The Geary Series Boxed Set (51 page)

It had been a week since Jane had told her sister about her pregnancy. It had been a week since any of her family had spoken to her. She woke early each morning and left the house through the back patio doors. Padding barefoot through the damp grass, she climbed over the turnstile and walked down the hill to the river. She sat at the end of the small shallow river and dipped her feet in. The cold water, shielded by the canopy of trees soothed her soul. The turmoil of a foolish ten minutes reverberated through her head. Her stupidity, her weakness for the sake of having sex for the first time had ruined her life. She had told Gale she had sex a lot of times, bragged about it, but none of it was real.

The stack of textbooks that lay in the grass mocked her dedication to her education. She flicked through the books and filled out the sample exam papers until the sun started to set. Once darkness had set in she trudged back up the hill reversing her journey from fourteen hours earlier. Every day she repeated the same events, the grass had become flattened where she sat and studied every day. This pointless exercise of furthering her knowledge had her in tears most days, some days she sat and cackled. Her mental state was dictated by her hormones, and she hated every single moment of it.

The decision she had made every night before she fell asleep was reaffirmed each morning when she woke, she would not raise her child.

Sliding the back patio door open quietly to their living room she looked around the room and reminisced about better times. Turning the latch she jumped when a side light turned on. Sitting in her favourite armchair, Gale stayed perfectly still. She had on her pink stripy pyjamas and fluffy matching slippers.

“Either speak or I’m going to bed,” Jane said and turned to leave the room. Her stomach rumbled loudly as she clutched her belly. She knew, not eating harmed the baby, but she had lost her appetite as soon as the word whore left her sister’s mouth.

“Sit down, I want to talk to you,” Gale said warmly.

Jane wasn’t fooled by her tone, she had shown her true feelings. She left the room and entered the kitchen to make a sandwich. The food would probably come back up like it had every night in the last couple of weeks, but she needed to eat. In quick time, she prepared a ham and tomato sandwich and grabbed a packet of crisps and wandered back into the back room. To her disappointment, Gale still sat in her chair waiting patiently.

“You talk while I eat, and if, by the time I have finished my food I have anything to say, you’ll hear it,” Jane said.

“Jane, I’m sorry I called you a whore, that was unkind. I was upset, I miss Michael and hate him at the same time. I don’t understand why he wanted you over me, but that is immaterial now. What matters now is his baby and how we are going to raise it. I’ll support you the whole way and when the time comes will help you to raise the child.” Gale finished and beamed a broad smile.

Standing and then coming over to where Jane sat, Jane looked at her sceptically. Real feelings tended to come to the surface when her family were upset. She saw the ugliness of her parents at a young age. Felt the belt of her father on many occasions and the silence of her mother. Gale escaped her parent’s wrath, only she managed to anger them. Now she had angered her sister.

“How do you propose to do this?” Jane asked once she had finished her late supper.

“I’m going to pretend to be pregnant as well, stuff cushions up my dress, whatever it takes. Our parents can’t be mad at us both.” Gale said.

“I’m sure even you can’t escape their disappointment if you say you’re pregnant too. I’m not keeping the baby Gale, I only have to sit out the silence for seven months and then everything can go back to normal.” Jane said and left the room, leaving her dirty plate on the coffee table.

Gale trotted after her sister, not making a sound as she followed her up the stairs. Jane tried to shut her bedroom door on Gale, but she positioned her foot on the threshold and lifted a single finger to her lips. They were not to make a sound once their parents had gone to bed. Arguing would only make matters worse.

Jane opened the door wide and invited her sister into her bedroom and quietly closed the door. She remained standing while Gale made herself comfortable on her bed. Sitting cross-legged she spilled out her plan to win over her parents. It was a simple idea, but Jane doubted it would work. She already had their silent treatment from having the party what more could they do?

Jane listened carefully and through tiredness and the eagerness to get Gale out of her bedroom, she ignored the warning signals in her heart and agreed to the plan.

“You don’t have to do this Gale, I’ll tell them myself,” Jane said, moving the net curtain aside to see if her parent’s car had appeared outside their house.

