Seven years on …
Anita stood between the living room and hallway, calling up to the bedrooms at the top of the stairs.
“Twins…” she called up, pausing for a few well rehearsed seconds, then continued like a well prepared song,
“Scrambled eggs and toast on the table. Come and get it before it gets cold.”
She waited a while, listening for sounds of movement. This was the calm before the storm …then the rumble of heavy footed children gave way to a tornado of action as three boisterous seven year old boys burst through the door to came running, spiralling competitively down the stairs, arms and legs twisting in every direction. Among the free flying limbs was the addition of a hyperactive family dog who ever knowing the daily regime still tried to find his place in this descending, fury of action.
“Slow down…”
Anita said in way like she had said it a hundred times before into deaf ears. It was the same every morning Anita was amazed that no bones ever got broken. There were some bruises but never anything more than accidental scratches from the dog who loved this fast start to the day. Anita called after the tail end of the whirlwind,
“… and put your plates in the sink when you have finished … and DON’T put any food into Legs’ bowl.”
She then muttered under her breath,
“He’s getting too fat!”
Anita waited a while but there was no response, just the sound of chairs scraping across the stone floor. Nodding to herself with a small all-knowing smile creeping across her mouth she looked up the stairs again then called out
“Fifteen minute warning, Two!”
She turned and went back into the living room, looking around at the state of the room. Her smile left her face as she took a deep breath then went over to the sofas, picking up cushions, shaking them, plumping them up, then replacing them back on the seating in a neater row.
Meanwhile upstairs, fifteen year old, Two, groaned as an acknowledgment of his fifteen minute warning, already wakened by the call to his brothers in the next room and their subsequent fleeing downstairs at their most robust. Still half asleep, wrapped securely in his duvet, he rolled over to drop an arm out to secure his phone on the floor. His eyes opened to check for messages. Noting there were three messages waiting for him he smiled to himself and rolled back to enjoy the last fifteen minutes in the sanctuary of his crumpled yet warm bedding.
Back down stairs on the other side of the hallway a twelve year old, dressed perfectly in her school uniform emerged from her bedroom. She looked across to locate her mother in the living room then sidled up to her with her normal, loving affection.
Anita stopped her fussing over the cushions and put a comforting arm around her daughter.
“You, ok?” Anita asked.
The girl nodded then looked up and asked her pressing questions.
“Do you get your helper today? Will she make you happier, mummy?”
The girl’s face was earnest as she stared up to her mother.
“Oh darling!”
Anita kissed her daughter’s head.
“Don’t you worry about me I’ll be fine and Lisa and Dan arrive today but will be tired so we will give them a couple of days to sort themselves out”
She kissed her daughter’s head again
“Everything alright at school?”
The girl nodded as she edged away but as she was leaving the room she stopped and asked,
“Will she bring you your pears?“
“Pears?” Anita looked quizzically at her daughter
“I wondered who had been putting a pear in my bedroom each day.Was that you?”0
Anita really was confused and had assumed her husband had been leaving them for her as a treat as Anita really enjoyed pears but so did the whole household. Whenever Anita had pears delivered as part of the main weekly shop they were devoured by the boys before they even reached the large walk in pantry.
“Why … how?”
Still confused and still revisiting in her mind the chaos as the twins helped put the shopping away each week.
Tina , feeling proud of herself boasted,
“I bought them with my pocket money as daddy said a pear would help you with with looking after Seven and the whole family.”
Anita looked confused and her mind switched from the weekly shop to wondering why Christopher had said pears would help her. She was mulling over Tina’s words when suddenly something clicked in her mind.
“Tina, darling,” Anita moved across the room towards her daughter with her arms opening up ready to embrace her
“Did daddy say a pear or did he say an Au Pair?”
Anita stressed the appropriate words again.
“Au Pair!”
Now it was Tina’s turn to look confused as she joined her mother in another loving cuddle.
“Not sure …“
Anita squeezed Tina lovingly before letting go and went back to tidying up bits of paper and crisp bags from behind a sofa, putting them in a nearby bin. She looked back to Tina, her only daughter. She was growing fast and now at secondary school just hoped her older brothers would look out for her. Anita knew having two older brothers would help Tina make friends with girls who took a liking to Anita’s two handsome elder sons. Well, Anita thought them both handsome but it was her second son, Kristof or Number Two as he was more commonly referred to, that excited the girls at school. The number of love bites in their various shades of bluish bruising on his neck were a testimony to his attractiveness. Anita must get Christopher to talk to him again as these bites were appearing far too often now as his disappearance at the weekends and evenings increased. Junior, her first born, was so different. He really was his father’s son. He even looked like him when he was 18too.
“18″ Anita sighed again. The age she fell pregnant with him. His father had just turned 18 and what a foroore that caused. Although it should never of happened the pregnancy and their steadfastness at keeping the child had been the making of this stalwart couple. They weren’t to know that then and faced the hostility of his family, the displeasure of the school and the reluctant acceptance of her parents. Actually, Junior differed from his father in this one area as Junior had so far shown little interest in girls preferring to spend his time learning from his father as he too wished to be a doctor but perhaps not in the same field. He also had to overcome his fear of blood as it wasn’t a good trait for the doctor to be the one that fainted at the sight of blood.
