Page 57 of Obedience

Greta and Edward yelled at the same time.

‘Oh, grow up, the bloody pair of you,’ Elaine chided, shaking her head at them both.

‘Can we please talk about something else?’ Greta cringed, pressing her fingertips into her forehead.

Elaine raked her gaze over her daughter suspiciously, reading her expertly with narrowed eyes. ‘Did you stay out last night? Away from home, I mean? Did you stay… Where is your makeup, G?’ Her mum’s voice was slowly gathering excited momentum as it moved up an entire octave.

‘No, I— ’ Greta began her protestations before Elaine pulled out a classic.

‘Greta Vincent, do not lie to your mother.’

Shit. That was a twang on Greta’s Achilles heel. She dropped her head as Edward silently crab-stepped out of the kitchen, still clutching his basket of wood.

‘I stayed with a friend.’

‘You don’t have any friends.’

‘Oh charming.’

‘Not ones you’d stay with.’

‘Well I—’

‘Don’t lie to me, Greta,’ Elaine warned, as though Greta were fifteen again and had just presented her with the empty chocolate tray from her advent calendar in the first week of December. Greta pressed her hands into her hips and blew out a long breath of exasperation. Elaine pulled out a chair at the table and gestured for her daughter to do the same. ‘Talk to me, G. Please.’

Greta rubbed her forehead as she lowered herself onto the chair. ‘She’s twenty-eight, Mum.’ She blurted it out before her brain could ready a follow-up. She kept her head down, gaze fastened on the grain of the wooden table.

‘Was that supposed to shock me?’ Elaine replied unbothered.

Greta looked up, eyes frantically scanning her mum’s face. ‘Do you not find it shocking?’

‘What I find shocking, darling, is that my girl is circumnavigating this hard life alone. That every day you do such good in this world and go home to that…’

‘That?’ Greta urged with a head tilt.

‘Shrine to Muriel.’

The words slapped Greta as the salt of tears began pricking wildly at her eyes, gathering and glistening on her lashes.

‘It is not a shrine,’ Greta said adamantly, her voice treasonously close to giving way completely.

‘It’s a shrine, darling.’

The first tear rolled down Greta’s face, giving permission for the rest to fall. She sobbed, heaving sobs that bounded through her as her mum moved to hold her, stooping to her from behind.

Elaine pressed her mouth to the top of Greta’s head. ‘Is she good? This woman, is she a good person?’ Elaine said softly.

‘She’s incredible, Mum,’ Greta whispered.

Hearing the words aloud made her head spin, as though the word incredible had caused a tsunami in her tear ducts. The confession only made the sobs louder and the tears heavier.

‘Then we have nothing more to talk about,’ Elaine said softly into Greta’s hair. ‘Please, don’t let her go. Try, G. Please, try.’

Edward appeared behind them, tears rolling down his face, into his beard. He draped himself over them gently. ‘We couldn’t care less about age, G,’ he croaked. ‘We just need to see you smile again.’

‘I do smile,’ Greta sniffled.

‘Not with your eyes, sweetheart,’ he sobbed. ‘Not anymore.’ His big arms held the most precious things in his world as close as he could.