The Night Ward

Text 1: Three in the Morning, by Maeve Calloway

An original short story extract.

At three in the morning the ward had its own weather: a dim, warm stillness, broken only by the sigh of the pumps and someone, far down the bay, talking in their sleep. Ada did her round with her shoes off, in her socks, the way she always did on nights, so that the floor would not squeak.

Mr Pryce was awake. He had been awake, she suspected, for hours, lying very straight under the blanket with his hands folded on his chest as though he were practising. His breathing had changed since midnight. It caught now, and paused, and started again, like an old engine on a cold morning.

‘Can’t sleep?’ she whispered. He shook his head a fraction. She did not check his chart. She did not reach for the light. She pulled the chair close and sat down and took his hand, which was cool and light as paper, and held it in both of hers. ‘My wife,’ he said, ‘used to hum.’ So Ada hummed. She did not know what his wife had hummed, so she hummed what her own grandmother had sung to her, low and tuneless and patient, while the window turned from black to grey, and his breathing caught, and paused, and slowed.

How does Maeve Calloway use language and structure to show Ada’s compassion for her patient?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.