Jane dropped the curtain and arranged it back behind the curtain and walked back to the bed where Gale sat crossed legged. She read the pamphlet that the doctor had given Jane after leaving the appointment that morning. Gale read every word over and over again, Jane couldn’t look at the booklet.

The sound of the engine snapped both of their heads up and they scrambled to get off the bed. Patting each other’s hair and straightening each other’s cardigans they burst out laughing and attended to their own appearance. Once they were done, they sat back down on the bed and held hands. Their parents chatted as they entered the house and shut the front door behind them. The chatter carried on in a more muffled tone as they walked down the corridor and into the kitchen. They could hear the water running to fill the kettle and the fridge door opening and shutting. Their parent’s routine assisted them in their timing.

The constant clink of the teaspoon hitting the inside of the cup was their signal to stand at the top of the stairs. The double tap of the spoon on the edge of the cup and then the clatter into the metal sink was their cue to walk down the stairs. Their father would already be sitting in his armchair waiting for his cup of tea. Their mother would be bringing both their cups in at this stage and the TV would be turned on ready for the six o’clock news.

The intro music to the news program could be heard loud and clear from the bottom step of the staircase where the two sisters now stood, still hand in hand. A sideways glance at each other and a swift nod indicated they were ready.

Jane stepped forward first and pushed open the frosted glass door to the living room, her father didn’t stir from reading his newspaper. He muttered quietly, running commentary on the latest developments of the first test tube baby being born.

“It’s an abomination, manufacturing babies, they should be born within the confines of marriage or not at all.” Their father yelled and roughly folded the paper and threw it to the floor.

“I totally agree with you, people playing God is unacceptable.”  Their mother said, one eye on the news and the other on her crossword, half finished sitting on her lap.

Gale squeezed Jane’s hand and inched them further into the room. Jane’s heart bumped hard in her chest, her palms sweating profusely. The thought of throwing up her lunch became the primary focus in her mind. Gale said that she would stand by her while she told her parents the news and she trusted her. The ability to speak had escaped her, it had run back up the stairs and hidden under the blankets, shaking with fear.

“What do you two want, why are you in this room, I don’t remember inviting you in here?” Their father barked at them.

Jane stayed frozen to the spot, visibly shaking, Gale moved them forward once more until they were standing in the middle of the room next to the glass coffee table. Their mother looked up at them and narrowed her eyes. Her thin lips pinched into a suspicious scowl.

“We have some news to share with you, can we sit down?” Gale asked.

“No, you may not. We heard the news of your results, they were as expected, you’ll both be in college. What else do you have to tell us that would be of any interest?” Their father asked.

Jane had lost her nerve and stepped backwards, Gale yanked her arm back and held on tight. They had come this far, Gale wasn’t backing out now.

“We won’t be going to college in the Autumn,” Gale said, “we’re pregnant and you’re going to be grandparents.”

“What did you just say?” their mother asked, her crossword puzzle had slid to the floor quietly.

“We’re going to have a baby, in about seven month’s time.”

“Both of you?” Her father asked her.

Jane was about to speak when they heard their mother’s opinion.

“You pair of sluts, I want you out of this house by the morning, go and pack your bags this instant.” Their mother stood, smoothed the folds of her pale blue pleated skirt. She gave a stern look to their father and exited the room from the door at the rear. The noise in the kitchen indicated her frustration with the situation.

They both stared at the ground waiting for their father to speak.

“You heard her, go and pack your bags, your education is at an end. Your place in this family is at an end. You can go and stay with my sister in Brighton during your confinement and then after the babies have been born, you are both on your own.

Jane and Gale left the room immediately and ran up the stairs, and once they were in Jane’s room, they closed the door and sat on the bed. Jane’s tears had started on the way up the stairs and had a steady stream down her face and into her hands on her lap. Gale wrapped her arm around her, resting her head on her shoulder. The sun had begun setting and the orange glow shone through the window. The pretty view had been lost on them, their view was grey and dull.

“Why did you do that Gale, you didn’t have to say you were pregnant too?” Jane asked through her sobbing.

Gale remained quiet for a few moments. While she was angry with her sister for sleeping with the boy she was in love with, she didn’t think it was fair to let her go through telling her parents on her own. What Gale hadn’t banked on was being evicted from her family. Within two sentences, she had lost her future. Her straight A scorecard now meant nothing, her plans for being a lawyer was in tatters. She would stand by her sister during her pregnancy, but she would never forgive her.

