The Red Dress chapter thirty five

    








  When Alan opened his eyes and saw Carla and the nurse standing over him, he was totally confused. He had been dreaming about a girl called Lisa, but she wasn't there. Carla just stood there crying and holding his hand, which momentarily made Alan believe that Lisa had just been a figment of his imagination.
 
     It took an hour or so for him to absorb what Carla had told him about the accident, but by the time his elated parents and sister arrived, he had remembered it all.
 
     Alan lay there and thought only of Lisa as his family shed tears of relief. If he had been unconscious for three weeks, she wouldn't have been able to contact him on his mobile. God knows what she must be thinking. His mother was still holding his hand and telling him how happy she was that he’d regained consciousness, when he interrupted her. 
 
     “Where's my mobile, Mum?” he asked.
 
Kathy looked surprised at such a strange question. She didn't know, but Carla did.
 
     “It's back at your flat, Alan. Why? Is it important?”
 
How could he explain to Carla, or his parents for that matter, just how important it was?
 
     “It's okay, I'm sure if I had any calls, Mike would have answered them.”
 
They all looked at each other not knowing what to say. The one thing Carla had omitted to mention to him was the fact that Mike was dead as a result of the accident. Alan looked at their stricken faces and tried to work out what was wrong.
 
     His father took a deep breath and told him. All thoughts of Lisa went out of Alan's head as he tried to absorb what his father had just said. Mike dead? He just couldn't take it in. He asked them if they could leave him alone as he felt the tears welling up in his eyes.
 
     His parents turned to go, but Carla refused to follow them. She believed Alan needed her more than ever. She held his hand as the tears rolled down his cheeks. He turned to her, the heartbreak showing clearly in his eyes.
 
     “Do you know if Mike died in the car- or did he make it to the hospital?”
 
Carla thought carefully before she answered. She wasn’t sure how much she should tell him.
 
     “He died instantly when he went through the windscreen and hit a wall, Alan. It wasn't your fault, he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.”
 
     He remembered the car careering down the hill just after Mike had taken his seat belt off. The poor bastard hadn't had a chance.
 
     “Have the police established that the brakes failed?” he asked.
 
Carla didn’t know, but she decided she better tell him about the police finding out that he had been drinking. It was bound to come out sooner or later.
 
Alan’s reaction was one of horror.
 
     “I only had a couple of drinks before we set off. I couldn't be!”
 
Carla wasn’t sure what to say. Her parents had been adamant that Alan’s drinking had been somehow contributory to the accident.
 
     “Where did you have the drinks?” she asked, remembering the two empty glasses at the flat.
 
Alan thought back and remembered how depressed he'd been after Lisa had gone, and how he had tried to drown his sorrows. He’d only wanted the pain of her going to fade…
 
     "In the flat, just before I gave Mike a lift to the pub, I was going to get cigar…”
 
Alan started sobbing uncontrollably when he realised he had no idea how much he'd had to drink before Mike asked him for a lift. He'd been upset when he poured them. He started to absorb the fact that he might have been somehow responsible for Mike's death, which made him break down completely.
 
     “Oh, God, it's my fault; I killed him. Oh God…”   
 
Alan's hands had risen to his face, and he was sobbing so loudly, the nurse called for the doctor. Seeing how upset Alan was, he insisted on giving him a sedative. As the drug took its hold, he drifted back into oblivion, and Carla and his parents decided to leave.
 
     When he woke up again later in the afternoon, the pain was still there, only ten times worse. Alan tried to remember what had actually happened, and he relived the terror he had felt when the brakes had failed in his car. Surely that was the only reason for the accident, and not the fact that he had been ignorantly over the limit?
 
     What if the amount he’d had to drink had made him incapable of controlling the car once the brakes had failed? He could still hear the noise of his car hitting the lorry when they careered down the hill, and he remembered Mike's face frozen in terror. The vision would always be with him, especially if it was his fault.
 
