It was a short walk from the bus stop to the hospital and it was just Frank’s luck that the rain began to pour again as he got off the bus. By the time he was safely inside the hospital he was saturated, he gave the hospital workers apologetic looks as he left a trail of wet shoeprints on the immaculately clean and dry hospital floors.

Although it made little difference to his unkempt appearance, Frank paused outside his mother’s door, smoothed down his hair and tucked in his shirt. As always when his hand grasped the door handle to room 233 at the hospital, his stomach gave a little jolt. The tiny room was nothing like the lolly shop. It was monotonous, dreary and had the distinct smell of disease trapped in it. Frank wished he’d had the sense to bring flowers; instead he pulled a small paper bag of mint humbugs from his pocket and placed them by the bedside table. The woman in the bed was fast asleep; her mouth was open slightly giving her an utterly helpless and innocent look. There was a photograph next to the bag of mint humbugs. It depicted a small family, a mother, father and son. The son was only two years old. The man’s smile was so broad and happy; Frank immediately knew it was his father’s face. The woman was extremely pretty, her long hair curled about her sweet face and her features were so joyful Frank wondered what could possibly make someone so happy. Now, when Frank looked at her sleeping in front of him he barely recognised her. Her red hair had thinned and become wiry, her face hollowed and her skin paled but her beauty was still apparent.

The tubes and wires attached to his mother’s arms joined up to humming machines and the machine that observed her heart beat beeped at irregular times. Frank supposed that it was the disease making his mother’s heart beat so out of time. Dilated Cardiomyopathy is what the doctors had called her sickness. They said it was her heart muscles that were failing. Frank didn’t pretend to understand how it worked but he had faith that she could get better. The only way that she could however, was if Frank kept up his job at the sweet store. Even now, when he could see his mother in front of him, he still felt the selfish urge to run away from his life stuck as a shop assistant.