Page 102 of Such a Good Couple
‘It’s so much stuff, though.’
‘She’s probably not taking the bins out that much,’ Clara said. ‘It’s only her and the girls.’
As if summoned by her words, a clatter above told them the others were up. Clara grinned and Annie’s tension eased. Clara was probably right; kids snacked practically continuously, after all.
Annie slipped over to quietly close the kitchen door and she and Clara stepped back. Annie looked up, noticing that the footsteps above had stopped and low voices were buzzing. Annie flicked her eyes to Clara, who leaned towards her. ‘If the girls come down first we have to not startle them. But if they’re anything like my kids, they’ll go in to Maggie before they come down. Even Josh won’t go downstairs without me in the morning and he’s ten. Dodi and Essie are only eight.’
A voice overhead pulled their attention back to the ceiling.
‘Mam …?’ Either Dodi or Essie was obviously waking Maggie, and Annie readied herself for the surprise.
‘Mammy?’ The reedy voice pitched up. Annie cocked her head to listen. ‘Mammy …’ they heard again. Then a strange prolonged sound.
Footsteps suddenly pounded down the stairs and landed hard in the hall. Annie rushed to the kitchen door and pulled it open. At the front door, Dodi was frantically straining to reach the latch and then kicking the door in frustration.
‘Let meout,’ she screamed. ‘Let me out.’
Annie rushed forward. She could hear the little girl’s laboured breathing and somewhere upstairs a faint mewling sound.
‘Dodi!’ Annie shouted, grabbing her small shoulders with a vague awareness that Clara was dashing up the stairs behind her.
‘Mam’s not saying anything.’ Dodi started shaking.
Annie, trying to sound as calm as she could, asked, ‘Where is she?’
Dodi trembled as some kind of shock set in. Clara shouted from upstairs, ‘Get up here, Annie. Call someone.’ Annie could hear sobs clutching at Clara’s words. ‘Call the guards, Annie. Now!’
Annie pulled out her phone as she took the stairs two at a time. ‘The guards?’ she said, her thoughts reeling. ‘You mean an ambulance, no?’ She stopped dead at the top upon seeing Clara crouched outside the open door of the bathroom holding her head.
‘It’s …’ Clara gasped. ‘I think it’s too late for an ambulance, Annie.’
In that instant, scalding terror shot up through Annie’s body and her vision grew dim as she staggered forward.
‘What …’ She heard her own voice as though it was a stranger’s. Everything seemed to accelerate and slow down at once; in her head was a blizzard of confusion. She had somehow moved forward and could now see into the bathroom but her mind, perhaps trying to protect her, at first only allowed snapshots of the terrible scene to come into focus. Maggie’s toes gleamed with the pedicure they’d gotten only two and a half weeks ago. Her knees had bruises on them. Her paper-white face was turned to the side, blind eyes staring. Her lips had a bluish taint. Curled in her left hand was a much smaller, delicate hand and that’s when, with horror, Annie finally understood the source of the quiet, strangled mewling.
Beside Maggie, Essie, impossibly little, crouched, whimpering and petting her mother’s hand.
‘Mammy …? Please …’ She tugged at her mother’s slack arm. ‘Please. Mammy.’
For Annie, other sounds were now dialling back up. Down at her feet, she could hear Clara.
‘Oh God, oh God, oh God,’ she was intoning, like a prayer.
At her back, Annie heard Dodi. ‘We have to bring Mammy to the doctor.’
The child’s pleading voice finally cut through Annie’s shock. ‘Clara,’ she said sharply. Clara’s eyes snapped up and Annie instructed her to bring Dodi downstairs.
Next Annie lowered herself to the floor carefully. Incredibly, she actually remembered her bump and, feeling the heft of her baby in her womb, a new dam of pain gave out as she reached for Essie. This little girl had once been curled inside her mother, neither of them knowing how little time they would have.
‘Essie,’ Annie spoke softly, ‘you must go downstairs. We need to …’ She struggled to come up with something to say because what the fuck were they about to do?
Essie was shaking her head vehemently. ‘If I leave, I won’t see her again, will I?’
‘You will, luvvie.’ Annie didn’t know what Fionn might make of this promise but right then it didn’t matter. ‘Please,’ she coaxed, ‘come out. We’re going to …’ Again she floundered but then, of course, she knew what they had to do and the knowledge filled her like a whole ocean of sadness. ‘We’ve to ring your daddy.’
Essie allowed Annie to guide her out of the bathroom and Clara returned and brought her down the stairs. Annie crawled in and, holding her breath, placed her fingers on Maggie’s neck. Not that she really had a clue how to find a pulse. She’d have to do a first aid course before Beanie was born. The thought shocked her. It was so self-centred. They would live while Maggie wouldn’t. Her tears began to fall and her teeth chattered.
She unlocked her phone and dialled 112 as she dug further in under Maggie’s jaw and was overwhelmed all over again by the terrible strangeness. Maggie was lying on the floor. Maggie would never see her babies again. Annie’s tears began leaving a trail of tiny dark marks on Maggie’s blue cotton pyjamas, as Annie leaned over to put a hand in front of Maggie’s mouth.
