remit was to find out as much as we could. Which I’ve done.’
‘You’re missing the point...’ Rob was the young doctor whose voice was always loudest in the group discussions, which was a shame, because his vision seemed always the most limited.
‘Which point?’ Megan softened her question with a smile, and Jaye wondered privately what Rob had done to deserve that particular burst of sunshine.
‘You have to do the research and come up with your own answers. You can’t just ask someone else, that’s not in the rules...’ Rob gave a sigh of exasperation, as if he were talking to a recalcitrant child.
Enough. If Rob wanted to throw his weight around, he could do it with him, not Megan. Jaye moved to intervene but Megan was already replying.
‘Isn’t asking someone who was there the best kind of research there is? I’m not aware of any rule against it.’
‘The only rules were the ones that everyone chose to superimpose on themselves.’ John was grinning broadly as he cut in. ‘Let’s see your presentation, Megan.’
Jaye breathed a silent thank you and settled back in his chair. It had been entirely inappropriate to want to defend Megan, but the impulse still lingered, like an uninvited guest at a party.
Megan was speaking again, and then she tapped a key on her laptop and sat down. His mother and father appeared on the screen, seated together at the kitchen table in their apartment.
‘Dr and Mrs Perera, you were in Sri Lanka when the tsunami of 2005 hit.’ Megan’s voice came from somewhere behind the camera. ‘The medical station that you set up to help the sick and the injured was the foundation of the present-day clinic. What were the biggest problems you faced...?’
The video lasted exactly five minutes. By the time it had finished, Jaye felt tears pricking at the sides of his eyes.
This wasn’t appropriate either. He knew the story well enough, he’d been there for much of it. The interview had clearly been carefully edited, and somehow Megan had managed to catch all the passion, the battle against seemingly overwhelming odds, and the achievements that had kept everyone going. At the end of the interview there were photographs, some of which had been taken from his parents’ personal albums.
There was silence in the room and then someone started to clap. Megan grabbed her laptop and hurried back to her seat, red-faced, as everyone applauded.
* * *
Everyone had crowded around Megan when the session ended, wanting to know more about the Sri Lankan clinic. Jaye had hurried from the room, trying not to notice that Megan’s head had turned to watch him go.
He’d taken refuge in an armchair, tucked into the corner of the large landing where the main staircase split in two. It was one of his favourite places in the house where he could sit and watch the world go by, without being a part of it. But as Megan walked through the hallway, she looked up and saw him there.
‘May I join you?’ She walked half way up towards him and then stopped.
‘Yes, of course.’ Jaye rose from the chair and sat down on the stairs next to it.
‘Is this your stair?’ She had a mischievous look in her eyes as she approached him.
Actually, it was. The one where he’d sat as a child, hidden from the hallway by the turn in the stairs but able to peep out and see what was going on.
‘Why don’t you try it for size?’ There was plenty of room there for two.
Megan nodded, sitting down next to him. Looking around, she peered through the heavy banister rails to see down into the main hall.
‘It’s a good stair. Just right.’ She smiled at him, and Jaye felt a warm tingle shoot down his spine.
‘I think so.’ His legs were a little longer now, so it wasn’t such a good hiding place as it had once been. But his initials were still there, carved into the stair tread and hidden by the carpet.
She was hugging her laptop, obviously there on a mission. Jaye waited. No doubt Megan would come out with it, sooner rather than later.
‘I hope you didn’t mind... Your mother and father were really happy to do the interview and they offered to let me scan some of their photographs... They were very kind, and I didn’t mean to impose on them by asking so much. I hope you don’t feel it was too personal.’
‘Not a bit. And my parents looked as if they were really enjoying it. My father never passes up a chance to reminisce.’ It occurred to Jaye that including his parents’ words and photographs hadn’t been an exercise in currying favour. Megan had simply gone down the route that she felt told the story best, despite not being sure whether he’d approve. The thought made him smile.
‘I had to cut some bits out.’ She looked up at him, her eyes bright. ‘Did you really help dig the foundations of the clinic?’
‘I was a lot younger then.’ It seemed like a hundred years ago. And yet somehow he could still touch the feeling of something fresh and new.
‘John spoke to me about sending me there for my first assignment. I’ll have to check out your bricklaying skills.’ She was clearly testing the water, waiting for Jaye’s opinion on the matter.
‘Well, when you get there, take the path that runs around the back of the building. We all put our initials in the cement, under the window of the main ward.’
Megan gave a broad smile. ‘I will. I can’t wait...’
She seemed to have said all she’d come to say and had begun to fidget nervously. Jaye stretched his legs out in front of him, wondering if he might persuade her to stay. Just so he could breathe her scent a little longer.
‘What do you think of the course so far?’
‘It’s been great, really helpful. It’s been good to talk to people from other charities and compare the different approaches. And being in this house has made all the difference.’
Jaye had always felt he paled into insignificance next to the great house, set in its spectacular landscape, but it was disappointing to hear the words on Megan’s lips. He wouldn’t have minded so much if Sonia hadn’t fallen so irrevocably in love with the place. When he’d first brought her here, she’d hardly looked at him all day, as if he’d suddenly melted into a poor second place in her heart. Jaye had tried to dismiss the feeling, but it had turned out to be a warning of things to come.
‘You think the house is what makes the difference. Not the people in it?’
She flashed him a withering look, as if he’d misunderstood on purpose. ‘What I meant was that we don’t leave every evening, so we sit and talk a lot more. Don’t you think that surroundings have an impact on how people operate?’
Jaye chuckled. ‘Yes, I do. It’s one of the founding principles of the clinic in Sri Lanka. We tried to make it a quiet place, where people could find healing and balance.’
‘The principles of Ayurvedic medicine? You practise that?’
‘No.
