Love is a Four-Legged Word: The romantic comedy about canines, conception and fresh starts
Page 34
‘Close call.’
Sissy was a stickler for time.
When Sarah opened her arms Sissy threw herself into them with the full force of a small rhinoceros. As they hugged she breathed in the familiar scent of her strawberry VO5 shampoo.
‘You brought the bread?’ She caught Sarah in her signature laser-beam stare. She had the same color green eyes as their mum, though hers were almond-shaped whereas Sarah’s were more mossy, round and deep-set.
‘Of course, I promised didn’t I? Shall we have a slice of toast?’
Sissy nodded. ‘With jam.’
While Sarah got to work slicing the bread in the communal kitchen, Sissy selected two plates from the cabinet. Carefully she opened the jam jar and unwrapped the butter. When the toast popped up, golden and steaming, she began her process. Nobody did toast as thoroughly as Sissy.
‘Want to eat it in the garden?’ Sarah asked as she spotted Kelly. Like Sarah, she was in her late twenties, but with a coiled-up energy like those women who taught Zumba classes. She strode rather than walked, with her shiny black hair swinging in her signature ponytail. She was always easy to pick out, even in the shapeless lilac and black uniform that all the nurses wore. ‘I’ll just give the rest of the loaf to Kelly, okay? Can you carry mine out too, please?’
‘Kelly the bread jailor,’ Sissy muttered as Sarah gave her both plates.
‘Hi, Sarah, all right?’ Kelly asked with the same easy manner that all the support workers had.
‘All right, thanks. Here’s Sissy’s bread. We’re tucking into some now.’
But Sarah wasn’t looking at Kelly as she handed over the loaf. She was watching Sissy as she shuffled at her snail’s pace toward the garden door at the end of the corridor.
‘As if you’d get out of here without toast,’ Kelly said.
‘Tell me about it.’
Sissy reached the door but, with her hands full, she couldn’t open it. ‘Oh, sorry,’ Sarah said. ‘I should help Sissy.’
Kelly gently touched her arm. ‘Let’s give her a minute.’
They watched as Sissy stood at the door with the plates in her hands. She looked left and right, for help, Sarah knew.
Her heart began to speed. ‘I’ll just—’
‘Leave it just a minute, Sarah.’
Sissy walked into the nearest room and came out a few seconds later with a metal chair in her hands instead of the plates. Carefully she propped the door open with the chair. Then, still not hurrying, she went back into the room for the plates and carried them through to the garden.
Sarah let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
‘We’re trying to let her do as much as possible for herself,’ Kelly said. ‘She’s a clever girl. She figures things out. Why don’t you go enjoy your toast?’
As usual, Sarah was in awe of Kelly. She and the others made the care home seem so normal. No drama, no fuss and no institutional feel. Despite the emergency call buttons and trained medical staff wandering around, it felt like a family there. Sissy loved it.
Sissy’s diagnosis hadn’t been a surprise to their mum. When she’d found herself pregnant at forty-two, she’d taken the chromosome disorder test at the insistence of her shell-shocked new boyfriend. Just as a precaution, he’d said.
‘It’s only precautionary if I’d do something about it,’ she’d told him, her Scouse accent becoming more pronounced with her anger. ‘And I won’t.’ She’d taken the test just to shut him up.
He didn’t believe she’d have a Down’s syndrome child.
She didn’t believe he’d leave her if she did.
They were both wrong.
He probably wasn’t a bad person, Sarah conceded when she was feeling generous. He just hadn’t planned to father Sissy so soon after meeting their mum.
Their poor mum. Her track record wasn’t great when it came to men sticking around once her epidural wore off. Sarah’s dad had been the first to run the hundred-yard dash, when Sarah was born and her brother, Robin, was a toddler. She didn’t have any interest in knowing her father. Sissy and Robin and their mum had always been enough.
Sissy found a spot under the tree for them to sit. The late autumn sun was weak and their toast turned stone-cold, but Sissy loved the garden.
‘I have a boyfriend, you know,’ she said.
‘Is that right?’ Sarah struggled to keep her voice steady. ‘Anyone I know?’
Most of the residents in the home were older than Sissy… much older.
‘Nope.’
‘Is he handsome?’
‘Yeah, and a bit fat,’ she said, nibbling her toast in perfectly even bites along each edge until she got to the last buttery golden mouthful in the middle.
‘Oh, well, that’s all right, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t mind.’
‘How old is your boyfriend?’ Sarah asked, holding her breath.
Instead of answering, Sissy brushed the fine blonde hair from her face so it didn’t interrupt her snack.
She wasn’t sly by nature but if she got the tiniest inkling that Sarah might get upset she’d avoid her questions.
‘Same as me,’ she finally said.
At least he wasn’t some old perv, Sarah thought. Though he could still be a young one.
‘Do you and your boyfriend do fun things together?’
‘We paint and watch telly and hold hands.’
Sarah needed to talk to Kelly about this. A shared interest in EastEnders was one thing, as long as they weren’t shagging during the advert breaks.
It was probably the single biggest worry they had about Sissy. Her trusting nature was to be expected when she was little. Now that she was sixteen it could be dangerous.
As if sexual politics weren’t hard enough without Down’s syndrome.
‘Why don’t you have a boyfriend?’ Sissy asked, staring at her.
‘Do I need one?’
Evasion. It ran in the family.
‘It’s nice having one,’ she said. ‘You could bake him cupcakes.’
‘But I bake you cupcakes. Would you be happy sharing them with my boyfriend?’
Sissy thought about this for a minute. ‘You’d have to bake extra for him.’
Before Sarah left she sought out Kelly again to talk about her sister’s budding romance.
‘I know it’s hard, Sarah, but she’s growing up.’ The way Kelly said this made Sarah want to crawl into her lap for a cuddle. She had that kind of friendly authority. ‘Nature is making changes and it’s normal for her to want to explore these. She’s done really well so far when it’s come to her maturing body, right?’
Sarah nodded. She’d been the one who freaked out about Sissy’s first period. Her sister was fine with it.
‘We’re talking to her about sex and the feelings she’s starting to have,’ Kelly continued.
‘I understand that, but she’s got a mental age of nine. How can she understand what those changes mean, or how she’s supposed to handle them?’
Kelly squeezed her hand.
Just five minutes in her lap and Sarah was sure she’d feel better.
‘We help her understand things the same way we would a nine year old,’ she answered. ‘With a lot of clear explanation in an environment where she’s encouraged to ask questions and get honest answers. The boy she’s been spending time with is sixteen too. We keep a close eye on them and, as you know, we talk regularly to everyone here about expressing their feelings in an appropriate way.’
‘But you can’t stop hormones,’ Sarah pointed out, remembering her own teenage years. She may not have had sex till well into university but that didn’t stop her thinking about it a lot.
Kelly smiled. ‘I promise we’re keeping a close eye on them. And it’s good for her to have companionship. Everybody has intimacy needs. It can be unhealthy if they’re not expressed. See you on Thursday?’
‘Yep, Thursday.’
If her sixteen-year-old sister had a boyfriend, maybe she did need to think a bit
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 24 ½
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37