      By the time Alan's parents came back with Carla in the evening, Alan was awake, but even more depressed than he had been at lunch time.
 
     They all tried to cheer him up, but try as they might, they couldn't raise his spirits. All he seemed to want to talk about was his damned mobile phone, and the only way his father could stop him going on about it, was by promising to bring it in the following day.
 
     After they left, Alan lay thinking about Lisa and how much he loved her. He knew for sure Lisa was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. She had become part of his soul, the very pinnacle of his existence. Alan knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he’d found her. It was a long and lonely night as he lay trying to sleep. At last, with the help of another sedative, he drifted back into oblivion.
 
     The next morning his father kept his promise and brought in the phone.
 
     “There you are, son, but it won’t be much use to you because it hasn't been charged. I'm afraid we forgot all about it. I’ve got the charger in my pocket though, so you can plug it in by your bed.”
 
Alan knew that wasn’t an option because mobile phones were banned, especially in intensive care.
 
Jack Turner couldn't believe how upset Alan was just because his phone wasn't working, so he promised to charge it up when he got home, and bring it back in the next day.
 
     After his father left, Alan lay staring at the ceiling. He wished he had never woken up. If he had been physically capable of leaving the hospital and going to look for Lisa himself, he would have, but he wasn't, so he had to content himself with staring into space and waiting for his phone to be charged. He imagined Lisa trying to call him, not knowing what had happened. The only thing that gave him hope was knowing how determined Lisa was. Hopefully she would still be trying to ring, and she would be able to contact him when he got his mobile back the next day.
 
     Alan thought long and hard about how he was going to tell Carla about Lisa, and felt the guilt return he had felt before the accident. She had been so sweet when he had woken up the day before, and his mother had told him how she had just about lived at the hospital for the first few days, not leaving his side until he looked as though he might pull through. She was now his best friend, especially now that Mike was gone. God, it was all such a mess. Alan closed his eyes and his thoughts returned to Lisa, and the fact that she would have no idea what had happened and had probably been trying to call him.
 
     “Please, please keep on trying, Lisa,” he said under his breath as he lay there feeling desperate. “Please don't give up…”
 
                                                                           ....................
 


 
     When Lisa got back on the Sunday evening, she was the talk of the school. Those who hadn't actually witnessed Nick's dramatic arrival and his romantic proposal, had heard all about it from their friends, and everyone was enthralled by the story. As she walked through the school to her room, everyone she saw stopped and congratulated her.
 
     Sister Newson, the head mistress, sent for Lisa as soon as she got back. Lisa thought she was going to get a telling off, but quite the opposite. Sister Newson's main concern was that Lisa had contacted her parents, and she didn't do anything to jeopardise the school's reputation. Lisa smiled diligently and felt doubly relieved she and Nick hadn’t made love in his hotel suite the night before. As far as Sister Newson and everyone else was concerned, Lisa had stayed at Teddy' parent’s house in London. So it was with a clear conscience that she tried to put the kindly nun's mind at rest.
 
     “I'm going to ring my parents this evening. I just wanted a little time to think things through and be sure I was making the right decision, Sister.”
 
     Sister Newson thought that was very sensible, but urged Lisa to contact her parents as soon as possible, especially as the press were involved. Lisa didn't know what she was talking about.
 
     “What press, Sister?” she asked, genuinely confused. Nick was the one who was famous, so why would the press be interested in her?
 
Sister Newson explained that she had been phoned earlier in the afternoon by the Daily Mail, who had pictures of Nick and Lisa kissing in the grounds after he proposed to her. They had wanted her to give them a statement regarding the engagement.
 
     “I told them that I couldn't comment, so they asked for your parents' telephone number. I obviously refused to give it to them, but the press are very clever, Lisa. You’d better make sure you speak to your parents before a reporter does.”
 
Lisa shot back to her room and phoned her parents immediately.
 
