As she strode off, the nurse removed Ben’s mask for the last time and fiddled with the pipe under his nose. “Sorry, that’s probably a bit itchy for you. But try not to fuss at it, and I promise you won’t even notice it by bedtime. Now, are you ready to move to the chair?”

Ben accepted the nurse’s help to get up from the bed, whilst trying to ignore the pinching irritation in his nostrils, but he felt that he could have managed fine on his own. The practical man gathered Ben’s gym bag up and put it on his knee, then busied himself with tidying the pipes and rubbish away. It wasn’t long before he’d finished and got behind the wheelchair to set off for the ward. As he pushed them along the maze-like corridors to a lift, he chatted lightly behind Ben’s head.

“She seems like a good lass, your hinny,” he observed.

“We’re not…” Ben began.

“Not married yet? Fiancé then?”

“No, erm,” Ben stuttered.

“Maybe it’s time to pop the question then. I’ve seen a few that propose at their bedside, like. It’s a test for a couple, getting yourself laid out here. You get to see your other half’s true qualities, so to speak. And I’d say yours are solid gold. You’re a lucky man. Not that it’s my business, mind.”

Ben had felt a bit affronted by the man’s presumption, but he appreciated all that he’d said, accepting the man’s honesty in sharing his idle thoughts. It must have seemed plain to him, seeing Ben with Marcie. And Ben knew the man was just trying to be friendly.

“It’s given me a lot to think about, today,” he replied vaguely as the nurse wheeled him from the lift into a large hall-like room. Ben realised that this was the ward. The old hospital’s grand structure was clear behind all the modern equipment cluttered around the beds’ bays, with utilitarian blinds half-closed in tall windows.

“Aye, well you’re in the right place now,” the nurse said as they approached a reception desk, “You take it easy and give yourself time. Gan canny, now.”

The male nurse shifted his attention to an older female counterpart. They had a quick conversation in a low tone, then she took over with a cheery greeting, pushing Ben to a booth in the long room of beds, some hidden by curtains. She let him stand up for himself to get into the chair beside the bed, fiddled with his tubes, then promised the ward doctor would see him soon as she pushed the chair away.

After being left alone to his thoughts for a while, a young male doctor did turn up to review his case. He spoke to Ben in more detail about the asthma and the pneumoconiosis, and about the next steps for a GP appointment and a specialist consultation. As they spoke, it dawned on Ben just how serious his situation had been. If the ambulance hadn’t come promptly, there had been a very real possibility that he would have died right there in the gym. Marcie had quite literally saved his life.

The doctor gave Ben permission to take himself to the bathroom on his own, told him that a meal would be brought to his bedside at around six, and concluded by saying that he’d see him again on his evening rounds. Then Ben was left on his own again.

He thought he’d better call his dad to let him know what had happened. He got his mobile out guiltily, not sure if he was allowed to use it on the ward having passed signs on the walls, but no one seemed too bothered. Of course once he got through to his dad, the old man was worried and wanted to come straight up. He said he could leave the farm to “the lads”, but Ben knew that he didn’t like trusting everything to the hired labourers, so he insisted he stay put. His dad asked if there was anyone looking after him, and Ben found himself talking about Marcie. He did not mention that he hadn’t even known her before he’d collapsed. “Well, make sure she’s got my number, and tell her not to be shy if she needs to call,” his dad told him before they rang off.

Then, with an awkward guilty apprehension, Ben thought he’d better call Jo too, to explain what had happened and to cancel their upcoming date. When she answered, she seemed rather uninterested in his collapse at the gym. “So if we’re not going out on Thursday, do you want to keep it going at all?” she asked.

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, we’ve only just started, as a couple I mean. If you can’t make this weekend, I could see someone else. Should we call it a day and say we’re singles again?”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Ben found himself saying. He felt surprised and a little hurt at how fast Jo’s thoughts had moved on, but he could see her logic. There was no reason for her to stop having fun because he was unwell, and if they made a clean break of it now, she’d be free of any doubts or guilt when she met someone else that she fancied.

“Thanks for understanding, Ben. We had fun, right? Maybe we’ll see each other around again, sometime when you’re feeling better. You take care now.”

And with that, they were saying goodbye, perhaps for the last time, Ben thought sadly. But at that moment he heard a familiar voice from the desk at the end of the ward. Marcie had returned already, and found where he was.

