Accidents Happen Read Online Free PDF

having an accident than another woman in Oxfordshire in her twenties, but because I was wearing my helmet, I have – according to one American report I read, anyway – about an 85 per cent chance of reducing my risk of head injury. Then, when I was cycling I balanced my chances of having an accident with the fact that by doing half an hour of sustained cardio cycling, I can lower my risk of getting cancer. Of course, that meant I increased my chances of being sexually attacked by being alone on a quiet canal path, but as I have roughly a one in a thousand chance in Oxfordshire, I think it’s worth taking.’
    She thought she saw Sylvia flinch.
    ‘And then when I was cycling here, I kept doing calculations. When I passed through Osney weir, I didn’t think how pretty it was; I looked for the tree I’d cling on to if I accidentally fell in, and planned how I’d swim with the current, not against it, because if you plan your escape you improve your chances of survival. And when I passed the waterside flats at Botley, I didn’t think how lovely it must be to live there, I thought about how I’d just read that three thousand properties are at risk of a one-in-a-hundred-year flood in Oxford. Same when I passed the cottages backing on to the river path at Jericho: I thought about how more burglaries take place at the rear of a house, and . . .’
    Her breath ran out, as if her lungs had been squeezed like an airbed to be packed away.
    ‘They just come at me like swarms. I can’t explain it any other way. They come out of nowhere.’
    Sylvia kept her arms and legs uncrossed, pointed resolutely at Kate.
    ‘Where do you get these figures from?’
    ‘I Google them – I get them from insurance websites, newspapers. Every day the newspapers have new figures about how to lower or increase the chances of things happening to you – not that it’s always clear, because they contradict each other sometimes, and I get them muddled up, but . . .’
    ‘And you compile them, what, into lists?’
    ‘Yes. But when the laptop got stolen, I lost my list, so I’ve been trying to remember until the new one is delivered next week. I can remember quite a lot, roughly anyway, and I use my iPhone when I can. And I know it’s stupid, but I’m worried that I might be getting some figures completely wrong and changing my chances of things happening. Like today – I picked my son up from football because his PE teacher is in his twenties, which I think – if I remember rightly – makes him more likely to have an accident than I am. But my phone battery needed charging, and the kids were travelling in a minibus, and I didn’t know how safe that was, so I picked Jack up anyway, in front of his friends, and he just looked so . . .’
    She slumped.
    ‘Oh God. I know what it sounds like.’
    ‘What does it sound like, Kate?’
    ‘Crazy.’ She sniffed. ‘It sounds crazy.’
    ‘Crazy that you want to protect your son?’
    Kate looked up, surprised. She wiped her eyes again. ‘Thank you. My in-laws think I’m crazy. They don’t understand that’s all I’m trying to do. After his dad . . .’ Her voice faded away. ‘I see their faces when I talk about these things, especially in front of Jack. The thing is, I want him to know. I want him to be careful because I’m so scared of anything happening to him too. It’s my responsibility to keep him safe. And yet, at the same time, I know it worries him.’ She wiped her nose. The words she’d hidden for so long were coming thick and fast now. ‘The thing is, I find it hard to judge any more if I’m being rational or not. Like last week – I spent over a thousand pounds in a private clinic in London having a whole-body scan.’
    Sylvia shifted in her seat. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Kate, are you . . .?’
    Kate waved her hand. ‘No. Not at all. I do one every year to check that I’m not becoming ill. That I don’t have even the start of a tumour. Because I keep reading that catching