Chapter 13
Minnie set for nursery:
Dress with pink, yellow and white flowers
White knitted tights
Red wellies
Pink raincoat
Pink woolly hat
Straw basket
‘So, I don’t have to go to nursery at all, ever again and that is final?’ Max asked as Annie came into the kitchen the next morning. Ed didn’t say anything, he just wordlessly handed Annie her morning coffee.
‘Muhhhhhmmy, no nursery, you said. Remember you said,’ Max was telling her now in his bright, loud and cheerful morning voice.
And this was true, Annie recalled, as the caffeine began to clear the fog from her brain. She had told Max that he could stay at home with her, but maybe she hadn’t planned for this experiment in reverse psychology to begin today… exactly. There was So Much To Do.
‘Yes,’ Annie decided, even if she wasn’t sure how this was going to work yet. ‘Yes, Max, you can be at home with me. We’re not going to do anything exciting; we’re just going to do boring Mum stuff, but you can stay at home with me and the boring stuff.’
As Max’s hands went up in the air in a cheer, Annie could see an expression of slight doubt cross Minnie’s face.
Oh no, Annie needed to get onto this immediately, or she was going to have both twins on her hands.
‘Didn’t you say it was pottery class in nursery today?
’ she asked her little daughter. ‘I hope you can make something lovely for me that I can keep on my bedside table.’
‘I will, Mummy,’ Minnie said, eyes widening and smile back in place. ‘What would you like?’
Annie gave it some thought for a moment or two, more soothing mouthfuls of coffee going down. ‘What about, a little dish to keep my rings in, at night when I take them off.’
‘I love that idea!’ Minnie’s eyes widened. ‘Pink and white, because you love those colours. Or even gold, because they might even have some gold paint.’
‘That’s perfect!’ Annie enthused.
‘But that’s not fair if Minnie gets to make something for you today,’ came Max’s protest as he looked up at her and stuck out his bottom lip in a perfect pout. ‘I want to make something for you too!’
‘Well, Minnie is going to nursery,’ Annie reminded him, ‘where they have clay and paint and all those things.’ Maybe you could go along to that bloody expensive nursery too, Max! She was tempted to add.
‘We could get clay to have at home,’ came Max’s immediate suggestion.
Annie held the coffee cup up to her mouth and took a long sip to give her some time to think.
She had to be careful here. The idea of keeping Max at home was to make sure that he was bored.
He was supposed to start missing Minnie and missing having interesting things to do and friends to play with.
The idea was definitely not for Annie to run a mini nursery school for one.
Putting her cup down, she told him, ‘We’re going to be very busy today.
You are going to be helping me do all the things I need to do.
So, first, we need to get Minnie ready and then we have to take her off to nursery. ’
‘Yes!’ this instruction seemed to warrant another punch into the air for Max, who maybe still couldn’t quite believe that he was being let out of nursery so easily, and once again, Annie could see the flicker of doubt cross Minnie’s face.
Annie drained her mug, and tried to summon up all the energy and enthusiasm she would need to power through her day.
‘C’mon, everyone, time to give Daddy a huge hug and let’s get this show on the road!’ As these words stirred general movement and activity in the kitchen, Annie took a quick glance at her phone to catch up on what she’d missed in the past half an hour or so.
Hey Muuuum! Happy Tuesday!
Followed by two smiley faces.
I am up early today to get some practice in before class. It’s all good. Love ya Xxx
Annie could feel her shoulders drop by several centimetres. So, all was well with Owen, fabulous. That meant that for a few hours at least, she could relax on that front and direct her thoughts to all the many other fronts.
‘OK, kiddos, let’s hustle!’ Annie instructed.
A jam-packed ten minutes of busyness followed as bodies hurtled up and down the stairs in search of shoes, cardigans, water bottles…
then finally they were all set to get out of the door.
Annie suspected it wasn’t going to go well but took a glance at herself in the hallway mirror anyway – noooo, she wasn’t impressed.
This was far too Mum-on-the-run and way less woman-of-international-fashion-mystery than she would have liked.
She delayed proceedings for just a few moments to use the items that were kept on the shelf beneath the hallway mirror for exactly this purpose – she brushed through her hair, applied morale-boosting red lipstick, added a generous squirt of perfume and a slick pair of sunglasses.
