Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

25
Katrina
Louisa didn’t come out of her room for a whole thirty-six hours after she got
back from her holiday. She arrived back from the airport late evening on the
Sunday, pale as a ghost under her suntan – and we couldn’t work that out for a
start, as she had definitely said she’d see us first thing Monday morning. I just
need to sleep, she had said, then shut herself in her room and gone straight to
bed. We had thought it a little odd, but what did we know? Lou has been peculiar
since birth, after all.
Mum had taken up a mug of tea in the morning, and Lou had not stirred. By
supper, Mum had become worried and shaken her, checking she was alive. (She
can be a bit melodramatic, Mum – although, to be fair, she had made fish pie and
she probably just wanted to make sure Lou wasn’t going to miss it.) But Lou
wouldn’t eat, and she wouldn’t talk and she wouldn’t come downstairs. I just
want to stay here for a bit, Mum, she said, into her pillow. Finally, Mum left her
alone.
‘She’s not herself,’ said Mum. ‘Do you think it’s some kind of delayed
reaction to the thing with Patrick?’
‘She couldn’t give a stuff about Patrick,’ Dad said. ‘I told her he rang to tell us
he came 157th in the Viking thing, and she couldn’t have looked less interested.’
He sipped his tea. ‘Mind you, to be fair on her, even I found it pretty hard to get
excited about 157th.’
‘Do you think she’s ill? She’s awful pale under that tan. And all that sleeping.
It’s just not like her. She might have some terrible tropical disease.’