The Other Woman

“So you’ll be home tomorrow.” Roger said down the phone after a lengthy conversation about my long list of wrongdoings. Starting with my ‘stupid’ act of heroism, through to me not getting in touch with the office while phone lines were down.
“I wouldn’t mind spending a few more days here.” I answered. I had met so many people who, like me, wanted to help in San Francisco. I had seen families torn apart then brought back together all in the same day, I had seen foes helping each other find what was left of their offices and homes.
“You don’t have enough holidays left.” He put it bluntly, but it sounded like he couldn’t wait to read me the riot act. “You’ll be home tomorrow and that is that.” I felt like a teenager trying to negotiate a longer curfew. “And Rebecca,” It sounded like he would say thank you, or well done, or praise me. “No more heroics.” And with that, he put the phone down. I sighed and sat down on a box of supplies. I had no option but to leave tonight. I thought about home. I would still be able to make my Sunday afternoon catch up with Harry. I had heard that it had started snowing and I imagined the snow covered fields and little Alfie playing in the garden.
“Are you ready to go and move some rubble?” Bryan, who had travelled from Cork in Ireland to help, handed me a pair of thick gloves. I stood up, dusting my hands on my trousers and putting my phone in a safekeeping bag. “You’ll be going home soon.” He commented as we walked towards one of the final rubble piles left in the area.
“I’ll be travelling home tonight.” I sighed.
“You’ll be glad then.”
“There’s still so much to be done here.” I commented as we reached the group ready to move rubble into various skips and wheelbarrows ready to be moved away. While I was in San Francisco, I had helped to put in place temporary water supplies and electricity and helped to find numerous missing people. However, by my final day there, were weren’t expecting to find people alive.
“There’s always something to be done.” Bryan sighed, quite philosophically, pulling on his gloves.

My job was to gently remove the rubble from the top of the pile and pass it on to someone else who would pass it onto someone else who would put it in the skips or wheelbarrows. After an afternoon in the sun, we had removed a sizeable amount of rubble and broken glass. We could even hear construction teams starting to rebuild houses and offices a few hundred meters away. About mid afternoon we all stopped for a drink, when I realised I had a text.
Look at you superwoman! I need to speak to you when you come home
It was from Skippy. I replied to him with the plans of my return. I also mentioned that I had spoken to Harry and would be seeing him that Sunday. I told the charity supervisor that I would be leaving that night from the airport. He seemed saddened but understood that I had to do as I was told. I checked my phone one last time before getting back to work.
But Harry is in France on his honeymoon?
I was confused. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we met up and while I’ve been here, we’ve been texting whenever possible, so why didn’t he tell me that he would be on his honeymoon? The thought of him walking through Parisian streets hand in hand with Clarissa made my stomach churn. I could see them together enjoying dinner, looking into each other's’ eyes over candlelight. Worst of all, I could imagine them in their hotel room together. The mere thought made tears spring to my eyes. The tears just didn’t stop. I don’t know why I was kidding myself. I could hardly have expected Harry to be waiting on my doorstep the second I got home ready to sweep me off my feet. I couldn’t really justify me being upset. I had let my heart run away with itself.
“Help!” One of the team shouted from by the pile of rubble. She was holding up a flat piece of plaster out of the way.
“What is it?” I asked, running towards them wiping tears from my face.
“I think there’s someone under here but if I move this out of the way the whole thing will collapse.” She was worried at what could happen, so I gave her a reassuring rub on her shoulder. Some of the other members of the team leapt on the scene to lift away the rubble while I waited to see if I could get into the crevice underneath to find the body. After some negotiation the rubble was lifted and I could lower myself down into the crevice to help lift the lifeless body out. I could just about find enough of a surface to bend down to pick the person’s shoulders up. As I maneuvered the body around I saw something that broke my heart: the woman whose body we were recovering was heavily pregnant. For the second time that day my eyes filled up. My instincts kicked in. My mind was screaming at me: you have to get this woman out right now. And as carefully as we could, we lifted the woman out of the rubble. Slowly handing her from person to person until she was on a stretcher and assessed by the paramedics. The paramedics nodded to each other and lifted her onto the back of the ambulance, speeding straight off to hospital, It all happened so quickly that I hardly had time to take stock before I could hear the sound of rubble moving again. I could feel it moving underneath my feet and before I knew it, I was lying on a heap of dust and concrete and glass with even more on top of me. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, I knew that I could probably move some of it myself, so tried to wiggle left and right to give me enough room to move. I could feel my ankles were stuck under something and my head was wet. I reached up to brush some hair out of my face and felt blood on my hand. I thought that I must have cut my hand because I stupidly forgot to put my gloves on. I was never one to follow orders.

*****
“Morning,” I could hear Harry softly whisper in my ear. His voice crackled slightly, so I guessed it was still early. I cracked open my eyes to see him place a tray on my bedside table and sit down on the bed. “How are you this morning?” He kissed my forehead and leaned his arm over me. I moaned and stretched, rolling around so my back was flat against the mattress.
“Better now you're here.” I had missed him while he was on a tour of South Africa on behalf of his grandma. I reached my arms us to run my fingers through his rough red hair and down to rest on his beard-covered cheeks. I pulled myself up to kiss him. I took all of him in, gazing into his eyes and gently stroking his beard.
“I felt guilty, not being here.” He rolled around so we was lying on the bed next to me.
“You didn’t need to be here,” I mumbled, cuddling into Harry’s side.
“Yes I did. You’re my girlfriend and when something upsets you, I want to be there.” His arm found its way around my shoulders and held me tightly against him, kissing my forehead.
“But you didn’t need to come rushing back.” I shrugged. Harry shook his head.
“I always be there whenever you need me, no matter how far away I am.” I stretched my neck up to kiss him again. It seemed that a couple of weeks apart was far too much for us.
“I know Buster.” I bargained with him; I didn’t want him to think I was ungrateful for him taking the first plane out of Johannesburg that he could. “But there was nothing I could do.” I shrugged. “Mum and Dad had their minds made up and they only had me holding them back.”
“I’m sure we could visit them soon.” Harry said, “and you’ve got me.” I nodded. I would always have Harry.