     Her father answered and sounded annoyed. He had been phoned by the paper all day, and a reporter had actually turned up on the doorstep with a photographer by his side. He was disappointed Lisa hadn't phoned him to explain to him what had actually happened.
 
     “What the hell’s going on, Lisa?” He asked.
 
Lisa felt awful, she should have phoned them the day before- but she’d been frightened they would ask her for Teddy's phone number in London, and her mother would have screwed everything up again when they couldn’t get hold of her there.
 
     “I'm so sorry, dad. I needed time to think things through. Are you very cross with me?”
 
Lisa knew how to get on the right side of her father, and it worked.
 
     “No, I'm not cross, pet. I'm just concerned that you're making the right decision. We've all been here before, remember?”
 
Lisa didn't need to be reminded, and nearly said something about her mother's involvement the time before, but decided against it. The damage couldn't be undone.
 
     “It's okay, dad, I know what I'm doing. Nick has been wonderful, and you should see my engagement ring - it’s fabulous.”
 
Her father tut tutted down the phone at her.
 
     “I don't care about your engagement ring, Lisa. I only need to know that you love the man enough to marry him. What about that boy you ran away with?”
 
Lisa closed her eyes as she held the phone tightly in her hands. What about Alan? He wouldn’t even answer her bloody calls. She took a deep breath before she answered.
 
     “He’s got nothing to do with this, dad. He's engaged to someone he’s been going out with for years,” she added, trying to conceal the bitterness she felt growling deep inside her.
 
Her father seemed relieved. Scott had told him the boy was in love with her. Lisa changed the subject back to Nick, hoping her father couldn't sense how upset she was at him mentioning Alan.
 
     “I wanted to ask you, Dad. Can I go over to the Isle of Man for half term? Nick wants us to announce our engagement to his friends there. He says he’s got plenty of guest rooms, so it will all be above board. I could even take one of my friends from school if I want.”
 
Her father didn't like the idea of her staying in Nick’s house. It wasn't right at her age, he said, staying with a single man she hardly knew, whether she was engaged to him or not. There was silence at the other end of the phone for a moment as Lisa held her breath. She knew she could remind him that they had promised her she could stay wherever she wanted during the holidays, but she preferred to have her father’s blessing.
 
     “The only way I can see it working, is if I book us all into the hotel for a few days, and you stay there with your mother and I,” he suggested.
 
Lisa's heart sank at the thought of her mother being in The Isle of Man at the same time as her. It was a recipe for disaster. She tried to change her father's mind, but she couldn't.
 
     “Okay, Dad, whatever you say- as long as you don't mind me going.”
 
He said it was fine, as long as she was happy. He started to discuss travel arrangements with her but Lisa interrupted. She assured him that it was all in hand. Nick would be arranging and paying for her to get to the Island.
 
     Amy and the others came charging into her room as she was finishing her conversation with her father, and she could hardly hear herself speak because they were making such a racket. She said goodbye, and laughed when she turned round and saw them all sitting on her bed, eagerly waiting for her to tell them all. Teddy had told them as much as she had been able to glean from Lisa in the car, but it wasn't enough. Lisa found their enthusiasm infectious, but she would only tell them what she wanted them to know. 
 
     “It was wonderful, and Nick couldn't have been nicer. Thank you guys. I know you all played a big part in arranging it all, he told me.”
 
     They wanted to know all the details, but the only thing Lisa would admit to, was staying the night in Nick’s suite at the hotel, nothing more. After a while they realised it was useless, so gave up asking.
 
     “God help you if we get you drunk, Lisa Collins. We'll get more information out of you than that,” threatened Teddy.
 
     Lisa looked at them all and realised what great pals they had become in such a short space of time. She knew she could never tell any of them about Alan now. They would never forgive her for loving anyone but Nick.
 
     The following morning, Teddy rushed down to the library to grab the paper, and screamed out loud when she saw the half page article in the middle of the fifth page. There was a huge picture of Lisa and Nick kissing goodbye with a helicopter in the background, and a close up of Lisa's finger showing her fabulous engagement ring. The article was headed 'Millionaire Nick gets his girl.'
 
