You're a Lush and I Hate It

The next day, Adam and I woke up early and without a sound locked up the house and left in his truck. The ride to the hospital was quiet, only a small amount of noise being emitted from the radio while one of Adam's Coldplay Cd's played. He hummed along in various bits but for the most part, you could have heard a pin drop.

"So, which ward is she in?" Adam asked as we stopped in the hospital car park.

"It's actually a hospital dedicated to heart malfunctions and diseases. She's in ward 4B, bed 38," I rattled off the details from the piece of paper mum had given me with everything I needed written onto it.

"Okay, well, we better go in, then." Adam sighed, opening the door and jumping out. I clung to the door handle and closed my eyes, trying not to think of what was going on with her at the moment before opening the door and locking the car up after Adam threw his set of keys to me. I'd left mine back home.

Within the blink of an eye, I was standing in front of a receptionist asking for directions to Aunt Magda's Ward. She smiled softly before writing them down on the same sheet of paper the previous instructions were written on and nodding me down towards the hall. I smiled slowly at her before tapping Adam on the arm and leading him out.

The hospital, unlike most hospitals I had read about, didn't have a scarily-clean feel to it. The walls were painted a deep purple and the floor was a yellow linoleum that had various scratches in it. There was a window in each room to show people walking through the hallway the patients, or vice verse. Either way, it felt like I was in a circus and the patients were the freak show. I kept my head focused on the doors and turns we had to go through, looking consistently at the instructions.

"Second door to the right, no wait, fifth door down the hall on the left," I said, skeptically looking around before finding the hallway I was passing through and entered the fifth door. Magda didn't look nearly as bad as I did in my dream, and I was extremely thankful for this. Adam entered shortly after me, sending Magda his signature smile before pulling up two chairs for the both of us. Magda smiled serenely at us, she'd obviously been given morphine. The dazed look in her eyes gave her away without even trying.

"Hi Auntie Magda, how are you feeling?" I asked, pulling my chair closer towards her bed before lightly stroking my fingers through her hair.

"I feel great, Annie love, absolutely wonderful. They gave me some really strong painkillers this morning, but you should have seen the needle they put in the drip! I nearly had another arrest before they told me it was being placed into this annoying little thing," she looked pointedly down at the drip, "and not my arm. Ah, I remember you! You're..Ainsley? No, no it's a traditional sort of name, isn't it? Aiden? Arthur? No, no, that's not it, sweetheart, what's your name?" Auntie Magda asked, frustrated that she still couldn't place the name to Adam's face.

"Adam," he smiled genially.

"That's right! Adam! So, Adam, how have you been lately?" Magda smiled back at him whilst waiting his response. Auntie Magda wasn't the sort of person to dwell on the negatives, I should have expected her to be like this when I found out. Adam looked at her wonderingly before answering.

"Um, I'm good, nothing much has really been happening lately other than the slight state you're in at the moment. Annie got into a bit of a worry, actually," he said, unknowing of her behavior towards these kind of things. As soon as he had finished his reply, Magda looked at me sternly.

"Now, Annie, what have I told you? A man who is fearful of worry, is worried of fear itself, right? Therefore, worrying will lead to no good. You know I'll be okay, I've still got twenty odd years left, I reckon," Magda smiled down at me before patting my hand softly.

"We'll be right, love, we'll be right. Now, who's got the chocolates? I'm ready for some get well gifts!" Magda smiled evilly, clapping her hands together in expectancy. Adam laughed and I looked at him to tell him she was dead serious. He quickly changed the laugh into a spluttering cough and brought his wallet out from his back pocket.

"What kind, Maggie?" he asked with a nickname I'd never heard used with Auntie Magda before.

"Oh, well, I have gone through quite a bit, haven't I? Better make it Ferrero Rocher then," she smiled before waving her hand towards the door, shooing him off. He quickly departed, looking worriedly at his wallet. He didn't have enough and would probably end up coming back with just a Crunchie bar. I laughed at the thought before Magda patted my hand again.

"So, dear, are you two..?" she trailed off, winking at me. I snorted before giving a firm confirmation. No.

"Really? I thought..I mean, it was nice of him to drive you down and I suppose he looked after you last night, too?" I raised my eyebrows curiously, surprised she could tell.

"You're eyeliner was leaving little trails along your cheek, dear, and I know only bad news, Anastasia, Ice Cream and soft drinks can do that to you. So, just friends then?" She asked in a tone that meant she'd drop the subject after a final confirmation. I gave a firm nod and went back to stroking her hair.

"Shame, he seems such a lovely young man," she smiled dreamily before smirking, "isn't too bad looking, either."

"Magda!" I laughed, hitting her shoulder playfully.

"Hey, hasn't your poor Auntie gone through enough these past two days?" Adam called from outside the window and I shook my head, no. He just rolled his eyes and entered the room, leaving two Mars bars on Magda's bedside table. I took one that was poking out of his jacket pocket and snapped it in two before unwrapping it and going halves with it, giving part of it to Adam and the other part to myself. I nibbled a bit off while Adam devoured it. He was very hungry and our skipping breakfast probably didn't help his cause, either.

"So, what was it exactly that caused you to be, well, transmitted here? Cardiac Arrest? Heart Attack? Pulmonary something or other?" I questioned, naming the different heart problems that sprung into my mind.

"Answer the second. Heart Attack. I was just walking around the house, sweeping here, mopping there, doing the Sunday housework when I felt a pain in my chest and nearly collapsed. It's a good thing your mother decided to pop in for a visit that day, she was what really saved me, I think. My own personal Guardian Angel," she smiled before giving a shrug of her shoulders.

"Excuse me, Annamaria, but your Aunt needs to rest, now. You can come back after Rest Time, but you'll have to leave again at 8PM," a nurse explained as she tidied Magda's bed, adjusting the level of the bed so it was lower and more even rather than lifted so she was eye level with us. I nodded and thanked her, blew Magda a kiss goodbye and dragged Adam out.

"So, she's still as mad as ever," Adam snickered and I poked him in the side.

"She's not mad, she's young at heart. She was a flower child, a hippie, our modern indie kid," I smiled, dancing lazily with my hands floating and weaving through the air with my eyes closed. Adam just shook his head with a smile permanent on his face.

"No wonder you two are related," I merely shook my head and danced more.

"We're not related, she's mum's best friend. They've been together since pre-school, when they made mud pies and threw sand at each other," I grinned, walking backwards in front of him now.

"Sort of like us, then?" Adam quirked his eyebrows and I nodded.

"Except we knew each other when we were in our diapers, and shared secret gobbledygook words," I smirked before running towards the exit and out to the car. Adam took his time, casually strolling and for once our roles were reversed. He was calm and I was out of breath after my escape.

"So, did that go better than expected?"

"Adam, that went brilliantly," I shouted before hugging his shoulder and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Good thing I haven't got a girlfriend otherwise you would have been killed for things like that," Adam pointed out and I gave a shrug of my shoulders.

"If she was a good girlfriend to you, she'd be my best friend and kissing you on the cheek the same time I do," I threw back and he murmured a touche before we left the parking lot, now headed towards his home.