There was a blink of sunshine out there, just enough to warrant sunglasses.
And in a total rush out of the door like this, when really, this coat was too short for that skirt, then sunglasses made everything better.
‘OK, kiddos,’ she told the twins, as she made these last-minute adjustments, ‘let’s go!’
* * *
‘I have run out of things to draw!’ Max hissed in an urgent whisper because he sort of knew he wasn’t supposed to talk to his mummy when she was On The Phone but he also really urgently needed something else to do.
Annie gave him a slight scowl but managed to scour the kitchen and find both another scrap of paper and a new crayon without interrupting the animated conversation she was having with Svetlana.
‘I’ve even been door-to-door leafleting my neighbourhood,’ she told her friend.
‘Because I know how much we could do with some more items – more everything really. We need volume and we need more items of real interest too. Everything you’ve donated is gorgeous, babes, absolutely gorgeous.
And your friends have been so generous too.
But Paula and I were trawling through a bit of a box of frogs the other evening.
We don’t need any more frogs, we need showstoppers, so I’ve been up and down my streets putting lovely flyers through the doors.
Maybe, I’ll get more printed up and do some other chichi neighbourhoods too.
‘Then models,’ Annie went on, not pausing for breath or for Svetlana’s take on her leafleting efforts.
‘I was hanging about outside the dance school up here doing a little bit of talent-spotting and I think I’ve got us a group of three dancers…
two of their mums have been in touch, so I think it’s a yes from them.
I think these gorgeous, poised, not at all performance-shy girls are going to join us for rehearsals next week.
I’m so looking forward to styling them, teaching them how to walk the catwalk and I’m excited, darling, because our fabulous, grown-up model girls will take them under their wings and I just know the end result is going to be fantastic…
‘And another thing,’ Annie went on, because this was a really good thought she’d had sometime between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. last night, ‘because there is so much retro clothing going on, maybe we need to really embrace it, not shy away from it. We need to style the girls, noughties style, nineties, hey, even eighties style if we have enough eighties clothing. It could be so much fun and… we need to get in touch with the TV and film companies. They’re bound to have wardrobe departments, wardrobe stylists all desperate for retro clothes,’ she enthused.
‘All those TV shows that are set in the eighties and nineties, where do they get those fantastic vintage clothes from? Probably amazing charity sales that are just like ours!’ Hardly pausing for breath, she went on, ‘I’m going to get our amazing assistant at the TV production company on the case.
She’ll know loads of TV and film companies and wardrobe people. I will get her on it.’
Max held up the scribbles he’d made all over his latest piece of paper. ‘More paper,’ he insisted, pouting once again. Annie held up a finger to convey ‘just one minute. I’ll be right with you.’ But that didn’t work.
‘More paper!!’ Max demanded again with emphasis. This time she held the finger to her lips as a shush. But now Max decided to stomp about the kitchen angrily.
‘So, what do you think? And what else should I be doing?’ Annie asked, surprised at how quiet Svetlana was. Usually, Svetlana had an opinion about everything and was never shy about giving it.
‘Annah…’ Svetlana began and her voice was low. ‘Annah…’ she began again.
‘Yes? What is it? You don’t sound happy, my darling.
You sound as if you don’t like any of these ideas, but honestly, the dance girls are beautiful – all muscle, grace and flexibility – they’ll make amazing models.
Scouring the neighbourhoods for more fashion goodies is a great idea and…
bringing in TV companies is all good too.
I know it. We’ve got to get the buzz going.
We need to have press coverage for this show…
pre-show as well as on the night, believe me, I’m already thinking about that. ’
‘Annah… all of these things are good,’ Svetlana declared. ‘You are always so hard working, so full of ideas, it is all good. But I have bad news…’
There was a pause. The kind of unexpected, loaded pause that was making Annie twitch slightly with anxiety. Once again, she held up the warning finger to Max who sighed at her and wondered off.
‘So… what’s the bad news?’ she managed. Her head was full of all kinds of possibilities, but she didn’t raise them, just gripped the phone tightly in her hands and tried not to care too much that Max had found a biro and had just scribbled right over the edge of the paper and onto her pale wooden kitchen worktop.