And, before I could help myself, I threw my phone across the floor and burst into tears.
12
Madeleine sat at her desk in front of her laptop—she was working diligently throughMad Mum’s social media replies and messages while she waited for Jake and Clara and her in-laws’ kids to come home from school.
Earlier that morning, she’d slotted in a hairdressing appointment to get her roots done after the school run, had applied a luxurious Crème de la Mer face mask to give her skin a boost, and had stopped off at the café for a quick latte and chat with Lucy.
And after a couple of weeks sporting comfy leisurewear while tending to Clara, today she was wearing a wonderfully soft baby-blue cashmere top and her favorite skinny jeans. In short, Madeleine felt back to herself.
As she’d mentioned to Clara earlier, Tom’s sister Fiona was dropping Jake, Clara and her own two boys home in exchange for Madeleine keeping an eye on them until dinnertime while her sister-in-law went to a dentist appointment. While having multiple kids in the house was chaotic at the best of times, Fiona’s oldest, Cameron, was especially tricky to look after. Still, it was only for a couple of hours; she could manage them for that long, couldn’t she?
A direct-message notification pinged just then, and Madeleine flipped from one site to another. Yet another follower had left a thumbs-up and comment on her new piece about parents in the playground.
You’re so right! Sometimes my kids can’t get near the slides with all those blasted Helicopters (LOL) hovering around. Headwreckers...
Madeleine acknowledged the comment before turning her attention back to the task at hand.
She was so relieved to once again be back to a routine. Clara had returned to school, work was up-to-date—everything was back to normal.
Well, almost.
She couldn’t help but think of Kate O’Hara. Madeleine wondered if she should make another call to Rosie’s mum. She had never heard back that first time, back when Clara, too, was sick, and she knew from Lucy that Kate had her hands full tending to her daughter.
Of course, she’d sent flowers (and a dinosaur balloon) to the hospital and had even suggested a potential visit, which Lucy had very quickly shut down. “It’s really not the best idea at the moment, Maddie. Things are still delicate. Perhaps better wait till Rosie’s out of the hospital and in the clear?”
And even though nothing had been said out loud, she still felt dreadful about the possibility that their family could be responsible for passing the infection to little Rosie, though obviously nobody was to blame for how the poor thing reacted. Pneumonia—horrific...
Oh, blast it, she’d try her again. The last thing Madeleine wanted was for the woman to think she didn’t fully appreciate Clara’s part in what had happened or, worse, that she and Tom didn’t care. She reached for her phone and scrolled through her contacts. She had saved Kate’s number from before and, finding it, she pressed the button to connect the call.
Almost straightaway, as if the phone was out of coverage or switched off, she heard a voice-mail notification. Then briefly considering that perhaps you weren’t allowed to use mobile phones in the hospital area Rosie was in, she bit her lip and, taking a nervous deep breath, spoke into the handset.
“Hi, Kate, Madeleine Cooper here again. Hope you got my message from before, but again I just wanted to check in and see how everything is. Needless to say, I know what you are going through—so scary. I heard that Rosie is still unwell and...I just wanted to wish her—and you—all the best. I hope she liked her dinosaur balloon. Also...” Madeleine paused for a bit. “I also wanted to let you know that I really do feel terrible about all of this, we all do—Clara getting sick and then Rosie... Anyway, just to say that I’ve been thinking about you both every day. And if there is anything I can do—anything at all—please don’t hesitate to ask. Anyway, I’m rambling now... But really, Kate, do keep in touch if you can. Bye.”
Madeleine ended the call at the same moment that she heard a mess of children enter her house. Closing her eyes briefly, and sending good vibes in Kate and Rosie’s direction, she saved that day’s work on her computer and jumped to her feet.
“I’m running late, so I’ll just drop and go, OK?” Fiona, her sister-in-law, called out from the hallway downstairs. “Great to see Clara looking so well. Talk to you later.”
“No problem, Fi, they’re in safe hands!” Madeleine called back, heading down the stairs.
“I doubt that, but what choice do I have?” Tom’s sister joked, brown eyes sparkling with amusement as she rushed out the door. “Needs must.” Then she popped her head of dark curls back in the door. “You didn’t forget the cupcakes, did you?”
“I didn’t,” Madeleine reassured her, smiling. “Blue icing and chocolate sprinkles, I remember.”
“Great. I should be back before dinner, so the snack should keep them going till then. See ya!”
In the hallway, Jake and his six-year-old cousin, Brian, were already in the middle of a noisy dispute over what group of comic-book superheroes, Marvel’s Avengers or DC’s Suicide Squad,would prevail in a fight. The other brother, Cameron, who was a few months older than Jake, quietly stood watching the exchange, but, as always, her eight-year-old nephew was the quietest one of the bunch.
Except, Madeleine realized suddenly, he wasn’t—not today. Instead, Clara was the one who seemed withdrawn and sullen. She seemed unmistakably downcast as she took off her coat and dumped her schoolbag on a nearby chair.
Madeleine’s first thought wasOh shit, we sent her back to school too soon.
But, in all honesty, Madeleine was ready to get life back on course, and she knew Clara was, too. She’d been getting cabin fever from sitting at home bored out of her mind. There were only so many books your mum could read to you or episodes ofPaw Patrolyou could watch before the novelty started to wear off...
Though at least Madeleine had managed to get a good blog post out of it. Still, the response to that had been nothing compared to the stir her most recent column about parents in the playgrounds had caused.
Thanks to that, she was once again scheduled not only for a slot on tomorrow’sMorning Coffee,but also had multiple requests for radio and newspaper interviews wanting her to expand further on the post.
So the timing seemed great: her daughter had gotten the all clear from Dr. Barrett the week previous, the school principal was satisfied she was no longer infectious and Clara herself was desperate to reunite with her school pals.
