Chapter Seven
As they were driving down the road Nicholai noticed something in the tree’s, it was that shadow again. He closed his eyes and shook his head, when he opened them it was still there. Like it was following him. Even staying level with the car.How was it moving this fast? What is causing the shadow? He could not see anything that it could be coming from.
He turned his head and looked through the windscreen, the shadow followed. It was now in front of the car. He turned to Emilie, “can you see that shadow in front of the car?” He asked her. “What shadow, there is nothing there?” Emilie said, using her peripheral vision to look around. She did look a little worried. “Have you seen this before?” She asked curiously. “Yes, I have. A few times.” Nicholai explained.
Emilie went quiet again and just drove on. As they went down the road the both just looked ahead of them. Not a word was said again until they reached the hospital.
When they arrived Emilie parked up and got out of the car. “Are you coming inside Nicholai? You look like you are not going to get out of the car.” She asked. “Yes, I will follow you in, if you leave the keys I will lock the car.” With this Emilie gave him the keys and walked inside.
Nicholai sat thinking for a while after she left. Wondering about the shadow he keeps seeing around. Is it stalking him? Will it ever leave him alone? He shook his head and got out of the car and locked it. When he entered the hospital he saw Emilie still stood at the front desk.
He walked up to her, tapped her on the shoulder. “Emilie, what is wrong? I thought you would be with Wilfred by now.” She turned around with tears in her eyes. “They will not let me see him, they said there is something happening to him and he needs stabilising.” He looked confused, “but they said he was well enough to go home, we both came so we could get him to the car.” Nicholai said. Emilie just put her head down not saying anything.
Nicholai went to try and find someone. There was a doctor Nicholai ran to him, "Doctor, please help. Emilie was told to come and pick her husband up but now she has been told that she cannot even see him.” The doctor turned around and just looked at Nicholai, “I am sorry but I cannot help, I am not the doctor on the case.” “But I did not tell you who the patient is, so how would you know?”
The doctor just turned and walked away. Nicholai looked at the floor. A lady behind the desk tapped his shoulder. “Please, do not be disheartened. That doctor is rude to everyone including the families of his patients.” Nicholai looked at her and just nodded, heading back to Emilie to see how she was holding up. He looked up and noticed she was gone. Where had she gone?
He asked the people around if they had seen where she had gone. Nobody saw where she went, it was like she just vanished. She appeared from around a corner, “Emilie, where did you go?” Nicholai said in a panicked voice. “I just went to the toilet.” She said, shocked that anyone cared. She looked around and noticed a doctor, she ran to her. “Hi, are you the one on my husband's case? His name is Wilfred.” She asked. “I have a few patients called Wilfred, what is his surname?” The doctor enquired. “Our surname is Hawkins.”
The doctor walked away and behind the desk. She picked up a clipboard and looked at it. She looked up and said “yes, he is under my care. In fact I am heading to his room now, you may come with me if you like.” Emilie smiled, “yes, of course I would love to come with you. I was told he could go home today but then they said something came up and he couldn't anymore but nothing else.” The doctor looked shocked. “Well, follow me and I will talk to you and Wilfred together about what will be going on, if he is awake."
Emilie and the doctor walked off, Nicholai started to follow them. The doctor turned round to him.”Please stay here sir.” With this she turned and as she was about to walk Emilie said, “no, he can come with us. He is a family friend.” The three of them walked down the corridor. They turned to the left at the end of the reception area. Nicholai was a little bit behind and sped up to catch up so he did not lose them to any corridors. When he turned he could see them about to turn again. He ran up to them, reached them just before they turned.
They went past four rooms. As they carried on walking they stopped outside the fifth room.The doctor walked in followed by Emilie and Nicholai. Wilfred lay in bed asleep, he was wired to machines. All that could be heard was beeping from the machines. There was a beep from the doctor, she checked her pager and turned to Emilie and said, “I need to leave, an emergency has come up, if you need anything the nurse station is back the way we came. If it is an emergency please press the nurse call button.” With this she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Emilie just sat on the end of the bed near Wilfred's feet. He stirred a little bit but settled back into a peaceful sleep quickly. Emilie turned towards Nicholai, “I do hope he is able to come home soon, I know the children miss him.” She said slowly in a low voice. Her head dropped to the bed and the sound of sniffling started. She was crying, trying to hide it by letting her hair fall at the sides.
