A Bird in Flight | ✔︎

Chaoter twenty-two: Game over

Ensley

I HEAR THE FRONT DOOR open, which is followed by my mother's voice, oddly crisp and sharp: "Girls! Get into the dining room! I need to talk to you!"

"What's going on, Ensley?" Diana whispers as we get to our feet, tossing the Barbies we were playing with back into the toy box.

"I have no idea. Lets go find out," I say, gently tugging at the crook of her arm and half-dragging her out from the playroom and into the dining room where Tate and Rihanna are already seated, looking nervous. We aren't used to confrontation or being told off by our mother...probably because I am basically the leader of this house and am around more than half the time she is.

"Sit." She points to the two spare seats but Diana climbs on my lap instead.

To my surprise, she's trembling. My thoughts drift away to when Callan was her age and being beaten till he was lying on deaths door. My chest aches for him.

"Mom, what's going on?" I ask in the most polite tone I can manage.

"I want you to meet my sister and her husband," she blurts out, a wide smile filling out the age lines in her face.

"Like a holiday?" Diana says excitedly, lurching off my lap and dancing around our mother cheering.

Me? I'm not that thrilled. "And will you be going, Mother?"

She looks slightly uncomfortable, her expression a dead giveaway. "I-I have some work to do back at home. They live on a farm though so I'm sure you'll all love it!"

I grit my teeth, biting back a retort as I lift my eyes to the ceiling, frustration ringing my ears. "When will we be leaving and how long will we be staying for?" I'm practically spitting the questions out at her.

"You will leave in two days and be staying for a month," she replies.

"A month!" Rihanna gasps, her eyes wide with shock. "Mom, what about school? What about my friends?"

"Good Lord, girl, I didn't buy you a one-way ticket to Mars," my mom says, exasperated. "I have sorted it all out with your teachers and they will be emailing your homework and study worksheets to you so you won't fall behind."

Tate frowns, not looking as excited as I expected. "Does Aunt Bertha have kids we can play with?"

My mom shakes her head, biting her bottom lip as she lifts her eyes to ceiling, oddly fighting back tears. "She's infertile, baby."

"What's that mean?" Diana demands insensitively.

"It means she can't have kids," I explain, cutting across my mother before she will say anything that could ruin her young daughters innocence. "Can't have babies."

"Oh, so that's why we're staying for so long," Rihanna says aloud.

"Well, why haven't we visited them before," I snap, slightly irritated.

"Because they only just bought the farm and they were hoping that you would help them," my mom tells us, looking flustered. Not used to so much attention, I suppose. "Don't stress, girls, I planned it all with your Aunt Bertha just this morning. It's all sorted."