Giles sat as upright as he could in his car seat. ‘Mummy’s here?’
Nadia turned to see his little smile, his hands clapped together. He had no idea of the drama unfolding even when Archie told him that his baby brother or sister was on the way right now.
Nadia did her best to dampen down scenarios that popped into her head – forceps or ventouse delivery, an emergency c-section, an epidural? She wished she knew more about midwifery but perhaps it was best that she didn’t.
They pulled into the hospital car park. It was near impossible to find a space but they found the very last one that involved Nadia and Giles getting out of the vehicle first so that Archie could go close to the other car which had parked right on the line.
When Archie climbed out, Nadia told him to run on ahead. ‘Me and Giles won’t be far behind.’
Giles watched his dad go and as they entered the hospital, Nadia saw the café. ‘How about we have a little treat while we’re waiting.’ The best place for this little boy right now was to not be in the chaos as Archie frantically tried to locate Monica.
‘What’ll it be?’ she asked Giles as they found themselves in front of the cake counter.
He pointed at the apple cinnamon muffins. ‘Those are my mummy’s favourite. Can I take her one?’
‘That’s a lovely idea – maybe later on.’
He looked up at her. ‘How long does it take for a baby to get here?’
‘Sometimes quite a while. It could be hours, days.’
His eyes widened. ‘That’s a long time.’
But the conversation seemed to placate him enough to study the choices behind the glass counter some more.
‘Take your time; you want to choose well,’ she joked but really it was to give her enough time to fire off a text to Archie to let him know where they were and to ask for an update if he had one. He might not read the message for a while but it would be there ready for him when he was able.
‘Good choice,’ she approved as Giles settled on the chocolate chip muffin. ‘Make that two please,’ she asked the lady behind the counter. ‘Plus a coffee and…’
‘Apple juice?’ Giles requested.
‘An apple juice, please.’
Actually coming in here did a lot for Nadia too. It could be hours before they got news, and being here at least instilled some temporary calm.
And it helped her to start processing things.
She’d seen her sister, after all these years; she’d seen her and held her hand. And it was as though with that skin-on-skin contact, she remembered the family that had been together for so long before things began to unravel.
When she caught sight of the framed crochet design of an ambulance on the wall, it sent her mind back to better times. ‘Did you know your mummy is fantastically creative?’
Giles seemed more interested in waiting at the end of the counter for service of their order but he did admit, ‘She can draw. She drew me, playing with my cars, and then she painted it with paints mixed with water.’
‘Watercolours.’ Nadia smiled. ‘And does she still make things? Like clothes?’ That was something else Monica had done before things started to go wrong at school for her and her rebellion seemed to govern her life so much that she stoppeddoing the things she loved. Nadia hadn’t really registered that until now.
He tried to insist he carry the tray with their order but Nadia gave him the job to find them a table instead.
‘So does she?’ Nadia asked again when she sat down.
He took the little plate with his muffin on. ‘She has a machine thing.’
‘A sewing machine.’
‘Yeah, that’s what I said.’
The innocence of childhood, what had happened to that? Why did it all go by so very fast, almost in the blink of an eye?
Monica made Nadia an embroidered handkerchief once with little flowers down one edge in delicate pinks and soft yellows. Nadia wished she’d kept it, been able to remember some of the good. But she’d felt so closed off from her sister even before she left the country and pushing out anything positive became easier for her to handle than letting the better memories change her mind.
