Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

Nathan put his book down. ‘He’s not getting any better. It’s a spinal cord
injury.’
‘But you do physio and stuff with him.’
‘That’s to try and keep his physical condition up – to stop him atrophying and
his bones demineralizing, his legs pooling, that kind of thing.’
When he spoke again, his voice was gentle, as if he thought he might
disappoint me. ‘He’s not going to walk again, Louisa. That only happens in
Hollywood movies. All we’re doing is trying to keep him out of pain, and keep
up whatever range of movement he has.’
‘Does he do this stuff for you? The physio stuff? He doesn’t seem to want to
do anything that I suggest.’
Nathan wrinkled his nose. ‘He does it, but I don’t think his heart’s in it. When
I first came, he was pretty determined. He’d come pretty far in rehab, but after a
year with no improvement I think he found it pretty tough to keep believing it
was worth it.’
‘Do you think he should keep trying?’
Nathan stared at the floor. ‘Honestly? He’s a C5/6 quadriplegic. That means
nothing works below about here …’ He placed a hand on the upper part of his
chest. ‘They haven’t worked out how to fix a spinal cord yet.’
I stared at the door, thinking about Will’s face as we drove along in the winter
sunshine, the beaming face of the man on the skiing holiday. ‘There are all sorts
of medical advances taking place, though, right? I mean … somewhere like
this … they must be working on stuff all the time.’
‘It’s a pretty good hospital,’ he said evenly.
‘Where there’s life, and all that?’
Nathan looked at me, then back at his book. ‘Sure,’ he said.
I went to get a coffee at a quarter to three, on Nathan’s say so. He said these
appointments could go on for some time, and that he would hold the fort until I
got back. I dawdled a little in the reception area, flicking through the magazines
in the newsagent’s, lingering over chocolate bars.
Perhaps predictably, I got lost trying to find my way back to the corridor and
had to ask several nurses where I should go, two of whom didn’t even know.
When I got there, the coffee cooling in my hand, the corridor was empty. As I