by Aoife Walsh
‘What are you two on about?’ Franklin asked.
Selena sighed. ‘Mum always says, don’t ask someone a question if you know they’re probably going to lie. Or it’s like you want them to lie, and then it’s partly your fault.’
‘Mum does always say that.’ Minny nodded. ‘It’s her theory of parenting. You do say that.’
‘You do,’ Aisling agreed.
‘Well. I didn’t know I always said it, but—’
‘Yes,’ Aisling told her. ‘That’s why we never asked you about Dad being Raymond’s father. Because we thought you’d probably lie about it, and there wasn’t any point since we all knew anyway.’
There was a sudden silence. The fuzzy yellow light in the room seemed to harden. Minny looked first at Harriet, since Nita and Des were behind her. Her face was blank.
‘Aisling,’ Nita gasped. ‘What are you …?’
‘How did you know, Aisling?’ Des asked. He sounded like stone.
‘I always knew. Minny did too, she told me.’
‘I didn’t!’ Minny gasped too.
‘You did, after the party at Veronica’s.’
‘Oh,’ Minny said in a small voice.
‘Did you know?’ Harriet asked, her words dropping into a well of space between her chair and the sofa, where Des sat next to Nita.
‘No. I didn’t. I asked her – I asked you, Nita. When Minny – when her email said you were pregnant I got in touch specifically … and then, when we first got back and I saw him, I asked again and you said no way.’
‘You forced her to lie,’ Aisling nodded, as if this were a normal conversation.
Harriet was sitting perfectly still. So was Franklin, as if, if he didn’t move, he might become invisible. The baby finished his milk and crowed, grabbing for Nita’s fringe.
Everyone was very calm, but every speck of jolliness had gone out of the room. Nita said that she had to put the baby to bed, right now, because he was so tired. Des and Harriet went, unhurriedly, into the front room, which emitted no raised voices or anything like that. Minny, Aisling, Selena and Franklin were left staring wretchedly at each other.
‘Should I not have said that?’ Aisling asked after a while.
Minny closed her eyes. ‘Maybe not tonight.’
‘I thought everyone knew.’
Minny sighed. ‘I think probably everyone did. They just weren’t ready to talk about it.’
‘I didn’t know,’ Franklin pointed out. ‘You never said.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Don’t be stupid. It’s just … interesting.’
‘I suppose. Ash, don’t worry; it was going to come out. It had to.’
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s not that interesting,’ Selena piped up, stretching her legs out over Franklin. ‘Not to us. I mean Raymond was always our brother anyway.’
‘Did you know too?’
She sniffed. ‘Sort of.’
A few minutes later the three adults appeared in the doorway, Nita shuffling not to get in Harriet’s way. Harriet wasn’t looking at either of them. ‘Girls,’ Des said, ‘your mother and I are just popping out. We need to have a conversation and we don’t want you to have to listen to it.’
‘In the storm?’ Aisling asked. The rain was still battering the window.
‘Just up to the Fox, not far. Pretty sure it won’t be too crowded on a night like this. Love,’ he said to Harriet, ‘are you sure you don’t want to come with us?’
‘Completely sure,’ she said in a clipped voice. ‘We’ll talk afterwards. At home.’
‘OK.’ He paused. ‘Girls, Harriet’s going to stay here with you till we get back. We won’t be long. We really won’t.’
‘Take as long as you need.’ Harriet walked into the room and sat down with her back to them.
‘Girls,’ their mother said. ‘Kids, I mean – don’t you think you should go to bed? You’ve had a tiring day and everything. Selena?’
‘No.’
‘She can watch TV with us,’ Minny said. She could see that Selena was not going to go willingly to bed while she was still afraid the world might end, so she might as well be allowed to stay up till their parents came back from the pub.
Harriet seemed to be taking it pretty well, though Minny was cautious about looking at her; she even smiled at Aisling when Ash was debating what to watch. Minny said she’d do the washing-up before she settled down. Selena came with her, she was feeling clingy and Minny was the best option left. Ash was all right staying in the back room; this wasn’t the kind of thing to phase her. Franklin came in at a certain point and started to dry the dishes. They couldn’t talk normally at all, it was all significant glances and low voices, even when they were just passing clean cutlery.