He raised his hand to wave as she walked down the ward with what he recognised as one of his old sports bags. She’d changed into a loose blouse with a flower print, tucked into dark, baggy high waisted trousers, and she was still carrying her own gym bag as well, he noticed. He also couldn’t help himself from noticing how her outfit emphasised her short hourglass figure. “Hiya,” he said meekly, “You came back quickly.”

“I got my car,” she explained as she dropped the bags and found a chair to pull up by his. “It’s only a mile or so from here to my flat, in Jesmond, and about the same again to yours, but it seemed sensible to drive, despite the traffic. They’ve got a car park here. And I could park right in front of those big doors at your place, next to your pickup, if that’s what you call it. I didn’t know there were old buildings like that in Byker.”

“It’s more Shieldfield than Byker,” he corrected her without thinking, “Or Ouseburn maybe, like my name. But yes, it’s an interesting place. It was a stables and coach house. I guess there’s an old Armstrong family connection. I rent it from the Armstrong Trust, who I work for, you see. Worked for, I guess.”

“Hey, don’t worry about that yet. I’m sure they’ll understand. Just start by phoning in sick tomorrow and take it from there. But I found your stuff okay, and thank you for saying I could use your shower.”

“It’s nothing, after all you’ve done for me. I’m sorry if you found it a bit of a mess in there,” Ben said guiltily. Yet at some level, he realised his imagination had also been stimulated by the thought of Marcie undressing and getting under the shower in his flat.

“I’ve seen worse,” she replied dismissively, “And I bet you hadn’t left your flat this morning thinking that a strange woman would be turning up to go through your things! But look, Ben, when I was there I noticed something that could be serious.”

He asked what she meant, and she explained, “Your rooms, they’re just above your workshop, right? I didn’t go into the space downstairs at all, but as soon as I walked into your flat I could smell the sawdust. The dust on your furniture was thick, and I bet it’s from your timber cutting. I shook this bag when I found it, and clouds of dust came off it then too. It’s no wonder your lungs are struggling. You’re breathing that stuff in twenty-four hours a day!”

Ben was about protest, to defend himself by saying that the last week had been especially heavy, but he knew she was right. “What can I do?” he asked weakly.

“Is there somewhere else you can stay? You mentioned a girlfriend, right?”

“Erm, ex-girlfriend at it happens. I just spoke to her, and she wanted us to separate.”

“What, just like that? You told her where you were? Didn’t she want to come in to see you at least?”

“No. I can see it from her side, though. We’ve not been together long, and there’s no reason why she should change her lifestyle, because of what’s happened to me.”

“I’m sorry, and I’d normally stick up for the sisterhood, but what a bitch! Oh, you poor thing. On top of the news you’d just got from the doctor. Dumping you just like that. The selfish little madam!”

“It’s no big deal,” Ben found himself saying. “I’m more worried about going back to the flat now, with all that dust, like you said.”

“Hey, look. I’ve got a spare room. It’s not a big place, just one of those box rooms that you get in a Tyneside flat, you know? There’s a lot of books in there right now, and they might be a bit dusty, but I can hoover. Also it would just be a camp bed, I’m afraid, but it would be clean. Why don’t you stop over with me when you’re discharged, until you can sort things with your work and the flat?”

“Oh, no Marcie, I couldn’t ask that of you. You’ve already wasted your day on me. I can’t intrude any more.”

“Let’s not do this again. You didn’t ask, I offered. You just need to say yes.”

“This is really very generous of you, but surely you have a husband or a boyfriend? They wouldn’t want you to invite a strange man back to your flat.”

Marcie sighed. “I’ll be honest with you, Ben. There is someone. Well, I don’t know if you’d call him a boyfriend. He’s married you see, to someone else. I guess that makes me his mistress, if we’re speaking plainly. But our relationship, it’s like being in a slow-motion car crash. The way it is now, I really couldn’t care less if he gets jealous when I invite a friend over to sleep in my spare room. And this isn’t about me anyway, it’s about you. Do you want a bed at my place for tomorrow night that’s dust-free? This is the third time I’ve asked, and you remember the deal?”

“Okay then, thank you. Thank you for offering and thank you for being honest. I would be very grateful for a clean space, somewhere to flop when I get out of here.”

“That’s settled then. And it looks like they’re bringing food around now!” Ben had noticed the noise and the smells that reminded him of school dinners. Even though he had doubts about what they might be serving, he realised he was ravenously hungry. When the orderlies came to his bed, he eagerly accepted the pie and vegetables that were offered. They arranged things on his table in a business-like way, apologising to Marcie that they didn’t have any for visitors, then left them in peace.

