Regardless, Petra was in the waiting room by ten past six in the morning. The receptionist told her she’d have to wait for the doctor to authorise her to see Helena for a minute, and no, she didn’t know when she’d be in, so she’d taken up a seat in the corner, by the window, moving the magazines to the other side of the low coffee table. The morning light had been rising softly for a while now and Petra remembered this corner from the last time she’d been here with Helena, for the procedure that was meant to be routine. That old man had been sitting in this corner, the one she’d expected to be nasty to them but was surprisingly warm to Helena, along with the orange-haired woman. The way the light had slanted, making her look like she had half a face. She’d thought it was just a trick of the light back then, but now, after all she’d imagined, it seemed that hallucination had clearly been the start of some mental dissolution. If she could afford one, she’d ask to get put on a psychologist’s waiting list while she was here.

Before long, a small doctor, her ponytail shot through with greying strands that gave her an authoritative cast, approached. ‘I’m Amina Saidi. You’re Helena’s daughter?’

‘Yes. How is she?’

‘She’s fine. Sedated now, so I’d prefer if you don’t disturb her. If you want, you can see her through the window now and you’ll be able to speak to her a little later.’

‘What happened?’

The doctor studied her for a moment, assessing what register to use in her explanation. ‘We’re not quite sure how, but the site of the extraction ruptured. It’s very unusual because it’s such non-invasive surgery. You can imagine it like an ear piercing turning into a large tear. Unusual. We’re investigating how it happened.’

Petra didn’t want to sound accusing, but the doctor was almost admitting it. ‘Did someone make a mistake?’

‘No. I was on the surgical team. It went without a hitch. Whatever happened seemed to have happened from some subsequent trauma.’

‘What do you mean? What sort of trauma?’ Petra had visions of someone hitting or kicking her mother. But that was impossible. If she’d been attacked, Petra would have known.

‘There could be many causes. Trauma doesn’t necessarily describe deliberate or personal violence – it might be an accident. A bump or a fall.’ The way she scanned Petra when she said doesn’t necessarily meant that she hadn’t ruled it out. ‘You might not even know it happened. Anyhow, there was some internal bleeding and a rupture into the intestine that might have led to sepsis if we hadn’t caught it in time.’

‘Oh, God. Is she going to be fine?’