Then, when they filed back into the back room, trying to act naturally, Harriet wasn’t in there. ‘Where’s Harriet?’
Aisling looked up from the cushion she was squashing. ‘I don’t know.’
Minny peered into the front room. Harriet was there, leaning against the window. Her face would leave a smudge, not that they were fussy. ‘Are you OK?’ she asked.
‘Mmm. Yeah. No, not really. It’s sort of ironic or something, Minny,’ she said, pressing her cheek hard against the glass, ‘but I think the baby’s coming.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Minny said in a voice that sounded eerily calm to her own ears. ‘It takes ages. It took Mum eight hours with Raymond and he was the fourth.’
‘Mmmmm,’ Harriet said, but Minny didn’t know if she was agreeing or not; her eyes were squeezed shut and she pushed against the glass so hard Minny was afraid it might break.
The others were crowded into the doorway, looking terrified. ‘It’s a bit early,’ Ash said. ‘There’s meant to be still four weeks to go.’
‘Oh, that’s nothing, these days. Put the kettle on, Aisling,’ Minny said. ‘You’d like some tea or something, wouldn’t you, Harriet? Do you want to sit down? Shall I ring Dad?’
‘Yes,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I think you’d better. Interrupt the talk about one baby with another. Tell him it hurts already.’
Minny dialled her father’s number. A moment later they all heard the theme tune to Match of the Day start up next door. Selena ran after it and came back holding the phone. ‘It was down the side of the sofa.’
‘It must have fallen out of his pocket,’ Minny said. She hung up numbly.
‘He’s always had that for his ringtone,’ Harriet whispered, sitting very straight on the sofa. ‘It reminded him of home, when he was in the States.’
‘Lovely. No worries,’ Minny said. ‘I’ll call Mum.’
‘Ask if I can speak to him,’ Harriet said. ‘I’m OK now.’
Minny would have done, but her mother’s phone had gone straight to answerphone.
‘Oh God,’ Harriet said feebly.
‘Why don’t we call the pub?’ Franklin suggested.
They all crowded round the computer. Minny couldn’t type properly, she kept looking at Harriet, who surely shouldn’t be having another contraction already. ‘There,’ Sel yelped, pointing at the right ‘Red Fox’, halfway down the screen. Minny seized the phone and dialled.
‘Come on,’ she said, turning her back on all their anxious faces, ‘come on.’ There was no answer. It was perfectly obvious there never would be. She dropped the phone and said a quick prayer. ‘No answer there. Franklin – I’m really sorry to ask but …’
‘I’m going,’ he said, relief written all over his face. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘Yeah, but don’t get killed. Have you got lights?’
‘Yes, Mother.’
‘Cycle carefully,’ Harriet said, upright and calm again. ‘Could someone get me some sheets just in case and could I have some herbal tea, please?’
They fell over themselves, all three girls running upstairs and pulling sheets out from under Babi’s bed where they lived, then downstairs again, grouped round the kettle. ‘Should we call an ambulance?’ Se
lena asked.
‘She hasn’t said to.’ Minny handed her a mint teabag. ‘I don’t know – she’s still the adult, isn’t she? She hasn’t suddenly gone mad.’
‘We could ask her,’ Aisling suggested.
They all trailed back in, Sel carrying the mug. Harriet was in the throes of another one, hunched up in a ball, rolling on the sofa. ‘Oh. Fuuuu-nnn. Me.’
‘Selena,’ Minny said abruptly, taking the mug from her, ‘you go next door and put the TV on, OK?’
‘But I want to help.’
‘Please, Sel, that’s the most helpful thing you can do right now. I tell you what – fill the kettle up first, full to max, and turn it on, all right?’
She actually went. Obviously everyone was as petrified as she was herself, maybe including Harriet. Minny waited respectfully until she stopped swearing and then bent over her. ‘Harriet. Don’t you think we’d better call an ambulance?’
‘No,’ she choked into the back of the sofa, then rolled over and looked up. ‘There’s no need yet. If Dessie just gets back in the next few minutes, he can drive me in, no problem.’
