almost knocked this strong man off his feet. The house was in semi-darkness as he walked in with take-away in hand. Lorna, too thin and too pale, was dozing on the sofa, wearing his clothes. It was so like it had once been it almost killed him to see it again.
    ‘Hey!’ As she stirred he