A Sister’s Gift Read Online Free PDF Page A

Flo’s, and equally inaudible to me in reply.
    I heard the taxi driver taking all Mum’s things through to the parlour and the two women going through into the kitchen and closing the door. But what about
me?
    I stood up, the cold night air hitting my bare legs under my nightie as I crept down the stairs, fearing Flo’s wrath if she found me up, and desperate to know what was going on in equal measure. I took one step at a time, holding my breath as I went, the better to hear the two women’s voices, muted but nonetheless distinctly unfriendly behind the kitchen door.
    They could at least have waited till Mum said hello to me before having their argument! Why did adults have to argue over such unimportant things anyway? And why did Auntie Flo have to give Mum a hard time when she’d only just got in? Didn’t she realise that such a confrontation might make it less likely Mum would want to stay with us?
    When I stole into the parlour the room was pitch black save for the kerosene lamp that someone must have brought in and placed on the sideboard. The air was so cold, the fire having died down about an hour before. I could see Mum’s coat hanging on the back of the chair and the sight made me want to rush into the kitchen to her but they were still arguing and I didn’t dare. Nor did I put the big light on. I could just about make out what they were saying.
    ‘You take the biscuit, Helen Hudson, you really do.’
    ‘What’s done is done,’ my mother countered. ‘It’s not how I planned things but it happened. I was hoping you’d be a bit more supportive, Florence, seeing as you adore Hollie so much.’
    ‘How I feel about Hollie doesn’t excuse you from your own responsibilities, Helen.’
    ‘I need to get back to work. We’re making such headway in the Amazon at the moment you can’t imagine…’
    My heart sank in my chest. Mum
hadn’t
come home for good then. Oh, but she had to, she couldn’t let me down now. Flo had hinted so strongly and it was what I’d been waiting all day to hear…
    A small mewl, like from a kitten, drew my attention to the wicker basket in the middle of the parlour floor and I stole over to peer into it. A cat? Was this the surprise my mum had been promising, to make up for the fact that – yet again – she wasn’t staying with us?
    But it was no kitten.
    That was the first time I ever laid eyes on my sister.

Hollie
    ‘Is she
his?’
Flo’s voice had come through again, cutting, disapproving.
    ‘They both have the same father,’ my mother admitted at last.
    ‘And the same mother.’ Flo’s voice, thin and unsympathetic, seeped under the door. ‘Who intends to look after neither of them.’ There had been a long silence then as her words sank in for all of us.
    As I stare out of the window even now, the apple tree in the half-darkness forms a shape that reminds me of my sister’s little white face in the bassinet. Her eyes a tourmaline blue, wide as saucers, her little rosebud mouth paused in a half-pout. For a split second, a flash of anger at the betrayal that had taken place that night coursed through me.
    Who was this? I remember leaning over, meanly prodding her with a fingertip as the unwelcome realisation had sunk in. This was it? Mum’s…wonderful surprise? This wasn’t what I wanted! I wanted Mum, not some useless baby. A sister.
    ‘I’m not…mothering material, Flo.’ Mum’s dull voice came through from under the kitchen door again.
    ‘She’s been waiting a long time to see you, Helen. It’s been months. You have another child now…surely you can stay a little while?’
    I waited with bated breath to hear her answer. I wanted Mum. I missed her. I wanted to go back to the time when we’d livedin a bedsit, just the two of us together, a time before the settling and steadying influence of Flo had come into my life, a time almost passed now from my memory.
    ‘I know, I know! Just stop laying a guilt trip on me, OK? I’m home for Christmas like I