“We’re the only family we have so we’d better get on with packing, what’s done is done,” Gale said.

Gale pulled the suitcase from the top of her sister’s wardrobe and placed it on her bed. The force in which she dropped it onto the bed startled Jane. The glazed look she used to infiltrate her sister’s mind didn’t work. Jane had no idea if Gale hated her now as well. Gale left her room and shut the door, the click of the lock broke her heart. The sound she heard was a bullet through her heart, she had another life growing inside her, but she wanted to die.

Jane and Gale stood at the bottom of the staircase with their suitcases standing next to them. They had been standing for an hour. Gale had no idea what time they needed to be ready, but she didn’t want to anger her parents any further. Once the baby had been born she hoped her parents would take her back. She needed to get Jane through the pregnancy and figure out a way to keep her baby.

A door opening upstairs and then closing indicated it was time to leave. Her father descended the stairs in his business suit, like any other work day. Once he reached the bottom, he looked at them and their cases. Sadness showed on his face and he motioned his head for them to follow. He walked down the corridor to the kitchen and Jane and Gale tiptoed after him. Once they were all in the kitchen, he shut the door.

“Your mother will have nothing more to do with you and will not allow you back in this house. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with the pair of you. You have ruined your future, both having babies out of wedlock and not even a serious boyfriend on the horizon. Gale, I thought that eventually you would marry that sweet boy Dylan, he had a bright future. Jane, as for you, the irony of your midwifery future now at an end is not lost on me. Here is some money to keep you going for the next seven months. You’ll live in my sister’s attic while you wait out your pregnancy, she is a kind woman, much more sympathetic than I am. She’s expecting you tonight.” Their father said.

Jane and Gale stood speechless. Jane took the cheque made out in her name and cried, she was too young to have a child, she was still a child herself. Jane nodded her thanks and kissed her father’s cheek and left the room to go and stand by the door.

Gale accepted her cheque and apologised to her father. He made no effort to acknowledge the small gesture.

“These are train tickets to get you to Brighton, you’ll have to change in London. It will take you all day, so if you want to take a packed lunch, I suggest you make one now. Your mother is going to stay upstairs until you have left. I’ll take you both to the station and then you’re on your own. My sister will give me updates, but I don’t want to hear from either of you directly. Is that understood?” He asked.

“Yes, father,” Gale said and then set to work, gathering food for their long journey to the South Coast. She wiped the tears away with the back of her hands repeatedly throughout gathering ingredients for their trip. Her father stood watching in the hallway, glancing back towards the front door and back at Gale. His solemn face bowed in between glances.

Packing the sandwiches in tin foil, she dropped them into a paper bag and stood waiting to exit the kitchen.

“I’m sorry Gale but you’ve let us down the most, Jane wouldn’t have been any more than a nurse but you Gale,” he paused and cleared his throat.”You would have been a successful lawyer, one that I would have been proud to call daughter. I would have been proud to call Dylan my son in law, but you had to ruin it. You couldn’t keep your legs together.”

He stopped talking and marched down the corridor, Gale bowed forward at the waist, she had been verbally punched by her father. The twist in his words cut deep. She made a mumbled promise that she would make things right with her father. No one heard the words.

The two girls climbed into the back of their family car after putting their cases in the boot. Gale looked out of the car window and up to her parent’s bedroom. Her mother stood at the window, behind the flowery net curtains. She could feel her disappointment even though she couldn’t see her face clearly. Her mother had moved away before her father started the car, she was on her own to fix this problem. Gale didn’t know if she could rely on Jane to co-operate, but at least she had seven months to work on her.

Her father pulled up the car to the train station entrance and waited with the engine running, Jane looked over to Gale and they got out of the car at the same time.

Just before Jane shut the car door, she whispered, “I’m sorry daddy.” And closed the door.

“Come on Jane, we need to catch the train, get a move on,” Gale ordered her.

Jane picked up her suitcase and followed after her sister, sobbing uncontrollably. She stumbled after Gale, tripping over her feet.