Nicholai asked “a bit of a silly question, but are you okay?”. Emilie looked up, “I wish I was, seeing him like this makes me realise how serious all this is, he was healthy a few days ago.” She replied through tears. Nicholai looked at Emilie, standing up as he walked round to her. He stood by her side and put his arm around her shoulder, “Wilfred is strong, I reckon he will be okay in time, but I will go and talk to the doctor if you need me to.” Emilie just shook her head and looked at Wilfred.
The nurse walked into the door, “I’m just here to check his checks, this won’t take long.” She said with a smile. She looked at all his machines and wrote numbers on the sheet on a clipboard that was hooked on the end of his bed. She looked at Emilie and asked to speak outside. Emilie nodded and followed the nurse out of the room. The door closed behind them.
The nurse kept walking so Emilie followed her, “excuse me, I thought you wanted to talk.” She said, confused. “Yes, but please just follow me, we need to go somewhere else.” Emilie followed her, looking at an angle so she could see the floor and the nurse so she did not lose her. The nurse turned towards the nurses desk. She stopped and spoke to the nurse behind the desk briefly. They both looked at Emilie. The one behind the desk grabbed a microphone and made an announcement. “Can Doctor Lawrence, please come to the nurses desk in the ICU.” Then she placed it back down. The nurse walked back to Emilie, “just wait here, the doctor will be here soon, she will speak to you.”
Doctor Lawrence came around the corner and asked Emilie to follow her. They both walked into a room, it said family room on the door. Doctor Lawrence sat down and gestured for Emilie to sit down opposite her. “Mrs Hawkins, we have done some tests on Wilfred. We did find something and it is unfortunately a tumor in his brain. It is only small and should go into remission with radiotherapy. If this does not help we will then try surgery. We leave surgery as a last resort. He will start it tomorrow and do it for two months then we will revisit and see where it is up to.”
Emilie looked to the floor and started crying. Doctor Lawrence got up and walked over to her. Sitting next to Emilie, she put her arm around her. They just sat like that until Emilie started to calm down and slowly stopped crying. “Mrs Hawkins, your husband is strong, it was the tumor that caused the seizure. The growth of it caused a change in the electrical activity that caused the response he had.” Emilie looked confused. “So, if it goes, will the seizures stop?” She asked. Doctor Lawrence looked at her, “Wilfred will be prescribed anti-seizure medication to help control them during treatment for the tumor.” Emilie stood up, “can you take me back to Wilfred's room now please? In case he is awake.” “Oh, he will not be awake yet, he was sedated as he needed the help to sleep so he would be calm and less likely to seizure during the tests.” Doctor Lawrence got up and walked towards the door, “Come on then, let's get you back.”
They walked back through the corridors and got back to the room. When they walked in, Wilfred and Nicholai were talking. “Emilie, there you are.” Wilfred said excitedly. She ran to him and threw her arms around him. He screamed in pain. Emilie backed off startled, “Wilfred, where hurt?” Asked the doctor. “My whole chest, it was like Emilie was jumping on me until she let go.” Doctor Lawrence looked at his chart, “you should not be awake yet Wilfred, you were sedated.” Wilfred looked confused, “why was I sedated?”
Doctor Lawrence turned away and walked out of the room. Nicholai watched her walk out, he followed her out of the room. “Doctor, why did you just walk out when Wilfred asked you a question?” He shouted down the corridor. She stopped and turned around. “I left because I needed to go and speak to the nurse who administered the sedation. It appears she did not give the correct dose for his weight.” Then she walked off again and went to find the nurse.
Nicholai went back into the room and explained to them why she went. Emilie was just happy he was awake but worried about the pain with the news she had been given. “Emilie, what is going on, why am I in the hospital?” She looked at him, “do you not remember what happened at home?” Nicholai looked at Wilfred and ran out of the room and to the nurse station. “It’s Wilfred, he seems to have memory loss, he does not remember what happened and why he is here.” He said why trying to catch his breath. Doctor Lawrence looked at him and ran to the room.
When she entered Wilfred was sitting staring at his hands. “Why do they look weird?” He kept asking, getting more and more agitated with every repetition of the question. “Wilfred, please look at me.” Said Doctor Lawrence. He looked up, “which one of you should I look at?” He queried. Doctor Lawrence shone a light in his eyes, she looked really worried. Wilfred fell back and another seizure started. She pressed a button ushered Nicholai and Emilie out as other doctors and nurses entered. Emilie fell to the floor crying her eyes out. Nicholai sat down by her side, “Emilie, he is in the right place, they will help him here.” She looked up and noticed a clock, “oh, the children need picking up from school, I must go.” She said getting up. “You stay here with Wilfred, I will go and get the children. I will not say anything about his health, I will just say you are here with him and they will see you later.” With this he got up and hugged Emilie. She smiled at him, thanked him and went to look through the window into his room.
