The Omen VI
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When I saw her first, something clutched my heart and my insides churned with fear. How could it be?
How could I, a grown man, be terrorised by a baby?
A very small baby?
A very small newborn baby, only hours old?
I will tell you!
Very easily.
We drove down to Hazlington, my lovely wife and I.
Lesley was going on. "I told her, I told her not to go down."
As if that mattered.
Since when has telling Katherine not do anything, had any effect on what she does?
What happened? I could have told you.
The baby came.
I knew nothing good would come of it when Katherine married my best mate.
I mean, the bitch from the Black Lagoon and him.
Him!
I am fond of him, very fond: but he isn't safe to be out without a sensible controlling adult.
Then they had the boys. Not one! Triplets! Not content with having one, they had to populate the earth in one go.
Oh I love the boys. They are delightful little boys
I was more than relieved when they looked like him. They are sweet and well behaved. No sign of their parents' furious tempers; in fact, they are quite placid.
.
But you don't know, do you?
.
When we got the call at 2 am that morning, that the baby had arrived, I was not too apprehensive. After all, Piers had kept telling us there were no girls in his family.
Then Lesley's shrieks of joy destroyed my equanimity.
"Harry, Harry, It's a girl."
I had to get to the bathroom pretty damn quick.
.
We went into their bedroom. Lesley picked her up.
"Oh, she so tiny, Oh, she's so beautiful. Look Harry."
And she thrust her into my arms.
"She looks just like Katherine."
I nearly dropped her. She did. Just like her.
My heart stopped and my bowels turned to water.
Two of them.
They chose the two Special Branch policemen who helped deliver her as her Godfathers. Just as well! She was going to need them as she got older. Or maybe we were.
.
She was sweet and charming; and she had a temper straight from hell.
She shouted, she screamed, she stamped her foot. She kicked and threw things.
Her favourite word was NO! A variation was I WON'T!
I watched, standing well back.
Her father and her brothers adored her.
Her mother, grandmother and aunt loved her indulgently.
Me?
I got through the next couple of years by steering clear of her.
Till the day we were in their drawing room at Hazlington. She came in with her brothers.
There she was. Three years old, the monster in the pink dungarees.
And she did it.
What she always did ... Every time ...to my horror... to my terrified desperation.
She ran straight across the room like a heat seeking missile and climbed on my lap; pressing her tiny nose against mine; her big green witch's eyes looking straight into mine.
Then this day, she squashed my face in her little dimpled hands and kissed me, a big smacking kiss.
"I love you, Gwan'pa Hawwy."
My heart split and melted.
I hugged her.
"I love you too, Lexi."