20. Claudia
Blood was seeping out of a gash on Gisele’s temple, her colour was pale, and the two men were doing nothing but talking in hushed whispers. Actually, they seemed to be arguing more than talking one of them looked really pissed off with his buddy. Whatever they were bickering about I didn’t care, I was more concerned about my sister.
“Hey!” I called out to the men, “My sister needs medical attention in case you haven’t noticed which by the way is your fault. I need to get the first aid kit before she faints over here.” I demanded, doing my best to keep the tremor I felt all the way to my toes at bay. How the hell was this happening to us, in Blessings of all places. The most excitement around here is caused by either my mother or dad for cripes sakes. Now here I was with my sister and mother in a hostage situation with two armed dirtbags.
One of the dirtbags, the angrier one, pointed at me with his gun. “You got a big mouth lady, one more word from you and I’ll shoot you for the hell of it.”
Instinctually my hands wanted to cover my belly, but I refrained, knowing that if they found out I was pregnant they could use me as leverage to get out of town. On the other hand, I found his rudeness unnecessary and extremely uncouth. Being a Blessing woman meant not taking bullshit from anyone even if they had guns.
“You know my husband is going to pretty annoyed with you for making his tea late tonight. Not to mention her man,” I paused to point to Gisele. “He is the town cop, and he kills people for a living.”
“Yeah!” Mum agreed getting up from the floor where they forced her to sit, she of course complained that she had on her expensive new slacks. “My old man isn’t going to be too thrilled that he will have to buy me a new pair of Hounds Tooth slacks either.”
My mouth gapped open, completely stupefied what mum said.
“Are you serious right now Georgina? You’re worried about your ugly tweed pants while you youngest is bleeding out in front of you?” I asked totally appalled at my mother.
“Umm, Claude I’m not exactly bleeding out,” Gisele interrupted in that diplomatic tone that really gave me the shits.
“You always take her side!” I accused her totally forgetting about the gravity of our predicament all because of my mother.
So typical of her.
“I do not!” Gisele disagreed hotly, “It is always you and Elle on one side and me all alone on the other.”
“Oh, here we go,” I said dryly rolling my eyes. “Gisele you always play the baby sister card. This is no different than the time when Greg Farris asked me out and you accused me of stealing him from you?”
“You were dating Josh! I had no one to take me to the dance,” Gisele cried indignantly she even managed to squeeze out a few tears too. “You knew how hard it was for me to get boys interested in me because of the curse.”
“Girls, girls, girls,” Mum interjected calmly, putting a halt to me giving Gisele a mouthful for bringing up the curse. “Gisele if I remember correctly, you did have a date for that dance, I believe I helped with that.”
Gisele gasped in horror while I giggled the reminder of who her date had been totally forgotten.
“Stop laughing at me!” Gisele yelled at me, then turned an evil glare at our mother. “You set me up with the grandson of one of your knitting club friends. He was two years younger than me. I was humiliated in front of the whole graduating class!”
Just as I was about to retaliate a can of soup came flying passed me, missing my head by a hair.
Indignant and mad as hell, I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be a loaf of sliced bread and hurled it with all my might at Gisele. The momentum caused the bag to break open sending slices of white bread over Gisele and one of the dirtbags.
“Cow!” Gisele sneered at me.
“Mole-face!” I snapped back.
“Enough!” Dirt bag without the attitude yelled suddenly calling a halt to the free for all between me and Gisele. Briefly.
“Jesus Christ you women have me wishing I was back in prison for fucks sake!”
Without warning or comprehension on my part, and quite frankly with much humiliation, the harshness and the horrible man’s mean voice, not to mention Gisele wrongly accusing me of stealing her high school beau, I burst into sobbing tears. Ugly, snotty, emotional hormonal tears.
“Claudia Chanel are you pregnant!” my mother cried out not so much questioning me rather more accusing me. Once again forgetting that we were in danger, we continued to ignore the armed men and did what we did best. Bicker.
“Mother!” Gisele shouted hotly, “She wants to keep it a secret!” Again, shouted hotly and with so much indignation even though I was furious with both of them, a giggle escaped my lips at the sheer absurdity of the moment. Criminals break into our shop, take us hostage and here we were arguing and throwing insults at one another while men with guns look on.
If this wasn’t Blessing women at their best, then change my name and call me Billy Bob. Not that I felt sorry for the men witnessing a family squabble. I didn’t. They forced themselves into our shop, hurt my sister, wave guns in our faces, basically traumatising us and the rest of my family.
The fight went out of me, I saw the fight leaving Gisele who was now crying quietly on the floor. The only thing we had now was the hope that Gissy’s quick thinking when Elle came to the door, and that Elle understood and was right now getting Jamison to come kick these two dirtbags back to prison.
My mind suddenly went to my Josh. If indeed he knew what was happening, was he scared, worried? Would he miss me if I got shot?
Good lord these pregnancy hormones!
Pulling myself somewhat together, I chased away the pathetic musings then turned to my mum with a watery smile.
“I didn’t mean to keep it from you mumma bear, I just … Josh and I … shit! I’m not ready to be wrapped in cotton wool yet.”
Mum stared at me, her mouth gapping. “And you think I’m going to do that?”
“Yes!” I cried at the same time as Gisele, our mindreading abilities still bang on despite our hostage situation issue. Mum tried to look hurt or take a back, but she wasn’t fooling me.
“Georgina, you know damn well that is exactly what you’re going to do. It’s a miracle that Josh hasn’t already.” I said truthfully, saying out loud what I kept to myself since the stick turned pink. The fear that what happened in the past was going to take the bliss, joy, and beauty away from my pregnancy. The last thing I wanted was to go through the next eight months being treated like a fragile piece of porcelain. Everyone holding their breath waiting for … for it to happen again.
I wanted to have a normal pregnancy, I was looking forward to my first food craving, my first morning vomit. All the firsts and everything in between. What I didn’t want was to be put on watch, told not to eat this or that and I didn’t want anyone to put restrictions on me except me. The trouble with a close loving family was you couldn’t have secrets, nor could you have an opinion without have someone argue with you on it.
A loud bang broke through my mental silence, making me scream louder than Gisele on her best dramatic day. In front of me was the gunman that complained about us arguing, holding his gun in the air above his head. He had fired a round into the ceiling presumably to shut us up. Again.
“You’re going to pay for that!” Gisele growled looking outraged at the man, pieces of plaster falling down on the floor at his feet.
“Lady, I already fucking am,” he growled back, shaking his shoulders trying to dislodge small flakes of the ceiling from him. I was about to make a comment of my own about the damage when a flash of a something from the back room caught my attention.
Something familiar.
It was Josh.