‘Are you sure? It’s twenty minutes from here to the hospital.’ Her heart sank a little. Even with no roads blocked off.
‘It doesn’t happen that fast, it’s not like TV. I’ve got plenty of time. I’d like to be in hospital, but not on my own, and I – you’re not meant to call an ambulance except in an emergency.’
Minny sat beside her, until another contraction started and she jumped up nervously and went over to the window. The rain was still lashing outside. Just as she was picturing her father tearing up the road, perhaps her mother walking glumly behind with Franklin, the phone rang.
‘It’s shut,’ Franklin yelled, over the rain. ‘Bloody pub’s shut. Where else would they have gone?’
‘I don’t know.’ Minny’s brain had shut down; she stared straight ahead, trying to think.
‘Well, they’re not walking the streets on a night like this.’
‘There’s the Crown …’
‘Yeah, but it’s downhill. Where it’s flooded. I think they’d have gone up.’
‘OK, well, you’re the one out there. There’s the Anchor, on the corner of Rosemount Road.’
‘I’ll try there, and ring you. Minny, call an ambulance.’
‘Harriet says—’
‘I think you should call it. It could take a while to come. The water’s still going up. There’s some in your road.’
‘Holy God.’ Minny rubbed the window, but it was too wild to see. ‘OK. Go carefully.’
‘I’ll find them.’
Harriet was pale and sweating, Aisling just pale. Minny told them about the pub. ‘I think we should call an ambulance, Harriet. Because driving anywhere’s going to take longer tonight; some of the roads are blocked off because of all the water.’
Harriet immediately went into another contraction. Minny was beginning to find them irritating, they made business impossible. She knew perfectly well that Selena was in the corridor, not watching TV at all, and she went to try to move her.
‘You don’t want to be part of this,’ she said, flapping her onto the sofa. ‘I’m telling you, if I could hide in here, I’d turn the telly up so loud nothing would get through. Although –’ she frowned at the TV, which was showing a clearly unsuitable police drama where people were buzzing around a dead girl in a ditch – ‘let’s put a DVD on, shall we?’
It was all a distraction from the panic which probably set in any time someone suggested you call an ambulance, a NOW NOW NOW kind of panic that said every second counted … She straightened up and tossed The Magic School Bus DVD box at Selena. ‘I’ve got to go back next door, but you watch this, OK?’
‘Call me if you need me,’ Sel said.
Minny went purposefully next door. Aisling was chewing her hand, standing against the window.
‘I’m calling 999, Harriet. Look, this might or might not be an emergency, but I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.’
‘OK,’ Harriet said weakly. ‘Sensible. I wish I’d thought of that eight and a half months ago. I never thought it would be like this, Minny.’
‘No, I know.’
‘It hurts so bloody much.’
‘Then we need to get you to a hospital so they can stuff you full of drugs … Ambulance, please.’
They asked her, after all the details had been given, and they had talked about if there were spaces between contractions, if she would like them to stay on the phone. Minny looked doubtfully at Harriet, who was crouched with her bottom squeezed between the bookshelf and the mantelpiece. It was such a ludicrous thought that she, herself, might be called upon to do something at the birth of a baby that she couldn’t consider it right now. ‘No, I don’t think so. I can call back, can’t I?’
‘Of course.’
She didn’t want to tie up the line either. And sure enough there was an answerphone message from Franklin. Her heart was beating painfully as she pressed buttons. ‘Minny, they’re not at the Anchor either, but I can see another pub up the road so I’ll check that one and then I’ll go back to the Crown. And if they’re not there I’ll do something else. Don’t panic. I hope it’s engaged because you’re talking to the ambulance people.’
Ash was now in the corridor, squeaking quietly. Minny went out to her and took hold of her wrist. ‘Ash,’ she hissed, ‘what am I going to do? I can’t deliver a baby …’
‘Of course you can,’ Ash said in a surprisingly normal voice. ‘You can do everything.’
‘What are you talking about, I can’t even be in the room with her. I’ve never even done first aid … I’m weak and pathetic, I quit things all the time, I’ve got zero faith in myself and I’m panicking.’