     It followed on to describe how Nick had flown in by helicopter, and romantically proposed to Lisa while the string quartet played in the background. It also described how the seventeen-year-old Lisa was currently studying for her 'A'-levels at St Michael's Convent of The Sacred Heart, and how she had burst into happy tears when Nick had proposed.
 
     When Lisa read it, she couldn't believe that Nick was so well known. The article detailed his various companies, and how he had cornered the market with his chain of fitness centres across the country. She found out more about his business from the article, than he had ever told her himself.
 
     When she read about her delight in accepting Nick's proposal, she wondered how Alan would feel when he found out.  She hoped that he read it, and would regret choosing Carla instead of her…
    
 
 
 
     On Sunday morning, Alan sat waiting impatiently for his father to arrive with his charged mobile. When he did, Alan pushed it under the covers and tried to find out if there were any missed calls. There were none. Unbeknown to him, Carla had deleted all the missed calls after she had spoken to Lisa, believing that all his friends would know by then what had happened to him, thanks to an article in the local paper.
 
     Alan put the phone in his wash bag beside his bed and willed it to ring. All day he kept checking on the phone, just in case it wasn't turned on, which he knew it was.
 
     “Come on, Lisa, ring,” he kept muttering under his breath. Unbeknown to Alan, Lisa was in Knightsbridge at the time, being treated like a princess by Nick.
 
. His parents couldn't understand why he seemed so low when they visited in the evening, and neither of them could get a word out of him. He suggested they all leave before visiting time was over, claiming he was tired.
 
     He thought he might try directory enquiries, but he knew it would be a waste of time without the name of the school. Anyway, he didn't want to bring the phone out in case any of the nurses saw it, and it was taken away from him. So, for a second night, he lay sleeping fitfully.
 
     When Alan awoke the next morning, he was beginning to feel desperate about not knowing where Lisa was. He was all too aware that she might think he had turned his mobile off deliberately after Carla was back, but he really believed that she knew how much he loved her, and she would keep on trying. Little did he know that half the country was talking about his Lisa, as a result of the article in The Daily Mail.
 
     When his father and sister visited him that afternoon, they were disappointed to find Alan just as down as he had been the night before. Karen believed she had some news to cheer him up, so she pulled out the paper and handed it to him.
 
     “Check out page five, Alan. You won't believe it,” she enthused.
 
Alan pushed the paper away. His sister didn't understand that he had other things on his mind.
 
      “I'm not interested, Karen.”
 
She looked disappointed.
 
     “No, go on. It's about someone we all know...” she enticed excitedly.
 
Alan still wouldn't look. He had decided to confide in his father about his love for Lisa, and explain why having the phone was so important. He might be able to find out the names of the all-girls schools in Surrey for Alan to call.
 
     “Dad, I want to talk to you about something…”
 
Karen had opened the paper and laid it in front of him. Alan realised that she wouldn't stop going on about the bloody paper until he looked at it, so he did.
 
     His eyes slowly read the headline, and then focused on the picture. He felt the blood drain from his face as he recognised Lisa. She was kissing someone under a large oak tree…
 
     Karen studied his face as he read the article. She noticed the paper was shaking in Alan’s hands and he was deathly pale.
 
     “What's wrong, Alan? I thought you'd be pleased for Lisa.”
 
 Alan was staring straight ahead, having skimmed through the rest of the article. His father and sister heard him muttering something under his breath, before he put the paper down. Seeing that the article had upset him, his father quickly changed the subject.
 
     “What did you want to talk to me about, son?” He asked.
 
Alan looked back at him blankly.
 
     “It doesn't matter now…” he answered distractedly.
 
Alan reached into his wash bag and took out his mobile phone.
 
     “You might as well take this home, Dad. I don't need it anymore.”
 
The single tear that had escaped from his right eye, left a hot and bitter track as it slowly travelled down his cheek....