Blood Sisters(106)

Mum and I are awarded custody, although Johnny’s family have visiting rights. At last I have done something right for my sister.

‘You can come and see Vanessa whenever you want,’ Mum says to Jeannie.

‘Thank you.’

The two women hug each other: I can tell there is genuine respect on both sides. And why not? They both know what it is like to have a special-needs child who is now an adult with all the demands that this imposes.

‘Can you hold Vanessa for me, love?’ says Mum as she disappears into the Ladies afterwards.

I don’t have a chance to say no. This is the first proper time I’ve had with her; nerves have always made me duck out of it before today. Now it’s just my niece and me. What if she chokes? (Can babies choke out of the blue?) Supposing she yells and … I don’t know. Has a fit or something like that? I’m not responsible enough to hold her.

Vanessa stares solemnly up at me, those blue eyes taking me in. ‘We’ll be all right,’ she seems to say. ‘We can learn together. I’m game. Are you?’

But would she still think that if she knew what I’d done?





82


September 2019


Kitty


Half a Sister had got huge. Friday Mum said she had a baby inside.

Oh Tee said she’d help Kitty knit something for it. Bella was going to knit something too.

‘We need to do these things together,’ Bella said through her machine. Then she took a needle from Oh Tee’s tray when she wasn’t looking and pricked her finger. ‘You do the same,’ she said.

‘Then we’ll be blood sisters.’ Kitty felt a flash of excitement as her own machine repeated her thoughts. ‘Won’t that be fun?’

‘Yes!’ Bella frowned. ‘Actually, what do blood sisters do?’

‘They’re always there for each other. You know. They do stuff together. They’re like real sisters except that they aren’t actually related.’

Yet something niggled inside Kitty’s body as she spoke.

‘But there’s one thing they’re not allowed to do,’ she added. ‘They can’t hurt each other.’

‘Why not?’

‘Cos then bad things happen.’

Bella rolled her eyes. She did that quite a lot. ‘I wouldn’t want to hurt you anyway. What colour wool are you going to choose?’

‘What?’

‘For Half a Sister’s baby, of course.’

Kitty had almost forgotten about that. ‘Blue.’

‘Me too.’

A lovely warm feeling went through her. ‘That’s nice.’

‘I wish I had a baby,’ said Bella suddenly.

‘Do you?’ Kitty sniffed. ‘I had one once. But it cried too much.’

‘Couldn’t you stop it?’

‘I tried to cuddle it but I bruised its leg by mistake.’

More eye-rolling. ‘Then maybe I wouldn’t like one after all.’

Oh Tee was bustling over to them now after dealing with someone else in the group. ‘What are you two chatting about?’

Quickly, Bella reached over and switched off their machines.

‘Don’t want to talk, girls? I see. Goodness, there’s the lunch bell already.’

Kitty’s good hand reached out for Bella’s. ‘Fishcakes and broccoli. Come on!’

And Bella seemed to understand, even without the machine. Because that’s what good blood sisters do.





Five Years Later





83


Alison


‘Ready, everyone?’ asks Robin, handing the girls their packed lunches.

It’s our daughter’s first day at school. She’s jumping up and down with excitement because she can’t wait to join her cousin. Their new shoes are shiny. The girls have matching shoulder bags. They look so grown up!

I hadn’t meant to get pregnant. But I will never forget Robin’s face when I told him.

‘We’re going to have a baby?’

It was the ‘we’ bit that confirmed it for me.

We’re living together now with Mum and Vanessa (whom Robin and I have adopted). The arrangement works surprisingly well. Kitty’s daughter is surrounded by love. When our own daughter was born and Mum brought her in to visit, she’d torn into the maternity ward, her little face bursting with excitement. ‘My sister!’ she’d said with a reverence that made her seem so much older.

I waited for the jealousy. But it never came. Instead, Vanessa followed me around like a little hen, helping me to bathe Florence (we named her after the place where she was conceived) and feed her. ‘I’ll look after her at school,’ she declares now. It’s almost as though she was born to fill the role. One day we’ll have to tell her about Kitty, who is still very happy in the unit. But not yet.

Robin is an amazing father. He’s opened up a practice here but operates ‘family friendly’ hours. At weekends he takes the girls swimming and fishing so I have time to paint. Every now and then he asks me to marry him. ‘I’m happy as we are,’ I say gently.

‘I can’t understand why you don’t say yes,’ says my mother who’s been hoping for a white wedding.