As he tucked in, Ben remembered something else. “Erm, I forgot. I’ve still got your necklace,” he said around a mouthful of food. “You mustn’t leave without it.”

“Yes, there was a funny coincidence about that,” she said vaguely, before explaining, “Do you remember me saying it was from Malta? And did I say it was actually a gift from my grandmother, my father’s mother, my Nanna, as we call her? Well, I was in your flat when my mobile phone rang, and it was her. I only usually speak to her at the weekend, but she said that she’d been thinking of me and she hoped that I was okay. I reassured her I was, but I’d just had to take a friend into hospital. She wanted to know all about you, of course, but I had to tell her we’d only just met. Well, she said she’d just come back from the church, where she’d lit a candle for me and made a prayer for my happiness. She told me to touch the necklace, to feel the ‘talba’ for you too, and I had to admit that I’d actually just left her pendant with you. Now I’m not a practising Roman Catholic myself at all, you understand, but I sometimes wonder about the power of superstition. It seemed very odd that she’d thought of me just then, but kind of comforting too. And it was odd that she mentioned the necklace too, but she was very pleased to hear it was with you, helping you get better. I’m sorry, you don’t need to listen to this nonsense.”

Ben had nearly finished his meal already, but he’d been paying close attention, intrigued by this small insight into Marcie’s life. “No, don’t call it nonsense. I’m not religious myself either, but it is comforting - comforting to have your Nanna’s best wishes. Tell her I send them to her too. Is she well, for her age I mean?”

“Oh, she’s okay. She’s still with it, and usually bright and cheery when we speak. But I don’t know if you’ve seen it, they kind of fade, don’t they? It’s as if they’re already halfway to the other side, spending more time in the company of the dead than the living. Ha, listen to me! You must think I’m some kind of superstitious spiritualist myself, and I’m really not. I’m almost a proper scientist!”

“No, I know what you mean. But what is it you do then, for a living?”

“Well, I get paid for working at the university library, probably not more than five hundred yards from where we are right now. But what I’m trying to do is complete a PhD in information science.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Ben confessed.

“Well, it used to be things like library catalogues, but now it’s about organising things on the Web. Perhaps. There’s a lot of very detailed stuff I wouldn’t want to bore you with.”

“No, I’m interested, but you’ll have to keep it simple for me. I don’t go to libraries much. I don’t really understand what you mean by completing a PhD either. I thought you just got them by working at universities. I don’t know anyone clever enough to have one, though.”

“Oh, it’s meant to be a big test that you spend three years or more getting ready for, just to prove you can do academic research. It means you can get better jobs at the university, as a lecturer or whatever. But I’m not sure you need to be that clever. It’s more just stamina that you need to get through it.”

“Well, I’m sure you’re more than clever enough, and I’ve seen you’ve got stamina, in the gym, right?”

“Right,” said Marcie, looking at him oddly, perhaps unsure of whether he was joking. “Can I ask, do you mind that I know your age, Ben? The woman at the gym found your date of birth in your records and read it out to the ambulance driver, then they read it out again when they checked you into A&E.”

“And you remember? No, I don’t mind. So you know if I’m older than you, right?”

“Actually you’re a bit younger. You were born on the third of May 1977, right? So you’re twenty-five. I was born in November 1975. I’m twenty-seven already.”

“Wow, how did you remember that?” Ben asked, hoping he’d judged it right by trying to flatter her about being younger than she looked. She had seemed so mature, he was actually a little surprised that she wasn’t even older.

“Let’s say it’s a librarian’s information science training. But that’s a precious bit of data, right? Benjamin Osborne’s date of birth. It can let the whole of the NHS find every medical record they have about you. If the records haven’t been lost, they can find your birth details, your inoculations, your childhood GP visits, your current prescriptions. And this trip to hospital, your own GP can check tomorrow what’s happened, or in fifty years’ time, when you’re an old man. And that’s all getting so much easier and faster and more detailed with computers and the Internet.”

“So information science makes that work?”

“See? You’ve got it already. And no one said you had to have a PhD to understand that.”

“No one said I should go to university, when I was at school,” he admitted.

“Hey, I’ve been bothering you way too much with all this stuff about my work. You must be tired.”

“No, I’ve really enjoyed you telling me about it. I don’t know anyone else who knows about stuff like this.”

“And I don’t know anyone else who knows how to bring down a tree safely and turn it into furniture. You’ll have to show me what you’ve done. You work in Jesmond Dene, right? I’d not heard there was an Armstrong Trust. I assumed the council looked after it.”

