I walk down the long hall, half jogging. Then I turn the corner and into Mum’s room, my feet skidding across the floor from the momentum. Her curtains are pulled across, which is strange. Usually that means someone’s visiting.

For a moment I’m worried someone’s here. I need to be alone. But when I pull them back her bed is empty.

‘What?’ I yell so loudly that a nurse from the other room walks in. It’s Edward. I’m relieved to see his familiar face, but my panic is growing like the tallest tree. Has something happened to her?

‘Where’s my mum? She hasn’t . . . She’s not . . .’ I let the words fade away.

Is this because of the water? Did Mum drown in the dream? Was I too late? If something’s happened to her now I’ll know it’s all my fault, because Mum was getting better!

Chapter 19

‘Goodness no!’ Edward walks over to me. ‘Is that what you . . . ?’ He looks like he wants to pull me in for a hug. ‘You poor thing! Why didn’t they tell you at reception?’

I shrug, hoping he won’t pry. I don’t want him to know I snuck in. ‘Tell me what?’ I ask instead.

Edward smiles and it eases my mind a little. ‘They’ve moved your mum to a different ward. She’s on the other side of the hospital now.’

Is that good or bad?

‘It’s a good thing,’ Edward says, as if reading my mind. He goes on to explain that they’ve reduced Mum’s medicine and the levels of support she’s getting from the ventilator, which is the machine that helps her breathe. Apparently they’re going to put something called a tracheostomy in to replace it. ‘I can take you there now. I was just finishing my shift anyway.’

I smile, relieved. ‘Thank you.’

We don’t talk as we walk back down the hall, the echo of our footsteps breaking the silence. For a moment I really thought she’d . . . that she had . . . I brush the thought aside.

We walk to the other end of the hospital and go through a final set of doors into a different ward. It looks shinier, newer.

Edward lets me in, then says a quick goodbye. He shuts the door after him and, for the first time since seeing Mum in the hospital, we have complete privacy. There is only one other bed in here and it isn’t occupied right now.

The walls here are lilac, much better than the custard ones everywhere else. I walk over to the window and watch the setting sun. The view is nicer here too. Instead of the concrete car park, this part of the hospital overlooks a green field, cows grazing in the distance.