Riding the Storm by Heather Graves

she realized that her husband could be in real danger.
    ‘He’s been involved in an accident, Mum, and they don’t know how serious it is. We’ll have to go up there at once. He hasn’t come round yet and he’s still in intensive care.’
    ‘My God. I didn’t realize. I thought it was just a minor bump in the car. He is going to be all right?’ Val was finding it hard to believe such a thing could happen to her seemingly indestructible husband.
    ‘We won’t know the whole story till we get there.’
    ‘Well, obviously you can’t go. You’ve enough to do here with the wedding coming up—’
    Chrissie shrugged. ‘I dunno. Until we know what’s happening with Dad, we might have to postpone it.’
    ‘Don’t say that. You’ve the honeymoon booked. It’ll upset all of your plans.’
    At that point, it didn’t occur to either of them that Robert’s condition could be critical and that he might die. This was only brought home to Valerie when she walked into the ward to find her husband unconscious and hooked up to various instruments monitoring his condition and with a nurse assigned to his sole care. A tall, severe-looking woman with her hair scraped back from her face, she was busy making notes on his chart.
    ‘He – um – he will be all right, won’t he?’ Val asked.
    ‘Hard to say. We’ll know more if and when he regains consciousness.’ The nurse took down some more notes from the instruments beside the bed. ‘The police will want to talk to him then. The truck driver says your husband drove through a red light.’
    Val stared at her. ‘I don’t know what he was doing in Sydney. He was supposed to be on the highway, coming home.’
    The nurse shrugged. ‘We see this sort of thing all the time. People distracted, talking on mobile phones.’
    ‘How do you know he was on the phone?’
    ‘It was still in his hand. Look, I shouldn’t be discussing this. It’s a matter for the police. The truck driver was pretty shaken up, too.’
    It occurred to Val that there was a lot more sympathy for the truck driver than for her husband’s plight. She booked into a cheap motel not far from the hospital and reported the news – or rather the lack of it – to Chrissie.
    ‘Stay just as long as you need to, Mum. And don’t worry about things here. Sam and Bill can take care of the horses – for the time being, anyway. I’m going into town to see Tony tomorrow to give him the heads-up that we might have to postpone—’
    ‘Oh, Chrissie. I hope it won’t come to that.’
    On reflection, Chrissie was surprised to find out how little she cared. It had been several weeks since she had seen Tony, who had given up calling her every night as he used to do. She had the feeling he was beginning to take her for granted.
    At the end of twenty-four hours, Robert regained consciousness but he seemed vague, having no memory of the accident or how it occurred. He seemed surprised to see Val and wondered why she was there. His doctors told her that while his injuries seemed to be relatively minor, the horsebox taking the main impact of the collision, the shock of the accident had caused him to suffer a minor stroke. And although they expected him to make a reasonable recovery, he would be confined to a wheelchair in the immediate future. His medical insurance would cover the cost of an ambulance to deliver him back to Melbourne where his own doctor would take over, referring him to a specialist who would monitor his progress. It was suggested that Val should consider hiring a nurse. She reported all this to Chrissie, who sighed.
    ‘I’ve already talked to Tony and arranged to see him tomorrow. Looks as if we’ll need to rethink our plans.’
    ‘Really? You don’t sound all that put out.’
    ‘Don’t I?’ Chrissie sounded flat. ‘I’ll know more after I’ve spoken to Tony.’
     
    As she drove into town the next day, Chrissie had time to consider her relationship with her fiancé and how it had changed.