‘You can do everything,’ Aisling said, patting her on the elbow.
Minny gazed at her for a second, then took a deep breath and went to put a saucepan of water onto boil. She had no idea what all the boiling water was for, but they always did it in books. She breathed deeply all the time, so that when she’d done it she was ready to go back in.
The corridor was empty, which surprised her. Ash wasn’t in the front room, where Harriet was lying on her back, but not writhing now. ‘Has Aisling …?’
‘She said she was going out.’
Minny couldn’t believe it, even though it was so typical. ‘Where?’
‘I didn’t ask.’
She couldn’t go after her; she had Selena and Raymond to think about as well as the situation here. God knows what was in Aisling’s mind – perhaps she meant to try the Crown since Franklin had gone the other way. She wouldn’t go into deep water. There wouldn’t be deep water – just a bit too much for cars. And ambulances. Minny patted her phone to make sure it was still in her pocket. Honestly, what a stupid thing to do, when you had a fiancée eight months pregnant, leaving without your phone. Perhaps he’d realised and was even now roaring back from wherever they’d been; or maybe Nita had noticed her phone was off. She knelt on the carpet beside Harriet, who had begun to moan again, and took out her phone to try her mother once more. No luck. She left a message, trying to sound calm. Then another deep breath.
‘The ambulance will be here any minute. I’m sure Franklin will have found Dad by now too,’ she said. ‘Can I do anything for you?’
Harriet gripped both her wrists for a few seconds; her fingers were like iron. Then she slumped back again. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m going to kill Dessie.’
‘Me too.’
‘If he misses this – no, I’m going to kill him anyway. Pillows. And more sheets. I don’t want to … have to worry about … bleeding all over the carpet.’
Minny flew up and gathered so much bedding she nearly fell down the stairs. She arranged layers of sheets and towels and Harriet had just rolled over onto her face on top of them when the front door opened. Minny’s brain clicked over into joy. ‘Here they are,’ she said to Harriet, rushing into the corridor. But i
t wasn’t her father, or her mother either. It was Gil. He whipped off his jacket, dropped it on the floor and moved straight past her. ‘What are you doing here?’ she stammered, following him.
He was crouched down beside Harriet, holding her wrist. ‘Aisling came to see if we were back. She’s just helping your grandmother; they’ll be here in a few minutes. I came on ahead. Throw a sheet over this sofa, that’s a good girl.’
‘But we thought you were on holiday.’ Minny felt sluggish.
‘I took Milena to a hotel last night, to give her a break. We got back a couple of hours ago. I think Ash spotted the car.’
‘But …’
‘Now, Harriet, let’s get you turned over,’ he said firmly. ‘That’s right. I know it hurts, lovey. I just need to take a little look and see how far along you are.’
‘You can’t do that,’ Minny whispered, scandalised, as he flipped Harriet’s skirt up to her chest.
He looked up. ‘Yes, I can. I’m going to help her, Minny. Shush now, everything’s going to be fine.’ He pushed Harriet’s knees up. ‘I used to be a nurse.’
FIFTEEN
Of course the baby was a girl.
Her father told her, later, that he’d been convinced it would be a boy. Running along the street, yelling questions at Franklin cycling in the gutter beside him, heads nearly torn off by the wind and rain, he’d sworn to himself it would be a boy. ‘You know, Minny – you wait sixteen years for a boy and then two come along the same night.’
Minny rolled her eyes.
Anyway, he was wrong, it was a girl, which was just as well. Everyone was pleased, even Harriet. At least she looked pleased – you could have counted every one of her teeth – once it was all over.
Des, and the others, got there about the same time as the paramedics; too late to be useful but in time to say he was there. And hold her hand for the last two minutes, which Minny supposed counted for something. She was glad to be displaced – Harriet had squeezed the bones in her hand to mush and it was all far too gory now in the front room – and to huddle in the corridor with Aisling and Selena, trying to keep out of the way of the paramedics and anyone who could do anything helpful. Babi was still in the front room, leaning on her elbows on the floor beside Harriet, hoarse with all her encouragement, but she got up and dusted herself off once the baby was out, and came straight to them. She put her arm round Nita, who still had her raincoat on.