Oh Dear Silvia by Dawn French Page A

against each other, constantly vying for position. All siblings are rivalrous to varying degrees, Ed knows, but why are these two so combative? You would think that when two young girls lose their mother at an early age, they would pull together to look after one another rather than regularly tearing each other apart. Yet they can’t be separate for too long either, without one needing to know all about the other. Where are they? Who are they with? What are they doing?
    Ed has always figured he’s just not supposed to fully understand the intricate workings of such an unstable sisterhood, but if he understood anything at all, it was a tiny bit of Silvia. A tiny bit. He doesn’t get Jo at all.
    Yet Jo is the one he is left with.
    The doctor has just gone. She was mercifully straightforward, no tilting of the head or pitiful couching of the facts. Jo has asked Ed to be with her – she knows she can’t deal with this kind of conversation alone. She still regards him as Silvia’s husband and therefore – besides herself – the next of kin. Silvia’s kids were also requested to be at this meeting but neither have appeared. Jamie is still in Helmand showing no signs of returning and Cassie can’t face her mother, at all, even under these dire circumstances. Ed has dutifully agreed to relay anyinformation back to them, but he and Jo know that between the two of them they should assume ultimate responsibility.
    They look through the small window in the door and watch Silvia. Lying there. She just … doesn’t move.
    Jo says, ‘It’s only her opinion, isn’t it?’
    Ed says, ‘Well, yes, but she is the doctor, Jo, so her opinion does matter.’
    Jo says, ‘I haven’t even begun my big techniques yet. I really think I can wake her up Ed, if only they’d let me be in there longer.’
    Ed says, ‘Then no one else would have any time with her, Jo.’
    Jo says, ‘No.’
    ‘And that wouldn’t be right, would it …? Jo?’
    Jo sighs, ‘S’pose not, but I really think I’m getting somewhere, and no one else is.’
    ‘You don’t know that.’
    ‘Catherine O’Brien isn’t getting anywhere. She shouldn’t even be allowed in.’
    ‘We have to think about what Silvia would want, Jo.’
    ‘She’s an evil hell-bitch. From hell.’
    ‘OK. But still … think of Silv.’
    There is a silence.
    Then Jo says, ‘When that doctor said that we need to decide what we want them to do if she had a heart attack, or whether they should “treat aggressively, should infection occur”. What do you think she meant?’
    ‘You know what she meant, Jo.’
    ‘A “do not resuscitate order”? What? Just … let Sissy … go?’
    ‘Yes. But that hasn’t happened.’
    ‘Oh Ed, I don’t know if I can take on the responsibility of that decision.’
    ‘Well, I will then.’
    ‘No, I will,’ snapped Jo.
    ‘OK. I’m going in now. Otherwise, I won’t have any time with her.’
    Jo touches Ed’s arm lightly, then turns and walks away from the door. She needs to think, and to prepare for this afternoon’s sortie on Silvia’s senses.
    Ed moves into Suite 5 with more assurance this time. He hangs up his coat and sits next to Silvia’s bed. He doesn’t have long, and he has a purpose.
    ‘Hi Silv. Ed again. Oh, actually, damn, I forgot. I’ve brought you these …’
    He goes to the pocket of his coat and pulls out a handful of curled parched brown beech leaves, a few small twigs, and some empty spiky-shelled nuts. He lays them in a neat pile on the bed, just below her pillow so that she might inhale some fresh nature.
    ‘Probably not supposed to bring it in, but this is part of Foy Wood, Silv. There it is. That’s what unfroze me. No question. Now, let’s see if it will work for you. Of course, nothing’s going to work if you don’t want it to, you should know that I understand that. It’s just something about how … living it all is … it makes you want to be living at the same time, sharing the same O 2 . Well,