Once more, api batde, Little One.
From your loving father,
Isaac xx
The Meeting; the Mirrors
Anna could hear Debbie Cheese calling out to her, ‘Ready when you are, Anna!’ She’d already encouraged her to come, a few times, but there seemed to be no movement from the bedroom.
Debbie knocked gently on the door. ‘We really must make a move, Anna. Can I come in?’
She pushed the door open and saw Anna in her bra and pants, glued to the spot in front of the mirror, with sheer panic in her eyes.
‘Umm. Look, I don’t think I can go after all.’ Anna looked firmly at the floor.
‘OooKaay,’ replied Debbie, ‘but why?’
‘Because … because I don’t know how to be a person. I’m about to have the most important meeting in my life. I’m meeting my daughter for the first time. Who the hell is she going to meet? I have no idea. What is she expecting? Someone mumsy in a floral dress? Or a rock chick in a leather jacket? Who am I anyway?’
‘You are Anna.’
‘Who the hell is that?’ she shouted. ‘I knew who Julius’s bloody wife was. I knew that costume. Anything bland and expensive that I could disappear into the background in. Anything that would allow him to be the peacock up front! It was my job to disabloodyppear!’
On this day Anna had ripped her way through her wardrobe, discarding all the dull things. And there were many: a mountainous pile of personality-sucking beigy-grey unremarkable clobber was soon going to be gracing the rails of the nearest charity shop. To see the fabric slag heap of her past so starkly in front of her, indicating the alarming extent of desuetude her poor personality had fallen into, owing to lack of respect or attention or love, was sobering.
‘That’ – Anna pointed at the sad pile – ‘is the person I’ve been for ages, got totally stuck in it, but I don’t want Florence to meet … THAT.’
The two women stood side by side in silence as they looked at the pile.
‘Do you like what I’m wearing?’ offered Debbie.
‘Umm, yes, s’pose so. Looks … normal.’ Anna clocked that Debbie was in some plain black trousers and a simple shirt with a jaunty cherry design on. Nothing too challenging. Nothing too boring. She was shocked when all of a sudden Debbie started unbuttoning her shirt and pulling down her trousers.
‘Right, put these on. We’re close enough in size, come on.’
‘What! What are you doing? I can’t—’
‘Put them on, Anna. You can work out who you are another time. You’re not going to miss out on meeting your daughter after eighteen years because of some trousers. Come on. Please.’
Anna hesitated for a couple of seconds. Debbie was now down to her bra and pants too. It was mighty odd, the two of them standing opposite each other like this. Not so odd that it prevented Anna from noticing that Debbie had a very good pink balcony bra on, encasing lovely small full bosoms. Anna jolted herself out of that surprising observation and took Debbie’s offer of clothes from her outstretched hand. She clambered into them immediately, while Debbie rooted around in the old boring Anna pile and found the least awful blouse and trousers, and started to re-dress. Within thirty seconds, both of them were looking in the mirror.
Debbie spoke first, indicating Anna’s reflection. ‘Ideal. Yeah?’
‘Yes. I think so. Yes,’ Anna agreed, adding, ‘But you look sort of awful.’
‘I don’t give a toss. Let’s go.’ And with that, Debbie took Anna’s arm firmly and led her out of the door with the kind of assurance only someone in the police force can wield, the kind that lets you know, without doubt, that you will be exiting right now. You will.
Meantime, Minnie and Lee were also in front of a full-length mirror in the London hotel room the police had organized for them. The meeting was to be held in this same hotel, in a private room, so Minnie and Lee had travelled to London on the train with strict orders to stay in constant contact with Hope, who’d armed them with a list of hospitals and consultants near their hotel. They were only due to be gone for twenty-four hours, but Hope and Minnie hadn’t been parted before, and it was strange and difficult for both of them. Especially in these circumstances.
Hope told her, ‘I believe, in every fibre of my body, everything I told you, Min. You and I are mum and daughter forever, come what may. And by the way, look ’pon this face, girl, do I look threatened? Nah! Go on now. Do what you gotta do. I’m right behind you, OK?’
But she knew that this meeting was giant.
For everyone …
Minnie wore a bright green dress that gathered under the breast and flowed out, allowing for the increasing bump that was Bean. She put on a short denim jacket, which she’d customized herself, and tied her mass of curls up into a bright red bandanna so that they were contained around the sides of her head, but blurted out in a messy explosion on top. This was the authentic Minnie. Bold and colourful.
Minnie knew exactly who she was.
Nevertheless, she was nervous. Would she be the person Anna was hoping for? How could she be the person Anna was hoping for, when she didn’t know Anna?
Lee was next to her. In every way.
He reassured her, ‘Hey, Curls, you look gorgeous – course you do, you’re my bird, incha, and I wouldn’t be with any ol’ minger.’
‘Umm, thanks? I think!’ She thumped him.
‘You’ll do all right today, Min, how could she not love you? Everyone who meets you loves you. And listen, if she turns out to be
