you’re only a day away
for the @synth-recharge-challenge prompt that I missed in week… 4, I think? ‘why didn’t you tell me sooner?’
••••
The baby is ten days old, and Mattie, despite the ordeal, is beginning to regain her strength. Visitors are allowed to stay a little longer, speak a little louder. She no longer feels like a china doll. She’s still tired most of the time, but she’s aware enough to be annoyed about it now, so that’s definitely a plus.
She surfaces from an unplanned nap to find that Sophie and Toby have left her bedside, leaving just her dad there, holding the baby close to his chest. He flits his gaze away from Mattie as her eyes focus, as if trying to pretend he hadn’t been watching her sleep.
“Hi, Grandad,” she murmurs.
“Hi, love,” he says.
“Is she okay?”
He shifts Amelia slightly, so Mattie can see her face. She’s asleep, eyes fluttered shut in that gentle bliss peculiar to the young, who know no better. “She’s fine. No sign of hair yet, so there’s still hope.”
“Hope for what?”
“Ginger. Skips a generation, doesn’t it. That’s why you three missed out.”
“Escaped, you mean.”
“You just wait. Little Mimi’s going to wear the Hawkins flames like a crown, aren’t you sweetheart?”
Amelia makes no reply, of course. Joe smiles soppily down at her, the picture of grandfatherly pride. “That’s right. You stay asleep. Dream of carrots.”
Mattie watches them for a moment, her father and her daughter, and tries to see a completeness in the image, tries to ignore the obvious missing piece.
“I wish Mum could see her,” she whispers.
Her father looks up, as if surprised for a second. Then his face clears, crinkles back into a smile. “Well, there’s always tomorrow.”
“What?”
“She had her appeal hearing last week, Mats. As of tomorrow, your mother’s a free woman.”
Mattie’s eyes open wide, her heart skips a beat. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Last week?” Mattie echoes, dazed a little. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
He chuckles. “You’ve been pretty out of it. Sophie actually did tell you once, and you replied something about dolphins. Got quite stressed about it. Fred put us under orders not to get you too excited after that, so don’t get me in trouble now. Deep breaths.”
A warm feeling spreads through Mattie. She feels a sensation in her face that’s suspiciously similar to the gathering of tears. “I can’t believe it. What changed their minds?”
Joe shrugs. “Oh, you know. This and that. The pressure groups really stepped it up. The Mia Foundation held a bake sale…”
Mattie rolls her eyes. “Stop it. I can’t reach to hit you.”
“You wouldn’t dare, not while I’ve got precious cargo,” he says smugly, looking pointedly down at his granddaughter. “But alright. It was Niska, of course. She called in a few favours. Said the time was right.”
Mattie grimaces inwardly. She doesn’t want to think about what Niska might mean by that, why “the time” for her mother’s release should coincide so closely with the birth of Niska’s heralded messiah.
No, she’ll let that slide for now.
“Anything else I’ve missed?” she asks wryly. “Toby’s not booked that New Zealand ticket without telling me, has he?”
“No, thank God. Now that Renie’s back in the picture he seems to have forgotten all about their golden ratio.”
“Good.”
Joe looks fondly at her. “You’re looking much better, you know. Practice a nice surprised face for when we get the all-clear to tell you about your mum.”
Mum. The thought is so wonderful. Knowing that she’ll see her tomorrow feels like a vanishing dream, some mythical oasis that will be whisked away from her as soon as she comes within reach.
Amelia blinks awake and begins to loudly protest her hunger strike. Joe hands the baby over, and as she settles down to feed Mattie can’t help but feel that the worst is behind her now, that after the trauma of the early delivery and the worry about the unprecedented bloodchange and the constant fear that everything might fall apart between newborn hybrid heartbeats…. Everything is starting to look a little brighter.
“Who knows,” says Joe quietly, “Maybe a bit of ginge will come through overnight, specially for Grandma.”
Still unable to swat him with the back of her hand, Mattie makes do with an icy stare.