Snapping out of her delicious memories of Christopher and her as a couple back those seventeen/ eighteen years ago she called out to Tina,
“Thank you for my pears. They were a lovely thought but no more wasting your pocket money on me.”
What a thoughtful child Tina had turned out to be. She was so good with all her brothers too. Even the twins took notice of her and she would discipline them if they went too far and always ensured they did their main family chores, looking after the chickens and with the daily collection of the eggs. They were also supposed to look after the two geese that patrolled the garden and driveway but even the twins were thwarted by these troublesome geese. It was only Anita and number Two who could cope with their funny ways. The geese, Henry and Henrietta had a habit of attacking shoelaces which was partly why the twins kept their distance – that and the noise they made.
Junior was the next to appear.
He was holding the baby, wrapped in a pale yellow blanket. He approached his mother and said in loud whisper,
“He’s just about to fall asleep. Do you want me to put him down or do you want to do it? “
Junior waited for a response but as none was forthcoming he took it upon himself to settle the baby in the cot just inside his parent’s room on the far side of the living room.
“There,” he said with a proud smile on his face, “You should grab a break while you can. Dad’s just coming”
With that Junior left the sleeping baby and went to collect his requirements for the day from his bedroom. His room was also across the hallway and next to Tina’s.
It seemed the house kept sprouting bedrooms as the number of children increased. The two bedrooms and Tina’s en suite had originally been Anita’s and Christopher’s bedroom suite but they had had to give up that amount of room to give the children more space. They now slept in the converted sun room or conservatory. The baby currently had his cot in with them while it was debated whether to convert the linen cupboard into yet another bedroom or put the two oldest boys together, given that Junior would be off to university in the next few months and his room would be empty most of the year. The accommodation arrangements were still under discussion so in the meantime the baby slept in his cot with his parents.
Meanwhile, sure enough, looking a little flustered and pulling on a tired, old jacket, the man of the house appeared. He and Junior had been trying to settle the baby down in his office to give Anita time to sort out breakfast for the family.
Nodding to the cot in the bedroom and still trying to get his jacket on he asked,
“Will you be alright with him? “
He paused without getting an answer then continued,
“I’ll be back as fast as I can”.
Jacket on, he felt for the keys in the pocket, then looking around grabbed them from next to a fruit bowl with no pears but plenty of apples.
Still not getting an answer Christopher set off out of the house towards the car in the driveway, leaving Anita still trying to tidy up from last night’s tele viewing.
A few minutes later Junior re-emerged and called down the hallway,
“Your school taxi is setting off shortly. If you’re not there in ten minutes you’ll have to find another way to get there”.
Momentarily, there was silence, then the floorboards in the hallway, started to rumble, followed by the muted sounds of three seven year olds trying to get through doorways meant for one.The twins were in full vocal disharmony as the tumbled along the hallway to the front door.
“Shhh” Junior tried to get their attention.
“Be careful, the baby’s sleeping in there “
His words went unheeded as elbows and knees were flying in all directions and eventually all three fell out the front door onto the gravelled drive, followed by the faithful fun loving hound.
Anita looked towards the sleeping baby, willing him to continue sleeping.
She walked through the living room to the hallway and over to the open front door. The fresh air felt good. Leaning out she enquired,
“You all got your lunchboxes?”
There was no answer.
She repeated her words with more force.
“Have you got your lunchboxes?”
And still the boys continued squabbling.
Anita could feel the pressure welling up, her serene nature being rocked and she could feel the magma of anger climbing .
Digging her nails into her own hands she shouted out
“TWINS! STOP RIGHT NOW!”
She paused
“STOP!”
The boys stopped their antics to turn towards their mother. They looked dishevelled already. Anita could feel sympathy for their teacher this morning and was about to ask again about the lunchboxes when a crying could be heard from her bedroom.
Her shoulders slumped and tears began to well up.
“What is it mummy?”
Four enquired with all three of them turning on a charm offensive, wide eyed and innocent.
Anita felt she had lost already and turned to leave the fighting boys.
“Just make sure you have your lunchboxes with you!”
It was the sound of reluctant acceptance of defeat.
Anita walked slowly back to where she had been working. It was beginning to be a bit too much. Thank goodness she would be getting help. Then she remembered the pears that she had kept finding on her pillow.,She had assumed it was Christopher, the children’s father and her long suffering husband. She had assumed it was him but instead it was her beautiful, kind daughter who yet again had made a simple mistake. Anita laughed to herself thinking about Tina, number Three or Christina as she was officially named; she laughed thinking about other words with which Tina got confused. Was it a medical condition, like being partially deaf, or was Tina not as bright as her brothers?
Anita just knew she loved Tina no matter what caused these laughable misunderstandings. Anita knew she was lucky with all seven children. She was happy with Christopher and their ever growing family but Anita knew something was missing.
She was more than a baby making vessel. This last pregnancy was yet another mistake, a mistake from their ongoing very healthy sex life. She knew many couples had settled into a less active relationship but she and Christopher still couldn’t keep their hands off each other. For those who said it would never last they must be squirming in their dull, loveless lives.
It was Christopher and Anita forever … just no more children please she begged of herself as she went to check on the grizzling baby in his cot. She smiled down on him and a tear fell onto his blanket. She was going to get help this time.
She knew she needed it. She was not Super Woman. She was just a tired, exhausted mother who felt her youth and energy slipping away.