“Well, they do, mostly. The Trust isn’t very big, and mainly helps the National Trust with Cragside, you know it? But they have an interest in conserving the Dene, down into Heaton Park too. I guess they’ll need to look for someone else now.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring you back to that. I just thought we could go for walks together in the Dene, especially now that spring is coming.”

“Yes, that would be nice.”

“Okay, well hold onto that thought. And hold onto my Maltese charm for now too. Think of my Nanna’s prayers to help you get better quickly. I’ll stop by again in the morning to see when they’re discharging you, then I can give you a lift back to my place when you need it. I’ll leave my details with you too, just in case,” she said, reaching into her own bag for her Filofax.

“I don’t know how I can thank you enough, Marcie. It’s meant a lot to me. All this, it would have been a million times harder without your help.” Ben hesitated as Marcie wrote out her full name, address and telephone numbers for him, then he ploughed on with what he wanted to say, “And it means a lot to me too, that you told your Nanna I was your friend. I like the thought of us being friends, if that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay,” Marcie said with a laugh, putting her pen down to reach for his hand. “We were strangers when you walked into the gym this afternoon, but now we know each other quite well, right? And I think we’re getting on together just fine.”

Ben didn’t go further, but he thought again of what the doctor had assumed and the nurse had said. He looked at Marcie’s small hand in his big, calloused paw. Could this woman become his girlfriend, his soul partner? They were the complete opposites of each other in so many ways, but somehow they’d made a connection, which was only going to become stronger. He gripped her hand gently. “I think we are too,” he lamely replied.

“Hey, it’s been a big day,” she said, jiggling his hand about with hers. “You’ve had to put up with an awful lot that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, especially not someone as kind and patient as you. But I was glad I could be here to help. No one really knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, right? But I’m glad that I will be able to help you then too, whatever your path is after that. And we can both be sure of looking forward to walks in the spring sunshine at least.”

“Thank you,” was all Ben could think to say, then he remembered what the young ward doctor had said earlier, “You saved my life, you know”.

“Oh, enough! All this, it’s just the least that a friend would do. Now, you get some restful sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

With a final squeeze of his hand, she pulled away and they said goodnight to each other, Ben echoing her little wave awkwardly. It wasn’t how he would have liked to say goodbye to her. A cuddle and kiss would have been much more satisfying, but that was hardly practical with his tubes and his instruction to rest.

He watched her walking away, feeling guilty again for noticing how her bottom moved in her loose trousers. But then he thought that perhaps there was no harm in noticing some simple feelings of attraction towards her. They had got on well this evening, he hoped, and it now seemed as if there were fewer obstacles than he’d feared to them becoming more than friends. When Marcie had mentioned those paths that lay ahead, perhaps there was one that she could share with him. For now it was enough to know that the possibility was there, without rushing or forcing them down that course.

He looked down at the note she’d left. She’d written her full name formally, Marcella Tabone, and it seemed mysteriously romantic to him. Then at the bottom, under her address and numbers, she’d written “Get well soon” with a little cross. Maybe it was that Maltese thing again, but Ben suspected it was something simpler. He felt a warm glow, realising that perhaps they had parted with a kiss after all.

Ben copied her numbers into his phone, but noticing that it was quite low on battery, he then turned it off. He folded Marcie’s piece of paper carefully to put it away safely in his wallet. It wasn’t long before the same doctor who he’d seen before paid him another visit with a nurse, who closed the curtains behind her. The young man explained that he hadn’t wanted to disturb Ben earlier while had a visitor. He stopped Ben’s oxygen flow, asking him to breathe through his mouth and stand up, then listened to his chest once again with a chilly stethoscope.

“Good. Well, it sounds like there’s plenty of air in there,” he said finally, “but I’ll turn the gas back on now, and I’d like you to keep the oxygen line on overnight, if it’s not too much bother. Was that your wife who was here? Oh, just your girlfriend then. Well, will she be all right to keep an eye on you if we discharge you tomorrow? That’s great. Have a restful night now, and I’ll leave a note for tomorrow morning’s ward doctor to recommend that you can go home. Take care now.”

Once he’d said goodbye, the nurse explained the nighttime routine, then Ben took himself to the bathroom to change into a loose t-shirt and pair of boxer shorts that Marcie had bought. It felt very odd settling into the strange bed before ten o’clock with people still all around him and the tubing tugging on his nose. But as the lights went out, Ben felt himself comfortably drifting into a restful sleep.