Me Before You: A Novel

with my hands. Treena and her competent manner had evaporated.
    Finally, the wheelchair hummed and he turned slowly to face me.
    ‘Here’s what I know about you, Miss Clark. My mother says you’re chatty.’ He said it like it was an affliction. ‘Can we strike a deal? Whereby you are very
un-
chatty around me?’
    I swallowed, feeling my face flame.
    ‘Fine,’ I said, when I could speak again. ‘I’ll be in the kitchen. If you want anything just call me.’
    ‘You can’t give up already.’
    I was lying sideways on my bed with my legs stretched up the wall, like I did when I was a teenager. I had been up here since supper, which was unusual for me. Since Thomas was born, he and Treena had moved into the bigger room, and I was in the box room, which was small enough to make you feel claustrophobic should you sit in it for more than half an hour at a time.
    But I didn’t want to sit downstairs with Mum andGranddad because Mum kept looking at me anxiously and saying things like ‘It will get better, love’ and ‘No job is great on the first day’ – as if she’d had a ruddy job in the last twenty years. It was making me feel guilty. And I hadn’t even done anything.
    ‘I didn’t say I was giving up.’
    Treena had barged in without knocking, as she did every day, even though I always had to knock quietly on her room, in case Thomas was sleeping.
    ‘And I could have been naked. You could at least shout first.’
    ‘I’ve seen worse. Mum thinks you’re going to hand in your notice.’
    I slid my legs sideways down the wall and pushed myself up to a seated position.
    ‘Oh God, Treen. It’s worse than I thought. He is so miserable.’
    ‘He can’t move. Of course he’s miserable.’
    ‘No, but he’s sarcastic and mean with it. Every time I say something or suggest something he looks at me like I’m stupid, or says something that makes me feel about two years old.’
    ‘You probably did say something stupid. You just need to get used to each other.’
    ‘I really didn’t. I was so careful. I hardly said anything except “Would you like to go out for a drive?” or “Would you like a cup of tea?”.’
    ‘Well, maybe he’s like that with everyone at the start, until he knows whether you’re going to stick around. I bet they get through loads of helpers.’
    ‘He didn’t even want me in the same room as him. Idon’t think I can stick it, Katrina. I really don’t. Honest – if you’d been there you would understand.’
    Treena said nothing then, just looked at me for a while. She got up and glanced out of the door, as if checking whether there was anybody on the landing.
    ‘I’m thinking of going back to college,’ she said, finally.
    It took my brain a few seconds to register this change of tack.
    ‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘But –’
    ‘I’m going to take a loan to pay for the fees. But I can get some special grant too, because of having Thomas, and the university is offering me reduced rates because they … ’ She shrugged, a little embarrassed. ‘They say they think I could excel. Someone’s dropped out of the business studies course, so they can take me for the beginning of the next term.’
    ‘What about Thomas?’
    ‘There’s a nursery on campus. We can stay there in a subsidized flat in halls in the week, and come back here most weekends.’
    ‘Oh.’
    I could feel her watching me. I didn’t know what to do with my face.
    ‘I’m really desperate to use my brain again. Doing the flowers is doing my head in. I want to learn. I want to improve myself. And I’m sick of my hands always being freezing cold from the water.’
    We both stared at her hands, which were pink tinged, even in the tropical warmth of our house.
    ‘But –’
    ‘Yup. I won’t be working, Lou. I won’t be able to giveMum anything. I might … I might even need a bit of help from them.’ This time she looked quite uncomfortable. Her expression, when she glanced up at me, was almost apologetic.
    Downstairs Mum was laughing at something on the television. We could hear her exclaiming to Granddad. She often explained the plot of the show to him, even though we told her all the time she didn’t need to. I couldn’t speak. The significance of my sister’s words sank in slowly but inexorably. I felt like a Mafia victim must do, watching the concrete setting slowly around their ankles.
    ‘I really need to do this, Lou. I want more for Thomas, more for both of us. The only way I’ll