She didn’t think she’d closed her eyes all night, but Sam was leaning over her, shaking her shoulder where she sat in the green leather chair next to Ruby’s bed. There were purple shadows under Sam’s red-rimmed eyes, black stubble along his jaw and a thin line of white spittle around his lips. He had refused to sit at all. ‘Darl, you’re not helping your daughter by standing for the whole night,’ the nurse had told him, but Sam seemed psychopathically determined to stand, as if Ruby’s life depended on it, as if he were guarding her from harm, and eventually the nurse gave up, although every now and then she shot Sam a look as if she were just itching to stick a needle in his arm and knock him out. The nurse’s name was Kylie. She was a New Zealander and she spoke slowly and simply to them, saying everything twice, as if English were their second language. Probably all parents were dull-witted with shock. Kylie explained that in intensive care every patient got their own nurse: ‘I’ve only got one job tonight and that’s Ruby.’ She told them there was a room available on the same floor where they could sleep, and she gave them little toiletry bags with toothbrushes and combs, of the style you might receive on an overnight premium economy flight.
