obviously quite alive.
The two men were trying to assess if they needed to call for an ambulance. Simon noticed the way Steve tenderly wiped the mud from her face with the sleeve of his corduroy jacket.
By the torchlight she recognised Simon. She rapidly tumbled back through the years to the present time. It was so sad to let her baby slip away with this rude awakening. She felt bereft but then there was something about the smell of Steve’s aftershave that wafted over her. A glimmer of hope twinkled at her for a long enough moment to steer her back to the path of survival.
4.
Sadie felt like somebody who was dying. Her life flashed in front of her.
She thought of her cousin, Josh, and all the problems he had coped with, always in the shadow of her dramas. She knew they thought she didn’t care two hoots about him and her behaviour towards him had probably confirmed that, but he was a good lad.
She lay there when rationality returned periodically to her and tried to imagine life through his eyes. She took a deep breath and willed his voice into existence; for the first time ever she considered what hell Josh had been faced with. The pictures began to come to her and Josh’s voice began its story on her command.
*
“It began without me really noticing it. Anxious feelings that something awful would happen to my mum. I found tapping five times when I was fearful took the tightening in my chest away. Trouble is, I then had to do it more, especially when I was about to go to bed. Not once but fifteen times and then the next night, just to be sure, just a little bit more. How could I tell anybody? But then she somehow sussed me out.
Humming as she dashed, she just couldn’t get the latest Leona Lewis track out of her mind. She scurried around the Vanilla White bathroom, giving everything a quick wipe over. Thankfully Mum’s sister-in-law, Auntie Caroline, wasn’t the most house-proud person herself so Mum didn’t feel too frantic in the last-minute tidy up before the remaining family of four descended for their annual, two-night New Year sojourn. I wished my fourteen-year-old cousin, Sadie, was here for two nights only! It was still a lot of work, making all the beds, buying in all the food, preparing all the meals and Mum still never fully understood why it was always us who were the hosts.
Auntie Caroline, her husband Uncle Simon, and my three cousins lived in a lovely house themselves but Auntie Caroline always pleaded they were too exhausted by the Sadie situation, so they didn’t have to reciprocate! Still, the rest of them were easy guests on the whole and my two young cousins, Bri and Oliver, would be quite easily entertained with a late Christmas gift of a couple of annuals each.
Mum’s eye was caught by the three-quarters empty hand wash, standing on the Sorrento washbasin. Her mouth literally fell open, her humming immediately ceasing as she did a double take! She had just opened it new that morning, about an hour ago to be precise.
‘Josh,’ she angrily screeched, her brown curls tossing as she turned on her heels. The disinfectant spray from one hand, the jiff cloth from the other, were both hurled down on the grey stone floor as she grabbed the brass handle and marched to my bedroom.
She offered me no dignity but insolently barged into my room.
‘Josh!’ her tone still high pitched, wrathful. Ready to grab me, more than likely shake me, the wind was somehow taken out of her sails as she was met by the pristine made bed, not a crease in sight. The Austrian blind was pulled up exactly straight – she needed no spirit level to tell her just how straight – it had clearly been positioned with intense care.
‘Josh,’ her volume was decreasing as she noted the scene. What had she expected? Exactly this. My fossil collection was lined up in size order on the window sill. Three empty disinfectant sprays had been lined up in the bin. Four boxes of unopened tissues were piled up – one
The two men were trying to assess if they needed to call for an ambulance. Simon noticed the way Steve tenderly wiped the mud from her face with the sleeve of his corduroy jacket.
By the torchlight she recognised Simon. She rapidly tumbled back through the years to the present time. It was so sad to let her baby slip away with this rude awakening. She felt bereft but then there was something about the smell of Steve’s aftershave that wafted over her. A glimmer of hope twinkled at her for a long enough moment to steer her back to the path of survival.
4.
Sadie felt like somebody who was dying. Her life flashed in front of her.
She thought of her cousin, Josh, and all the problems he had coped with, always in the shadow of her dramas. She knew they thought she didn’t care two hoots about him and her behaviour towards him had probably confirmed that, but he was a good lad.
She lay there when rationality returned periodically to her and tried to imagine life through his eyes. She took a deep breath and willed his voice into existence; for the first time ever she considered what hell Josh had been faced with. The pictures began to come to her and Josh’s voice began its story on her command.
*
“It began without me really noticing it. Anxious feelings that something awful would happen to my mum. I found tapping five times when I was fearful took the tightening in my chest away. Trouble is, I then had to do it more, especially when I was about to go to bed. Not once but fifteen times and then the next night, just to be sure, just a little bit more. How could I tell anybody? But then she somehow sussed me out.
Humming as she dashed, she just couldn’t get the latest Leona Lewis track out of her mind. She scurried around the Vanilla White bathroom, giving everything a quick wipe over. Thankfully Mum’s sister-in-law, Auntie Caroline, wasn’t the most house-proud person herself so Mum didn’t feel too frantic in the last-minute tidy up before the remaining family of four descended for their annual, two-night New Year sojourn. I wished my fourteen-year-old cousin, Sadie, was here for two nights only! It was still a lot of work, making all the beds, buying in all the food, preparing all the meals and Mum still never fully understood why it was always us who were the hosts.
Auntie Caroline, her husband Uncle Simon, and my three cousins lived in a lovely house themselves but Auntie Caroline always pleaded they were too exhausted by the Sadie situation, so they didn’t have to reciprocate! Still, the rest of them were easy guests on the whole and my two young cousins, Bri and Oliver, would be quite easily entertained with a late Christmas gift of a couple of annuals each.
Mum’s eye was caught by the three-quarters empty hand wash, standing on the Sorrento washbasin. Her mouth literally fell open, her humming immediately ceasing as she did a double take! She had just opened it new that morning, about an hour ago to be precise.
‘Josh,’ she angrily screeched, her brown curls tossing as she turned on her heels. The disinfectant spray from one hand, the jiff cloth from the other, were both hurled down on the grey stone floor as she grabbed the brass handle and marched to my bedroom.
She offered me no dignity but insolently barged into my room.
‘Josh!’ her tone still high pitched, wrathful. Ready to grab me, more than likely shake me, the wind was somehow taken out of her sails as she was met by the pristine made bed, not a crease in sight. The Austrian blind was pulled up exactly straight – she needed no spirit level to tell her just how straight – it had clearly been positioned with intense care.
‘Josh,’ her volume was decreasing as she noted the scene. What had she expected? Exactly this. My fossil collection was lined up in size order on the window sill. Three empty disinfectant sprays had been lined up in the bin. Four boxes of unopened tissues were piled up – one
Similar Books
