“It’s just the food timer, what’s wrong with you?” He rushed past me to turn it off then moved towards me, closing the gap that had been between us just moments before and putting his hands on my arms. “Tom, speak to me. We’ve been worried sick.”
“I need clothes,” I said, lifting up my left arm with the sleeve hanging off. He nodded softly then disappeared into the hallway towards his bedroom to fetch me something fresh to wear.
While he was out of the room I moved to the window that looked down over the street and opened it slightly. The dreadful racket of the city filled my ears and I slammed it again, flicking the lock to keep it out. The street was filled with people, heads down and ignoring each other or speaking on their mobile phones. No friendly greetings or nods, just the rush to get to wherever they were going. They weaved between the cars that whizzed by in both directions and lined both sides of the pavement. They navigated the litter lined streets in their expensive work shoes, coming and going from jobs they despised in high rise office blocks. Everything looked wrong. I hated it.
“Here, these should fit.” Lee said, as he came back into the room. I pulled the curtains closed, shutting out the world, and turned as he held out a pile of clothes to me. “I’m going to call Mum,” he said as I began to remove my shirt.
“No!” I said abruptly. “Not yet. I’m not ready.”
“Then get ready,” he snapped back. “Do you have any idea what we’ve been through? Every day worried sick that we’d never see you again or that the next knock on the door would be to tell us they’d found a body. Tom, you were on the news. This is serious, where have you been?”
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I tried to explain.”
“Did somebody hurt you?” he said, his voice softening. He brought a hand to my chin and held my head up, inspecting my face. "How did you get into this mess?”
We stared at each other for a moment and I studied his face, so like my own, and wished that Gwyn could have met him. They’d have liked each other very much, I was sure.
I pulled on the shorts he’d brought me and moved to the sofa, sinking down into it. The thoughts of Gwyn and seeing my brother again overwhelmed me and as he came to sit beside me, I finally began to sob. He reached out, pulling me into his shoulder and we sat there silent for what felt like an hour until I was finally ready to talk.
I told him everything. From finding the ring to it glowing in the alley, waking up in Cwm Newydd and meeting Mair. I spoke about the mining disaster and meeting Gwyn, being taken in by the Hopkin family and how I’d learned to work the farm. I told him about Arthur Morgan and Elinor, who our father really was and what happened at the quarry, and for the duration of my story he sat in stunned silence.
“...and then when I woke up again, I was in Grantchester, and the man who found me brought me here. That’s pretty much everything.”
Hours had passed and night had set in but everything was off my chest. Lee reached for a packet of cigarettes on the table and lit one up, taking a big drag and filling the room with smoke. He’d smoked another two before he finally said anything.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you believe me,” I said, sitting up and leaning close to him. “I haven’t gone mad. I know you’re thinking it, but I haven’t. I’m telling the truth, Lee.”
“I know when you’re lying, brother, and this ain’t it.” He took another drag on his cigarette and I felt an element of relief at his words, until he spoke again. “But maybe you just really believe that this happened. A bang on the head can do weird things to you.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit, Lee, I didn’t just wake up from a concussion. It happened. Where do you think I’ve been all these months?”
“I don’t know, Tom. I don’t know. I’m just having a hard time with this. I mean, have you any proof?”
“Proof? Like what? It’s not like I ran for mayor. I was just a nobody. There won’t be any record of me.”
“But you were arrested.”
“What, so you want me to just pop in the car to Aberystwyth for a 400-mile round trip in the hope that they might have kept a drunk and disorderly record on file at the police station for the last hundred years?”
I was getting angry with him for not just accepting what I was saying. I knew deep down that if I was in his position, I’d probably face him with the same scepticism, more even, but I needed him to believe me. I needed him to be on my side with this. Why couldn’t he just know that I was telling the truth?
“Even if I did believe it all, Tom, what then? Is this the story you’re going to tell Mum? Is this what you’re going to tell the police? Or the press? Even if what you’re saying is the truth, nobody is going to believe it. They’ll cart you off, Tom.”
“I need money,” I said, standing up from the couch and slamming my cup down on the table.
“What for? Where are you going?”
“I’ve lost all my bank cards. I need cash, what have you got?”
“Not much. Why? Where are you going?” He stood up and put himself between me and the door.
“Get out of my way, Lee.”
He put his arm on the doorframe to stop me from leaving. “Not until you tell me where you’re going.”
“Back to Wales,” I said, trying again to push past him.