‘We’re trying to get to the bottom of it but it’s complicated,’ said Sam, which was an understatement. ‘It’s an older lady who didn’t mean any harm.’
‘You shouldn’t make excuses for people,’ her mother interrupted. ‘We all make our choices in life.’
Sam stared down at her plate, rage surging up inside her.
Her inner voice was screaming:And your choice was to have children and then never be there for them! Where’s the apology for that? And you’re still doing it!
‘Wasn’t that a fabulous match yesterday,’ said Patrick, determined to break the impasse.
‘Yes,’ said Ted, picking up instantly. ‘Some great tries.’
‘Oh fabulous, fabulous match,’ said her father and the three men talked loudly as if they might somehow banish the frostiness by discussing tackles and points and really why was there not special eye surgery for referees because they kept missing fouls.
Posy wanted to clamber onto Sam’s lap and she let her.
‘Hello baba, what’s wrong?’
‘Not a baba, I’m three,’ said Posy crossly.
‘Three, I thought you were seven,’ said her Aunt Sam, hugging her and feeling the comfort of having this little scrap of beauty sitting on her lap.
Luckily Sam’s parents didn’t stay long and with a final hug from her father and a whispered, ‘I’m sorry I mentioned the problem in work, Sam,’ they were gone.
‘Please tell me when she’s invited for dinner again, will you,’ said Sam, sinking down into an armchair and then wondering why because she knew she wouldn’t be able to get out of it without help.
‘Don’t you like Granny?’ said Isabelle, standing in front of Sam, little hands on her tiny little girl hips. ‘I like Granny. She’s in charge of a school. I’m going to be in charge of the world when I grow up.’
‘You’re in charge already,’ sighed her father. ‘She is, you know,’ he said to Sam and Ted, ‘totally in charge.’
‘That’s because I’m the oldest,’ said Isabelle, staring smugly at her sisters. ‘I’m the oldest so what I say goes.’
As the tidying progressed, a mild scuffle broke out over who was really in charge, but a roar from Joanne settled them all down.
‘No TV all week if you fight. Shouting hurts Auntie Sam’s baby’s ears.’
‘Ooohh.’
Three little girls arrived to stand in front of Sam and looked at her belly curiously, as if wanting to see evidence of the baby’s ears, a diagram of possible ear damage or even a real, live baby they could dress up in dolls’ clothes.
‘You can touch if you like,’ said Sam.
Pixie patted the bump, but Posy laid her head on Sam’s belly.
‘I am your cousin,’ she whispered. ‘I will take care of you, but stay away from my trains ’cos they are mine, right?’
The grown-ups laughed and eventually, bored, the three girls went off to various parts of the room to play.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Sam, ‘I know I should be doing something to help but I just can’t – I have to sit here, I just feel like a, a ...’
‘A whale?’ supplied her sister.
‘Yeah, a whale. Exactly. It’s really weird, this growing a person inside you.’
‘How does a baby get inside you?’ said Isabelle, arriving back at speed.
‘We want to know.’ Pixie and Isabelle were both staring at her now, fascinated.
Busy playing with her trains, Posy explained: ‘The mummy eats a seed from the daddy and the mummy has to be careful not to poo out the seed until the seed is a baby.’