Doctor Lawrence came out, “Mrs Hawkins, you may come back into the room now, he has been put into a medically induced coma to help him with pain management and so we can run more tests.” “Please, call me Emilie. What happened?” “Well, he went into another seizure but it was a bigger one this time so we need to do extra tests to see what is going on.” With this Doctor Lawrence walked away and the other doctors and nurses left the room.
Emilie went back in, Wilfred was just laying there with a tube down his throat. She just sat sobbing into her hands. Scared what was happening with her husband. Doctor Lawrence came in and shook her, “Emilie, your husband has had all his tests, you were asleep so we left you to it. Could you come with me to discuss his further treatment please?” Emilie stood up and followed Doctor Lawrence into the corridor.
Doctor Lawrence looked at Emilie, “well, we found a second tumor in his head and some issues with his lungs, which is the reason for the pain. He can still do his treatment for everything whilst in the coma so it will not disrupt anything.” Emilie looked at her, “will he make a full recovery or will this have a negative impact on him?” “We do not know until we have started treatment and he is on the mend. We will keep him in until the medications have started so we can keep an eye on anything that may happen and his progression on them.” “Okay, can I go back to him now?” Doctor Lawrence nodded and Emilie went back into the room.
“Mrs Hawkins, there is a call for you at the nurses station.” Anurse was saying. Emilie looked at her. “I do not want to leave my husband.” “It is someone called Elijah.” The nurse said and left the room. Emilie followed her. When she got to the phone she talked to Elijah, she updated him on Wilfred but asked him not to tell the younger ones. She did not want them to worry.
Emilie walked back to Wilfred's room, as she went through the door Wilfred was sitting up, eyes open just staring. Emilie pressed the call nurse button. A nurse came into the room and saw Wilfred, “he was like this when I got back from the phone call, but he is in a coma. How is he doing this? He has never done this in his sleep before” Emilie said in a worried tone. The nurse lay him back down and closed his eyes. “This can happen, it has before. We are unsure why but do not worry. If he does it again please just gently lie him down and close his eyes.” Then she left the room.
Emilie sat on the chair, just watching him sleep, hoping he wouldn't sit up again. A nurse came in, “I’m sorry, we need you to go home. It is 10pm.” Emilie looked at the nurse, “it is 10pm? I did not notice the time, I am so sorry.” With this she got up. As she was walking past the nurses desk one of them called her over. “Mrs Hawkins, can we have a word please?” She turned to them with a worried look on her face.
She walked over to the desk, one of the nurses stepped round and asked Emilie to follow him. They went to the room Doctor Lawrence spoke to her in earlier. This made her nervous. “Mrs Hawkins, we will keep a close eye on Wilfred overnight and have an update for you in the morning. I wanted to bring you in here to say that there are a few issues we will keep a close eye on. Him sitting up whilst in a coma is one of them, yes it is a side effect that happens often but we need to make sure it does not cause any complications.” With this he walked out of the room.
Emilie, confused by the conversation, left the room and walked over to a phone to make a call. “Hi Nicholai, it’s Emilie. They have said I need to come home. Is there any chance you could come get me?” Nicholai was quiet for abit. “The younger three are all asleep, will Elijah be okay being left with them?” “Oh, yes. When they are asleep he is okay with them as he can settle them if they wake, just let him know.” Emilie hung up.
Nicholai went to Elijah’s room and knocked on the door. “Elijah, your mum has asked me to go and pick her up, the younger three are all sound asleep. Will you be okay listening out for them?” His door opened, he looked at Nicholai, his eyes with red circles like he had been crying. “Yes, but please do not be too long.” With this Nicholai went downstairs, grabbed his jacket and the car key and left.
He got to the hospital and went inside for Emilie. He found her sitting on a bench in the entrance lobby. “Emilie, are you ready to go home?” She stood up and walked towards him quietly, shuffling her feet. Looking at the floor sniffling as she cried. Nicholai put his arm around her shoulders and helped her walk to the car. When they got to the car he sat her in the passenger seat, put her belt on and got in the driver's seat.
