Free Live to Tell by G. L. Watt

consider me. God knows how long that will be.”

    I found a job in a Wetherspoons Pub, near Marble Arch, just off the Edgware Road, and the summer came and went. The pub was large and airy, but I usually worked in a smaller bar to the side of the main one. Aidan’s health was still very poor, as his leg was not responding to treatment and despite the liberal application of vitamin E cream, the obscene scar on his head was still all too obvious. He sent me out to buy an assortment of baseball caps to better hide it from view, but as he never saw anyone except the health care professionals, the caps didn’t get much use.
    Because he was still officially under the care of St. Mary’s Hospital he was unable to go to the convalescence home. Apart from hospital, the farthest he ventured out was on an assisted hobble around the block. His parents came to stay in the middle of the summer and while they were there, I took a week off work and went back to visit my family, glad of the chance to be pampered for a change.
    The priest that Aidan had dismissed as useless became a regular visitor.
    “Probably thinks of you as a challenge,” I said one morning, before heading off to college. “Give him my best. He is coming today, isn’t he?”
    “Yeah, regular as clockwork. But I’m at the outpatients this afternoon, so I might not see him. But if I do, I’ll give him your love.” He blew me a kiss across the kitchen.

    When I got back home from college that evening, the flat was illuminated only by the dim light of the setting sun. Aidan sat on the sofa staring at a blank TV screen, a baseball cap jammed down hard on his head. He didn’t turn to say hello to me and I could see he was still wearing the duffle coat he used when he went out.
    “How did you get on,” I asked quietly, switching on a lamp and pulling the curtains. “Cup of tea?”
    Without speaking, he shook his head. Hunched there, he looked so frail.
    “Have you had some bad news?”
    He nodded. I sat down beside him and took hold of his hand. “What’s happened,” I asked.
    “My knee hasn’t healed. It’s got to be broken and re-set!”
    I groaned, and held my head in my free hand. I tried not to cry. I felt I needed to be strong for both of us, but he put his arm around my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
    “I know, I know,” he said, his voice breaking. “I’m all cried out. Even at the hospital. Made a real fool of myself. They were very good, put me in a side room ’til I felt better. Got me a cup of tea. Then the transport brought me home.”
    I felt so angry. I wanted to kill the beast that had so callously ruined the life of my innocent Aidan. “Please tell me what happened the night you were attacked,” I begged. “Was it the men who were after money in that pub on New Year’s Eve?”
    “Them and a couple of others,” he said, “They caught Pat and me, but he managed to get away.” He paused. “But I’m trying to forget that night now. My therapist has taken me through all the processes so I can move on mentally. I still find it difficult and some days are really black. Please don’t ask me anymore. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry.”
    I knew he still saw his therapist, but the visits were only monthly now.
    “And what about Pat,” I asked, knowing that he meant his friend from the off-license. “Is he OK?”
    “Don’t see him anymore. He moved to California, to get as far away as possible. His sister lives there and he went to her.”
    He looked so unhappy that I felt even angrier.

    A few nights later I was due to go to work in the pub but I was late. I always went home from college before going there, just to make sure Aidan was alright, but tonight I missed the bus that I usually caught from the stop outside our apartment block and had to wait fifteen minutes for the next one.
    When I arrived, I dashed into the bar, taking my coat off as I went. Jim, the pub manager frowned and pointed to his