[we'll stand forever this way]

[2005-04-03] - [12:58 p.m.]

[face up against the glass...]

[The little girl watches the lion through the glass, fiddling with her pigtails as she stares at the magnificent beast.
‘Mommy,’ she calls, beckoning her mother to see the wild cat she loves so much.
Since the family of two, soon to be four, had moved from America to Colchester, they had visited the zoo so many times, and each times the small girl had stood against the lions cage and admired him.
‘Abby!’ calls back her mother. ‘It’s time to go sweetie, we have to get back to Patrick before dinner time.’
Abby runs over to her mum, blonde pigtails flying backwards as she runs. She bumps into the bump on her mother’s stomach, and strokes it for a moment, before grabbing the woman’s hand as they walk away from the zoo together.
~*~
‘Abby,’ says Patrick patiently. ‘Can you please move all your toys from my chair honey? Thanks!’
He sits down gratefully, and pulls little Abigail onto his lap. He undoes her pigtails, and runs a tired hand through her curly hair as she closes her eyes peacefully. She drifts away to the land of nod, and her mother comes to sit down next to Patrick.
‘I can’t wait for our baby,’ he whispers in her ear, placing a hand on her bump. ‘I can feel him kicking you know,’ he says, half jokingly but half serious. ‘We got ourselves a nice footie player Jools.’
Julia smiles at him, too tired to laugh as she normally does.
‘How do you know it isn’t our little ballet dancer, hey?’ she jokes.
‘Because if it’s a girl you’re going to call it something stupid like Anna-Bella, and we are not having a kid called that!’
‘It’s a sweet name,’ she replied, brushing Abigail’s hair off her face. ‘We went to the zoo again; Abby saw the lion for the 50 millionth time. She never gets tired of it.’
‘Talking of tired, you look as if you’re about to drop!’ Patrick comments, kissing her softly on the lips. ‘Do you want to make it an early night? Abby’s obviously tired too!’ he laughs, standing up, and making sure she doesn’t fall.
‘You know, she still doesn’t call you Dad,’ murmurs Julia, sounding half asleep already.
‘I don’t mind, it’s not like I’m her Dad,’ answers Patrick. ‘Now let’s get you two up to bed!’
‘Patrick, I think my waters have broken!’ comes her weak voice from the chair. ‘Call an ambulance, please!’
He spins around where he stands, and Abby whimpers as she half awakes.
‘Mommy?’ she asks automatically, ignoring the fact that she lies in Patrick’s arms. It’s like in her world, the only one of importance is Julia, and she refuses to leave her side as the paramedics take her away. Patrick drives behind, following them all the way there.
Neither of them leaves Julia as she goes into labour, screaming and crying, begging for it to end. But then at the end of it all, there’s a different cry, of the small child lying in the mid-wife’s arms.
‘It’s a baby girl!’ exclaimed Patrick with the joy of a first time father. ‘We have a little daughter Jools!’
‘Mommy, I got a sister!’ added Abigail, jumping around the room, causing her mother to look slightly concerned about her elder daughter’s safety.
‘Abby, can you calm down for me?’ encouraged Patrick, lifting up Abigail, and sitting her next to Julia on the hospital bed.
‘Mommy, what’s her name?’ asked Abigail, her attention now fixed on the child in her mother’s arms.
‘Anna-Bella,’ replies her mother. ‘Just like I always said it would be,’ she adds, smiling in Patrick’s direction.
‘Well, I guess she can always be known as Anna,’ he comments gruffly, trying to look angry but the grin covering his face gives away his true feelings about this magical child. His child.
‘My Anna,’ says Abigail affectionately, and both adults know these two will get along just fine.
‘Abby & Anna,’ whisper both together. ‘What a pair!’
~*~
‘Come on Anna,’ yells Abby impatient for the younger child to catch up with her.
Anna-Bella runs towards her older sister, grabbing her head as she reaches her. Both children run together, coming to a standstill at the lion’s enclosure for the first time since Anna-Bella’s birth almost two years ago.
‘This is my lion,’ says Abigail. ‘His name is Patrick, like your Daddy. This is where your Mommy and Daddy met,’ she adds as an after thought.
‘It’s Mummy,’ teases Anna-Bella. ‘You said Mommy instead of Mummy!’
‘All right Anna-Bella,’ teases Abigail back, calling Anna-Bella by her hated first name.
Anna-Bella pulls a face at Abigail, and turns back to the lion. Patrick and Julia sit some way back, talking softly to each in that sweet tone you so often hear in romantic films.
And, as if they can know what each other are thinking, in perfect unison, Abby and Anna press their faces up against the glass, and smile into the cage that holds their lion.
]

[near] | [far]