Whilst they were driving Emilie looked at Nicholai and said “they needed to put him into a medically induced coma, they are worried about the pain. He also has two tumors in his brain. There are also some issues with his lugs which is why he got pains.” Nicholai gasped with shock. “What? All this from a seizure?” He asked, “It was the tumors that caused the seizures.” “So, what will happen?” Nicholai asked. “They will start him on radiation and another treatment for his chest.” After this Emilie stopped talking and just looked out the window.
They reached the house, Emilie got out of the car, walked to the door. It was locked. “Oh, Elijah must have locked it after I left. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a key. After they got in the house she sat on the bottom stair just staring at the door. Elijah came down and sat down and cuddled his mum. They both cried together, worried about Wilfred. Emilie looked at Elijah, “thank-you for coming down, lets go up and get you settled. It is late and you have school tomorrow. I know you probably do not want to go but it will help keep you distracted.” Elijah stood up and went to his room followed by Emilie.
Nicholai went into the lounge and sat on the couch just looking at the wall. Thinking about what Emilie had said in the car. He looked at the clock, it was 4am. He got his pillow and blanket and lay down. He must have nodded off as next thing he knows is Elijah is waking him, “Nicholai, are you wanting any breakfast with us before we go to school?” Nicholai opened his eyes, stretched and sat up. He got up and went to the toilet.
When he came down he walked into the kitchen and all four kids were sitting at the table, “where is your mother?” Nicholai asked. “She is in bed, I could not get her up.” Elijah explained. “It looks like she has not slept.” He then went to make his siblings breakfast. Nicholai walked back upstairs. He knocked on Emilie’s bedroom door. A mumble came from inside. He opened the door and asked again if it was okay he came in. She answered in a low voice saying yes. He walked in and sat down on the end of her bed. “Are you coming down to see the children before they go to school?” Luca is asking for you. She sat up, her eyes were red and swollen. She had been crying all night.
Nicholai stood up, walked out of her room. Shortly after he entered again and handed her a damn cloth. “It’s to wipe your eyes. I know it won't do much but the warmth might help the swelling.” She wiped her face and thanked Nicholai for everything he had done during Wilfred’s health decline. She asked Nicholai to leave her room so she could get up and sort herself out before going down to the children.
Nicholai went back to the kitchen and sat down at the table with the children. Elijah looked at him and he nodded. The relief on Elijah’s face was obvious, this was a sign he had understood the nod. Emilie walked into the kitchen. Luca and Abigail jumped up and ran to her. They threw their arms around her waist tightly. She put her arms around their shoulders. Katarina and Elijah walked over and hugged her around the shoulders. They all just stood there for a while.
Nicolai watched from a distance. When the children let go and sat down to eat he asked Emilie if they could talk in another room. They both went into the lounge. “Are you sure school is the best place for the children? Maybe one day off here with you is what they need. I will go to the hospital, if you write a note they should be able to tell me any updates on Wilfred. Either that or I stay with the children except for dropping you off and picking you up.”
Elijah walked into the room. “I think we need to be in school, it will help distract us from the stuff going on with father.” Luca came in, “I want to go to nursery and play with my friends.” They all got their shoes and coats and got in the car ready to be dropped off. “Nicholai, will you drive them please? I just have some stuff to do.” “Yes, of course. I will ask Elijah for directions.”
Nicholai went to the car and explained to the children he was dropping them off as their mother had stuff to sort out. “I will direct you, first will be Luca for nursery as he starts first. Luckily my school starts last.” Nicholai took off from the curb and drove down the street. He followed Elijah's directions. When they got to Elijah’s school he gave Nicholai directions back to the house.
He arrived back at the house and Emilie was standing outside waiting for him. She got in the car and they drove to the hospital. The ride there was silent. None of them said anything worried about the updates of the night. Wondering if anything had happened, any improvements. Hoping for no other problems.
They arrived at the hospital, parked up and walked in. They walked through the corridors to the ward Wilfred's room as in. “Oh, Emilie.” A voice called from behind them. It was Doctor Lawrence. Emilie stopped walking and waited for her to catch up. Doctor Lawrence asked Emilie to follow her. They went into that room again. Emilie was starting to hate this room. It was always some news or another. “Emilie, Wilfred had a good night. No incidents or declines. No sitting up or anything.” She explained. “Why did we need to come in here if it is good news?” Emilie asked, confused.
Doctor Lawrence just walked out of the room. Emilie stood confused as to why she had to go in there. She walked out of the room and told Nicholai what had been said. “Why did you go in the room?” HE asked. “I do not know, when I asked she just walked out of the room.” They both walked down to Wilfred’s room. When they walked in he was still there with the tubes and wires.
