Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Although nervous about seeing Sarah again after so long, Louisa had been excited too.
As it was Richard’s idea to contact her, she hadn’t been sure it would happen.
She’d thought he was playing with her emotions.
He often did that, promised her something and then didn’t follow through.
But his thoughts about it giving her a boost, as she’d been feeling so low lately, were nice to hear and it made a welcome change.
As soon as Louisa had seen Sarah, it was as if their time apart melted away.
She hadn’t realised until then how much she had missed her.
They had been so close when they were growing up.
Although there was an age gap between them, they’d been through a lot together and it had made them stronger.
If it weren’t for that stupid argument they’d had when she’d last visited Derby, when Sarah kept saying she’d abandoned her, things might have been so different.
But they had both inherited their mother’s stubborn streak and after harsh words had been said, neither of them had wanted to wave the white flag of surrender.
The silence had continued until it felt too long to get in touch anyway.
And every time she was thinking of going to Derby to talk to her, Richard would have something he needed to do, or he’d treat her to a day out.
She presumed he wanted time with her whenever he could fit it around his work.
His painting was so important to him so she didn’t blame him then.
Louisa recalled a time when she and Sarah were inseparable as children, even more so when Dad left and they were stuck with looking after Mum, rather than the other way around.
She wasn’t a caring mum. All she was interested in was where her next drink would come from.
Sometimes Louisa thought she forgot she had two children.
They fended for themselves mostly, even though lots of times they went hungry. They’d get home from school to no food in the house and a note to say Mum would be back later. They never knew where she would be, or who with, more to the point. Her one true love in life was alcohol.
Louisa had followed her once or twice and would see her with other men.
She started drinking herself for a few months, when she felt she couldn’t cope with the responsibility of looking out for her and her sister all the time.
After using vodka to block out her horrible life, she understood why Mum drank so much.
Alcohol gave her an edge and numbed the feeling of hopelessness.
But she soon realised that she didn’t want to be reliant on it.
Mum brought home lots of men, strangers who she assumed used her for sex.
Luckily nothing ever happened with her and Sarah, although there was a time when Sarah started to drink too.
She would have been about fifteen. Louisa was still at home at that point, still the parent to her.
But she was staying at her friend, Martin’s, flat too, to get away from the house. It wasn’t a nice place to be.
Had she known she and Sarah would lose touch when she left for Mapleton, and that her life would end up how it was, she might have thought twice about leaving. But she was young and in love. Naive to a fault.
That same night, Sarah lay in bed unable to sleep.
It was so quiet she couldn’t settle, which seemed ridiculous really.
But she was used to much more noise than the occasional hoot of an owl.
She wondered if it had taken Louisa long to settle when she had first moved to Mapleton.
Sarah couldn’t wait to explore the village, to see what it had to offer a twenty-year-old city girl.
Seeing Louisa today, you wouldn’t have thought they hadn’t been in touch for so long.
Looks wise, Louisa had changed a little, but she seemed to be the caring sibling that Sarah remembered.
So why hadn’t she kept in touch with her, or her friends?
Sarah could understand her not contacting Mum because they didn’t get on, but to leave her little sister all that time?
She would ask her about that when the time was right. First she wanted to settle in, get her feet under the table, so to speak.