34
Two Years Later
“Remember that time we drew a moustache on Grant’s face while he was asleep?” Vi asked.
The prison visiting room was as stark as it had ever been, but it didn’t impact me so much these days.
I frowned, thinking back. “Was it Grant? Or one of the others?”
Vi shrugged. “Not sure. It was fun, though, wasn’t it?”
I laughed, remembering the shared triumph, both of us stifling our giggles as we backed away and made for our rooms. The consequences of our prank hadn’t been fun, though. Not fun at all.
But these days I could shrug that kind of memory aside as quickly as it came. I wasn’t traumatised by the past any longer, not since I’d talked it all out during my therapy sessions and moved on from it.
Vi was still talking about our troubled childhood to the prison counsellor, though, so even though I’d moved on from it, as far as I was concerned, she could talk about it all she liked.
“Did Matt drive you here today?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes. We’ve got to get back quickly. Inga’s baby’s due any day. We’re taking care of Noah while she’s in hospital.”
“Rather you than me.”
“Noah’s no trouble at all.”
“Unlike me, when we were kids, then?”
Gradually, the old sarcasm and bitterness had left Vi’s voice when she made these kinds of remarks. I’d like to hug the prison counsellor for that.
“You were all right most of the time,” I said. “Except for when you were a pain in the arse.”
“Once the big sister, always the big sister.”
“Precisely. Speaking of which, have you made any plans for what you’re going to do when you get out of here next month?”
The old Vi would probably have scowled and told me it was none of my business. The new Vi told me she was thinking about applying for an apprenticeship at a national park.
“The outdoor life, huh?” I said, thinking only very briefly about Mum and her prize-winning vegetables. “That sounds brilliant, Vi.”
“Got your seal of approval, has it?”
“It has. Not that you need it. You’re your own person, aren’t you? You can do what you want.”
She caught my eye. Smiled.
“Well,” I said. “Within reason.”
“How was she?” Matt asked when I joined him in the car.
I nodded, reaching over to kiss him. “She was good,” I said. “Pretty positive.”
“That’s great,” he said, and I smiled at him, noticing that his suntan was fading now that he was no longer travelling back and forth between the UK and Barcelona.
I was going to say something about liking his new pasty-white look, but my phone rang. Inga.
“Everything okay?”
“If you count being in utter agony being okay,” she said with a groan. “How quickly can you get here? Harry’s packing me a bag. This baby’s coming early. We’ll have to drop Noah off at Harry’s mum’s for you to collect him from there.”
Beside me, Matt started the car.
“We’ll be there before you know it,” I said. “You can count on us.”
“I bloody well hope so,” she said.
I smiled. “See you soon, darling. Deep breaths. We’re on our way.”
Last time, with Noah, it had just been the two of us. Nowadays, Inga had a much bigger support network. We both did.
As Matt steered the car into traffic to head for home, Beryl’s smiling face filled my mind. The words she’d written in her journal. I’m so blessed.
Me too, I thought. Me too.