Emilie sat on the end of the bed and Nicholai turned to her. “Do you want me to stay or go and sort out the house so it is ready for when the children come home from school?” Emilie looked at him and nodded. “You are welcome to stay for a while if you want. There is enough time until they finish so it’s no rush.” She replied. “Okay, but when Wilfred is home and able to help I will need to go.” Emilie looked at Wilfred. “I’m unsure how long it will take, if you need to go sooner I’m sure we will manage Niklaus and his wife will come and help.” “I can wait until he is home so I can help with school runs.”
They sat in silence for the next hour. A nurse came in to do Wilfred’s checks. She wrote them down on the chart, put it back on the end of his bed and went out. Emilie looked at the chart. “Nicholai, do you understand what any of this means?” He walked over and looked at it. “This is his heart rate, pulse and oxygen levels. They are good. His temperature is good. There doesn’t seem to be any issues from what I can see.” She looked at him. “How do you know?” “Oh, my gramps was a doctor and he always used to show me and talk me through it.”
Doctor Lawrence walked in the room. “We are taking him down for some tests. These ones you can be there next to him during them if you want, he will be left in the coma as it will make it easier but you can hold his hand.” Nicholai stood up, “I will go back and sort stuff out ready for when the children need collecting from school and nursery.”
Doctor Lawrence and Emilie walked off following Wilfred being pushed by other doctors and nurses. As they turned right at the end of the corridor Nicholai turned left, walked by the nurses station and out of the hospital. He got to the car, got in and just sat there thinking about the news Doctor Lawrence gave about Wilfred overnight and his check notes on the board. When his tests and treatments are done he should make a full recovery depending on how the seizures affected his brain.
He started driving, he took the long way back to the house as he needed to get gas for the car. He had music playing on the radio and was singing along. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the shadow again. He pulled up the next chance he got. He got out and looked around and it was gone. What is going on? Why does he keep seeing this shadow?
He got back in the car and drove off, focusing on the road ahead trying not to look through the corner of his eyes. He arrived back at the house. He went in and just got straight to cleaning. He heard a noise from upstairs but he was alone, who could it be? He slowly walked to the bottom of the stairs and the noise happened again. He did not know what it could be.
He grabbed the nearest object to him without knowing what it was he started walking up the stairs. The noise seemed to be coming from Elijah’s room. He approached it cautiously, trying not to make any noise with his footsteps. He slowly opened the door. He peeped his head round. It was Elijah. “What are you doing at home? I dropped you at school.” Elijah turned round quickly. “I got sent home, they found me crying in the toilets and the counsellor suggested sending me home after our chat.” Nicholai just nodded and walked out.
He went back downstairs and went back to cleaning. Elijah followed him downstairs, “Nicholai, how is my father doing?” Nicholai turned round and said, “he is doing as good as he can, they have found a few issues but they are treating him and he will come home, but they are unsure when.” Elijah fell to the floor in tears of relief. Nicholai went and sat next to him until he stopped crying.
The two of them got up and went into the kitchen to get something to eat. Nicholai made them both cheese melt. They sat at the table and ate quietly. “When your father comes home I will be moving on as I have stuff to do that I have put on hold to help out here.” “Oh, I will be sad to see you leave. Will you visit again?” Elijah asked. “Of course I will, I will be back before I go home.” Elijah finished eating and went back upstairs to his room. Nicholai went into the lounge and sat on the couch looking around at the clean room wondering where he could start on cleaning the house.
He got up and went into the kitchen. He filled the sink. Elijah walked in, “do you need any help?” Nicholai jumped and spun round. “Elijah, what did you say sorry?” Elijah asked again. “If you know how to use this machine, could you do the laundry please? I cannot figure it out.” Elijah walked over to it and sorted it out. He knew how to use the machine. The two of them worked side by side cleaning the house, upstairs and downstairs.
The phone rang. Elijah went to answer it. “I will get it in case it is your mother, you should be in school.” He nodded and walked away from the phone and let Nicholai get it. “Hello, this is the Hawkins residence. How may I help?””Hello, this is Lucaa’s nursery, we need him to be picked up early. He has a bit of a temperature. He seems a bit tired as well.” The lady said down the phone. “Oh, okay I will be there as soon as I can.” Nicholai replied. When he got off the phone he explained to Elijah what was going on, grabbed the car keys and left the house.
Nicholai pulled up in the nursery carpark. He walked up to the door, it was locked so he rang the bell. A lady came to the door, “Hi, I am here to pick up Luca Hawkins.” “Ah, yes. You were the one who dropped him off right? “ “Yes, there is a health problem with their father so I am temporarily doing drop offs and pick ups.”
