Silver

Chapter 44 - then

I was surprised to find my sister at my dad's the next week when I went there for dinner, after school. It was meant to be my night with him, so I was a bit put out when I saw her car in the driveway. When I rung the doorbell, it was Marion who answered the door and let me in.

Dad was making dinner in the kitchen. 'I asked Marion to come over,' he said, while preparing a marinade for the meat. 'I thought it would be nice to all get together. Why don't the two of you get a drink and go out on the balcony. I'll be half an hour or so.'

Marion fussed over putting a little pink beanie and an extra pair of tiny white socks on Ruby before we went outside and sat on the balcony.

'Dad is worried about you,' Marion launched straight into it. 'He says that you don't have your normal energy. He thinks that you're sleeping a lot and always exhausted.'

'He told you this?' I felt betrayed.

'You're probably depressed,' she said, matter of factly. If I wasn't depressed before, all of a sudden I felt really god damn depressed.

'It's nothing to be ashamed of,' she said. 'I went through a similar thing when Lachlan and I married. I had a really dark period for a while.' I started to warm to her slightly. She had never divulged anything of a slightly emotional nature to me before. 'If you start talking to other girls, this often happens after they get married. It's very normal,' she said. I was completely gob smacked, she was actually talking with something akin to compassion. 'I was on medication for two years,' she continued. 'It can help, really it can. Lots of girls are taking it. It's called Zonitech. Usually you have to go to the GP and get a mental health plan done.' Just her saying the words 'mental health' made me cry. I hadn't cried at all. I'd felt the deepest misery for days on end, but I hadn't cried until now.

'It's all right,' she said. 'I've got some trial packets for you. You don't need to see the doctor. That's so hard to do. Just try these, one a day. It might put you off your food for a week or two, also it's sometimes hard to get to sleep at night, but all that settles down after a few weeks.' She opened her handbag and gave me six small boxes of trial packs. 'And it can even help in the bedroom,' she said with a tiny laugh.