That Elusive Cure 25

“Wake up, Jimmy, we’re going to Wales.”

 

I gave him a gentle push and was rewarded with a soft snoring sound.

 

“Jimmy, wake up!”

 

I shoved harder this time, rocking him back and forth. Jimmy flopped onto his back, opened one eye and tried to make out the time on the clock.

 

“It’s ten o’clock, a perfectly reasonable time to be getting up,” I told him.

 

“It’s Sunday, are you insane?”

 

“Yup, and I’m taking you down with me. Now move.”

 

Jimmy yawned, adjusted his pillows and sat up just a little. “So exactly why are we going to Wales?”

 

For a moment I thought about fudging the truth. But I didn’t do well being covert with Jimmy. “Dad’s sailing at Bala Lake. I want to go see him.”

 

“Bala Lake…?”

 

“Yes, there’s an issue I’ve got to sort out.”

 

“An issue…?”

 

“Stop repeating what I’m saying, it’s annoying.”

 

Jimmy smirked and I ignored him.

 

“Mum thinks Dad’s cheating on her with this woman who’s joined the Old Codger’s Club.”

 

“A woman joined it?” He seemed to be paying attention now.

 

“Apparently, anyway I want to go there and find out what’s going on.”

 

“You want to catch him in the act.”

 

I hesitated. That wasn’t what I wanted to do. Catching in the act was something I really didn’t want to do. I wanted this to be a misunderstanding. I could go back to Mum and tell her everything was okay, and that I’d sorted it out. I realised that this was the type of thing I used to do all the time before I got ill: sorting problems out, fixing situations, and mending feelings. When exactly did cancer make me so selfish and self-centred? Sometime in the last two years I’d forgotten about everyone else.

 

“I want to find out what’s going on, for Mum’s sake. Besides, can you imagine my father cheating?”

 

Jimmy didn’t reply for a moment then shook his head. “Can’t see it myself.”

 

“Well Mum’s convinced and I won’t be able to get Dad on his own at their house. I figured finding him at the lake would be a good start.” I rolled out of bed. “I’m off to the shower. You’re next.”

 

Just before eleven we headed out the house. I knew Dad would be coming home today, and had my fingers crossed it was a good sailing day and he’d still be there. I thought about texting him that we were coming, but with a heavy heart I decided to keep that quiet until we got there. If he was up to something I needed to be able to catch him unawares.

 

Jimmy drove, I’d had a busy few days and slept for just over an hour. I woke up not long before we got to Bala, the town at the far end of the lake, with Jimmy giving me a not so gentle shove to wake me.

 

“Which campground is he at?” Jimmy had a map of Bala open on his iPad.

 

I yawned and tried to focus on the map. “Haven’t the foggiest. Let’s drive around the lake and look for Dad’s car. There can’t be that many campsites, right?”

 

Jimmy scratched at his stubble. “I dunno. There’s a fair few listed here.” He scrolled back and showed me a list of campsites.

 

“Just drive, okay? He’ll be at one that is by the water so he can launch his dingy boat.”

 

Jimmy drove down one side of the lake, stopping at three campsites along the way. We drove through a village at the other end of the lake and started up the other side. It was coming up on two o’clock and I was getting nervous that we’d come all this way for nothing. Time was getting on and we’d still not found him.

 

We pulled into the second campsite along the north side of the lake and my heart jumped. Dad’s car! There were five small tents all in a row with five cars parked to one side along with a corresponding number of boat trailers tucked away. The Old Codgers Club, yay! We’d found them. After explaining I was the daughter of one of the campers, we were allowed to park there for a couple of hours. Jimmy and I walked to the rocky shore and sat on an old tree trunk. The weather was coming from behind us, the wind whipping my hair into my face, a thin misty rain trying to turn into something wetter. Several boats were on the lake, all of them going great guns across the water. I spotted Dad’s boat off to the left of us, as he tacked back up the lake. For an old guy, he sure was fit and able.

 

As I snuggled up to Jimmy, I thought about Mum and her fears. What if she was right? What if Dad was having some sort of senior-life crisis? Then it started, my first pity fest in days. Would I get to grow old with Jimmy? Would I have the luxury of going grey and wrinkly? Old couples made me so jealous, the ones that had obviously been together almost their entire lives, the way Jimmy and I would be if I was given the gift of life.

 

A year or so earlier an acquaintance after learning of my illness, told me how she had a number of friends living with cancer and that until the end came, treatments gave them a reasonable quality of life. Problem was she was past retirement age. The friends she spoke of were all in the sixties and seventies. I was a mere forty years old at the time. Her friends had seen their children grow up, get married, had the pleasure of seeing what kind of adults their children would become. They’d probably had grandchildren presented to them. They’d had their careers and made their mark on the world. They’d had a chance to travel or at least live a life with their husbands or wives. I wanted to stuff her words back in her mouth, but I’m not like that. I smiled and nodded and thought I’d be lucky if I made it to forty-five. Maybe I should have asked her what she was doing at forty-five and told her that was when I thought I’d be dying.

 

A tightening on my arm brought me back to the lake, the wind and the drizzly rain. Jimmy was giving me a squeeze. We could see my Dad on his boat, he’d sailed near enough.

 

“I’m sorry, Kath,” Jimmy said and pulled me closer.

 

I focused, rubbed my eyes and hoped to see things differently, but nothing changed. Dad was on the lake sailing his dingy boat. Someone was sat with him, and that someone was a woman.