The lady let Nicholai into the lobby. She carried on into the room. She came back out shortly carrying Luca. “He fell asleep just before you rang the bell.” Nicholai took Luca and walked towards the door. “Could you open the door so we can get out please?” He asked. She went and opened the door to the building and walked to the car with them to help him put Luca in. “Thank-you for your help with all the doors.” She nodded and walked back inside.
He took Luca home and put him in bed. The phone rang again. “Hello, how may I help you?” “Hi Nicholai, it’s Emilie. I need to come home.” “Okay, I will come and get you.” She hung up when he said that. He told Elijah what was happening, grabbed the keys and went back out. On the drive to the hospital he saw that shadow again a few times. He tried his best to ignore it.
He arrived at the hospital, Emilie was already waiting for him again. She got in the car and looked at Nicholai. “I needed to come home, Wilfred is still in his coma and they said he won’t be awake for a few days yet. They want to keep him asleep until he has had all his tests.” She just looked out the window and went quiet after that. The whole way back she was quiet. “Emilie, Elijah got sent home as he was too upset to stay and focus and Luca was sent home with a temperature.” She just nodded and continued looking out the window.
Nicholai pulled up. Soon as the car stopped Emilie got out and ran to the house. She opened the door and ran into the kitchen straight to Elijah who was sorting the laundry out. She threw her arms around him and just held him for a while. When they let go they sat at the table and Emlie told Elijah everything she knew. “Please do not tell the younger ones, they will not understand what you are saying and will get more upset.” She then went up to check on Luca, he was just sitting quietly playing with his toys. “Mommy!” He shouted and ran to her. He threw his arms around her waist and refused to let go. “Luca, do you want to come for a ride? We are going to pick up Katarina and Abigail.”
Nicholai looked in his bag, he saw his pager was dead. He was wondering if he had this. He thought it was still lost due to not hearing it at all during his visit. He had a look around to see if there was anything he could use to put some power into it. He finally found something. When it came back on there were no signs that it had gone off. He just put it back in his bag and walked away.
Emilie got back with the children and went straight to making dinner. The children just sat at the table doing homework, apart from Luca, he was just drawing. Quietly looking down making lines on his paper to make houses and trees. He was happy working on the art. Abigail was doing math equations. Katarina was sitting writing a short story for her English lesson. Elijah stood washing pots.
After this they all went up to get ready for bed. All four brushed their teeth together then one by one washed their faces then went to their rooms. Emilie went into each room to check on the children. They were all in their beds apart from Elijah, he was sitting at his desk doing homework. She went in and asked him to be done by ten at the latest.
She left Elijah’s room and went downstairs to talk to Nicholai. When she got downstairs she went into the lounge, Nicholai was asleep on the sofa. She just turned and walked out of the room, upstairs and into her bedroom. She lay on her bed reading a book until she fell asleep.
At 2:30am he was woken by a beeping, it was the pager. He got up and went to look at it. It was his office number. He grabbed the phone and dialled. “Hello, big property estates, how can I help you?” “Hi, it’s Ncholai, you paged me?” The phone went quiet. A few moments later someone else was on the other end of the phone. “Nicholai, it is Mr Williams. I am ringing for an update on the castle valuation.” Nicholai panicked, with everything going on he had forgotten about the castle. “Oh, I am aiming to go there in a few days. I just have something to help a family with who have helped me why I’ve been here.” Mr Williams took a deep breath. “We sent you as you usually get the job done the quickest. If you are not back in the office in the next two weeks your job is gone.” With this he hung up.
He lay back down and fell asleep. “Nicholai, Nicholai. Wake up, this thing is beeping in your bag.” It was his pager again. He looked, it was the office again. He just turned it off. “Have we all had breakfast yet?” He asked. “No!” Said Luca excitedly. “Come and help me please Nicholai, I know what I want.” Abigail said. She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen. The rest of them followed.
In the kitchen the children were sitting eating their food, Nicholai pulled Emilie to the side and explained the call he had with his manager. !I’m sorry but I will have to go today, as early as possible.” He said. “Oh, it is okay, I understand. I will contact Niklaus and see if they can help. His kids go to the same schools as these four.
When the kids were in school Nicholai got all his stuff together, spoke to Emilie for a while. “Please if you need me, this is my pager number. Call and hang up and if I find a phone I will get back to you.” With this he got up, grabbed his stuff and went out of the door.