Free Knight on the Children's Ward by Carol Marinelli Page A

occasional text, a lot of smiles, and a couple of coffees in the canteen.
    It was just as well, really. There was no time for a relationship as her world rapidly unravelled.
    Aleksi had hit a journalist and was on the front pages again.
    Her mother was in full charity ball mode, and nothing Annika could say or do at work was right.
    â€˜He’s that sick from chicken pox?’ Annika couldn’t help but speak up during handover. Normally she kept her head down and just wrote, but it was so appalling she couldn’t help it. An eight-year-old had been admitted from Emergency with encephalitis and was semi-conscious—all from a simple virus. ‘You can get that ill from chicken pox?’
    â€˜It’s unusual,’ Caroline said, ‘but, yes. If he doesn’t improve then he’ll be transferred to the children’s hospital. For now he’s on antiviral medication and hourly obs. His mother is, of course, beside herself. She’s got two others at home who have the virus too. Ross is justchecking with Infectious Diseases and then he’ll be contacting their GP to prescribe antivirals for them too.’ Caroline was so matter-of-fact, and Annika knew she had to be too, but she found it so hard!
    Gowning up, wearing a mask, dealing with the mum.
    She checked the IV solutions with a nurse and punched in the numbers on the IVAC that would deliver the correct dosage of the vital medication. She tried to wash the child as gently as she could when the Div 1 nurse left. The room was impossibly hot, especially when she was all gowned up, but any further infection for him would be disastrous.
    â€˜Thank you so much.’ The poor, petrified mum took time to thank Annika as she gently rolled the boy and changed the sheets. ‘How do you think he’s doing?’
    Annika felt like a fraud.
    She stood caught in the headlamps of the mother’s anxious gaze. How could she tell her that she had no idea, that till an hour ago she hadn’t realised chicken pox could make anyone so ill and that she was petrified for the child too?
    â€˜His observations are stable,’ Annika said carefully.
    â€˜But how do you think he’s doing?’ the mother pushed, and Annika didn’t know what to say. ‘Is there something that you’re not telling me?’
    The mother was getting more and more upset, and so Annika said what she had been told to in situations such as this.
    â€˜I’ll ask the nurse in charge to speak with you.’
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    It was her first proper telling-off on the children’s Ward.
    Well, it wasn’t a telling-off but a pep talk—and rather a long one—because it wasn’t an isolated incident, apparently.
    Heather Jameson came down, and she sat as Caroline tried to explain the error of Annika’s ways.
    â€˜Ross is in there now.’ Caroline let out a breath. ‘The mother thought from Annika’s reaction that there was bad news on the way.’
    â€˜She asked me how I thought he was doing,’ Annika said. ‘I hadn’t seen him before. I had nothing to compare it with. So I said I would get the nurse in charge to speak with her.’
    She hadn’t done anything wrong—but it was just another example of how she couldn’t get it right.
    It was the small talk, the chats, the comfort she was so bad at.
    â€˜Mum’s fine.’ Ross knocked and walked in. ‘She’s exhausted. Her son’s ill. She’s just searching for clues, Annika.’ He looked over to her. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact he is improving—but you couldn’t have known that.’
    So it was good news—only for Annika it didn’t feel like it.
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    â€˜It’s not a big deal,’ Ross said later, catching her in the milk room, where she was trying to sort out bottles for the late shift.
    â€˜It is to me,’ Annika said, hating her own awkwardness. She should be pleased that her