Half Life by Heather Atkinson Page B

herself to ignore it.
      “ Alright I promise, I ’ ll take you back to the hospital, ” JD exclaims fearfully.
      She nods and steps back onto terra firma.  He wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her to him, careful to maintain a tight hold on her.
      “ You promised and you ’ ve never broken a promise to me yet. ”
      “ I wont, ” he croaks, shattered emotionally and physically.
      “ Thank you, ” she says, resting her head on his shoulder.
      Together they walk down the hill towards the ambulance, past the two bemused hikers. 
      “ Rosie, ” cries her mother, flinging her arms around her neck.
      “ I ’ m sorry Mum, ” she weeps.
      While the two women cling to each other JD ’ s father-in-law approaches him.
      “ What did I tell you? ” Harry scolds quietly.
      “ Sorry.  I thought I was helping. ”
      Harry ’ s expression softens when he sees how stricken his son-in-law is.  “ You ’ ve done everything you can for her but she needs help you can ’ t give. ”
      “ She made me promise that I ’ d put her back in that place.  She doesn ’ t even want me to visit her there. ”
      “ Perhaps she ’ s right. ”
      JD looks appalled.  “ She ’ s my wife. ”
      “ Not anymore she ’ s not.  No husband could have done more.  It ’ s time to let her go. ”
      JD looks at the woman he ’ s shared twelve years of his life with, who has born his two daughters and feels his heart ripped from his chest.  He could no more turn his back on her than he could cut off his own arm. 
     
      “ How is she? ” JD asks the nurse anxiously.  He ’ s managed to keep his promise to Rosie for six months but he can ’ t stand it any longer.  He has to see her.
      She regards him sympathetically.  “ I ’ m afraid she ’ s not responded to any treatment.  She ’ s almost lost contact with reality altogether. ”
      Her heart goes out to him when the tears well in his eyes.
      “ Can I see her? ”
      “ Okay but it ’ s unlikely she ’ ll know you. ”
      He just nods at this comment, unable to speak.  Following the nurse into the room he pauses in the doorway as he sees Rosie sat at a table reading a magazine.
      “ Rosie, you have a visitor, ” says the nurse.
      She looks up and smiles, looking beautiful as ever.  Her short dark hair is now shoulder-length, where it was before she ’ d hacked it off with the scissors.  “ Hello. ”
      “ Hi, ” he begins uncertainly.  “ My name ’ s JD. ”
      “ What does that stand for? ”
      “ James Daniel. ”
      “ That ’ s a nice name.  Are you a patient here? ”
      “ No, just visiting. ”
      She regards him thoughtfully.  “ Have we met before?  You look familiar. ”
      For a moment any response is choked from his throat by the violent pain her words cause, seeing his beautiful brilliant wife reduced to this.  It ’ s hard to believe she ’ d been a successful journalist, an amazing mother and loving wife. 
      “ Perhaps you ’ ve seen me around here? ” he says.
      “ Probably.  So what do you do? ”
      “ I ’ m a lawyer. ”
      “ Are you married? ”
      He glances at the nurse for help, who nods her head.
      “ Yes.  We have two daughters. ”
      “ What are their names? ”
      JD staggers back slightly as though struck, struggling to process what he ‘ s hearing.  It ’ s just too much.
      “ Are you okay? ” frowns Rosie.
      “ Just … feeling a little dizzy. ”
      She gets to her feet to assist him.  “ Sit down.  Can I get you some water? ”
      “ Please. ”
      Rosie pours him a glass from the jug on the table and he accepts it from her with shaking hands before taking an eager sip.
      “ Better? ” she says, kneeling on the floor before him.
      He looks down at her and nods.  As she catches his eye she freezes, as though she has just realised something groundbreaking.
      “ When I look at you I think of water, a