Chapter 5
Ed put on his green t-shirt with his back turned to the body of Kate which lay slumped on the sofa. His blonde hair had been dishevelled and he looked physically exhausted.
She was sprawled and lifeless on the long cream, leather sofa but looked like a silhouette with the large curtains drawn.
Ed switched on the light and turned around to see the damage.
As his eyes adjusted to the change in brightness, and the image became clearer, a sinister grin grew on his face.
Kate’s body collapsed on to the floor, delivering a thud which caused Ed to shake his head.
“If you didn’t over-react, like you always do, maybe I wouldn’t have had to do this” Ed said as he walked over to the body on the floor.
He then hovered over his wife’s body and began to sniff her. With no remorse, he began playing with her hair and lifted it up and down above her head like the legs of a marching band.
A few minutes pass.
Suddenly, the body begins to show traces of movement. A hand had grabbed the sofa, then another one. It was a desperate attempt to lift herself up as Ed stood back and watched.
Ed looked puzzled, as he though his efforts would have certainly caused her to be out longer than this.
Kate finally managed to prop her back against the sofa. She smiled at Ed, looking almost stoned while doing so. He laughed back in her direction. The arrival of twins seemed to have done little to suppress their appetite for one another.
“You’ve just made us late, Ed. It’s nearly 4 o...” Kate stopped mid sentence as though she had just seen a ghost.
Ed was about to open his mouth to ask what caused her to hesitate before coming to the same realisation himself.
They looked at each other in disbelief.
As they were about to storm out of their house in a semi-clothed state, the blaring sound of sirens began to emerge. Within seconds, the sound got louder and louder and even before the pair had time to come to their senses, tyres had screeched to a halt outside of their house.
Ed peaked outside the drawn curtains and saw 2 police cars and an ambulance rush to the scene, along with neighbours who began to emerge from out of their houses.
Kate without further hesitation, got up from the sofa wearing what she deemed was enough clothing to be seen in public, and ran outside. She stopped at the car and began banging on the window, realising the keys were still in Ed’s pocket. She went over to the area by the pond, picked up a brick and smashed it against the front passenger window.
Police officers made their way to the drive way and physically escorted Kate away from the scene. She became hysterical, kicking and screaming while 3 officers tried to restrain her. “LET ME GO. LET ME GO”. She cried.
Ed emerged from out of the house and ran to the car. “oh my god”. He too was prevented by the police from getting inside.
As Kate and Ed stared at each other tearfully, paramedics began work on their twin daughters who had not shown signs of consciousness since they were taken out of the baking car.
More members of the public began surrounding their house as specialised chest compressions were being performed on the babies, whose tiny torso’s required an ad-hoc variant of the Heimlich manovere.
“oh my god...oh my god” kate screeched as she fell on her knees. Police officers surrounding her were doing their best to keep her comforted, but to little avail.
The scene was now one of frenzy. Kate’s hysterical screams, while on her knees was the backdrop to a dramatic situation.
The paramedics pushed and breathed in to the suffocated little bodies of Sara and Zara who had been in the car for over an hour, while the blaring 35 degree heat magnified through the glass. Their little hands and feet lay lifeless on the mat resting on the concrete.
Ed looked on helplessly and it soon dawned on him that he rolled up the windows of his new car back in the confusion of trying to unbuckle his seatbelt. Guilt from the pit of his stomach began to engulf the rest of his body.
“Please, just let me go. I have to help my babies” the tearful Kate begged the police officers barricading her. “Mam, please calm yourself, we are doing everything we can to help”. The senior officer at the scene said.
Two paramedics simultaneously pushed the chests of the helpless infants as the sun blazed down on the usually quiet street filled with affluent families.
After 10 minutes of resuscitation, both paramedics shook their heads at one another, got up and walked back to their ambulances.
Kate’s agonising scream could be heard from hundreds of feet away. She got up from her knees, and ran past the 2 burly policemen who had been guarding her. The policemen stepped aside, knowing nothing would keep a mother from her children at a time like this.
She picked up her 2 beautiful daughters and saw the lifeless look in their eyes. Their skin was burnt and despite having been out of the car for some time was still smouldering hot.
Ed joined her and was also inconsolable. He took the children from her hands when he began to see she was looking weak and as soon as he had done so, saw her faint in to unconsciousness.
