Hunted

Chapter 23 - Reality and the local wolves saying G'day.

We ate, trying to eat without people staring at us, and the food vanished slowly. It was amusing to see Melissa's speed match ours though, eating her food so slowly that it didn't seem to be going anywhere, when we had at least three times the amount she had. When we had eaten enough to stop our stomachs from complaining, she handed me an envalope, her face serious again.

I opened it to find an invite to the funeral on the third of January. I paled, tears threatening to explode all over the plates suddenly, the little piece of cardboard bring the whole thing home. It was probably my sister's best friend who'd organised all this, she'd probably paid for it too. 

There were two names I didn't know. Bella and Elizabeth. Bella and Elizabeth? Born 19th November, 2011, died 23rd December, 2011.

"She had twins." I realised this with a fresh flood of grief. Of course. The newspaper article had said three children had died and Phill wasn't a child. My oldest nephew had been an adult, technally, even if I didn't see him that way. 

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew." Melissa blinked at me.

"I didn't ... I guess it was obvious. I just ...couldn't put it together." Twins. She'd had two daughters, twin girls, no wonder why she'd looked so pleased with herself in hospital. I couldn't take anymore. I stood, her face filled with surprise, nearly knocking over the glass of wine I hadn't been able to finish. "I think I want to go to my hotal room for a while." I said, fumbling with teh invite, trying to get it back into the envolope it'd been in. Nick took it from me to slide it away carefully.

"Of course. I'll be in contact tomorrow about the interview. Have a good night." She stood up as we stood up, and we headed back to the hotal, the walk suddenly a very long one.

I sat there all afternoon, staring at the invite, at the little mosaic of photos on the back of it. I didn't cry. I wanted to cry, I really did, but my throat was too swollen to allow any of it to come up. So I just stared at them instead, these photos, while Nick moved to the bedroom to quietly talk with Jeremy and let him know how the meeting had gone. Then he came to sit beside me, wrapping an arm around me, gazing at the photos as well. Mum looked tired, older, but happy. Dad looked exactly as I'd remembered him. My sister also looked older, as did my nephews, and the babies so new, so young, so fresh to the world.

"How old were your nephews?" He was staring at the photos of them.

"Twenty six and ten."

"Your oldest nephew was twenty six years old?" The look on Nick's face was priceless, enough to shatter some of the sadness I felt, give me energy to explain that little oddity. I'd explained it many times to many friends in the past.

"Susie was already knocked up when Mum got pregnant. She didn't tell mum, but when she found out Mum was pregnant, she lost her temper and moved out into her boyfriend's place. Then she turned up a month later, five months pregnant, dumped by him for one of her friends, and Mum was apparently furious. Dad planted himself on the door next to Susie saying that if Mum kicked her out, she kicked them both out." I laughed, a soft laugh, breaking past the swollon throat, "She did. They spent a day in the caravan before her hormones had calmed down enough bring them both home then she turned into mother hen and offered Susie the granny flat out the back for a home. Susie gave birth to Phoenix-" I saw his lips twitch and I shrugged "-who we ended up calling Phill and then I was born a month later."

"It must have been a full house growing up."

"Phill was like a brother, I guess, yeah. She got married and moved out with Phill and her husband, Chris, when I was starting high school. Then a while later she got pregnant with Dylan. Chris died from cancer when Dylan was just a few months old. I guess he knew he was going to die because we found out that he'd stored his seman for her. He knew she wanted a daughter. She refused for years to do anything then one day at Christmas announced she was pregnant again. Matt showed up and she was so happy with him. But I guess she tried again and had her girls after all."