The Walk-In Appointment

1909

Ada stood her little sister up on her feet, holding her small hands as she encouraged a bit of walking. Clara humored Ada for a few steps, always did so, but lowered herself to the ground as soon as Ada tried to pull her hands away.

Finn took his first steps a few months before his twin sister, toddling around on the first floor and out into the shop if they left the doors open with little care for his own safety. He'd taken the first steps while walking towards his mother's outstretched arms, the baby's smiling face as he moved towards her a bright spot in what had come to be some tiring and difficult days for the woman.

But five months later, Clara still hadn't shown an interest. Since their mother's passing, the baby had become more clingy, more likely to request a sibling's or her aunt's arms, searching every adult face around her for that of her missing mother. She'd crawl, when necessary, but more often stayed put, playing quietly by herself while Finn made a mess of things around her.

Polly told her niece and nephews to not worry about Clara's lack of steps. One toddling Shelby was more than enough to handle and each of them had walked at different times. Clara was the latest of the six Shelby children though, now three months past her first birthday.

"Let her be, Ada," Polly chided as Ada tried to force her younger sister up again, the toddler putting up a great protest and pulling against Ada's hold as she tried to get back to the ground.

Ada stopped fighting with Clara, instead pulling the girl up to rest on her skinny hip. "Finny walked ages ago, Clara. Don't you want to walk?"

"Your sister will walk when she's ready," Polly answered. "I can't imagine why you're surprised she's just as stubborn as the rest of you."

Ada kissed her sister's cheek and Clara settled against Ada's chest for a moment, her little version of a hug.

"You're not stubborn, are you, lovey? You're just a sweet little thing." Ada rubbed her sister's back. "A sweet little lovey who wants to try walking for sissy one last time."

Ada set Clara on her feet at the moment Tommy walked through the front door, disturbing the peace of the front room as he let it slam behind him.

Tommy passed his aunt and sisters without a word on his way to the shop, ignoring the baby's incessant repeating of his name, a continuous stream of 'Ta Ta Ta Ta' growing louder as he disappeared from her view.

Ada released her sister's hands to cover her ears, anticipating the unrelenting shriek that had become commonplace when the baby didn't get what she wanted, but it didn't come. Clara continued chanting after Tommy, taking her first steps as she shouted after her brother.

Polly glanced up from the paper at Ada's excited squeal.

"I told you she'd walk when ready," she offered, setting the paper aside and standing up.

Clara tumbled at the threshold to the shop, falling back on her bottom. Ada stepped forward to help her sister only to be stopped by Polly's hand on her wrist.

Clara's face scrunched up as she tugged on the thick curtains using them to stand up and gripping them until she was safely over the threshold.

Clara's shouting for Tommy grew louder as she stepped into the shop, her little voice trying to overcome the volume of the scattered conversations taking place. Despite not clearly seeing Tommy, she took no deviations in her route as she headed towards Arthur's office, the only place she'd ever come in the shop, always carried there on someone's hip to visit the oldest Shelby brother.

Tommy caught sight of her steps only because a lull in the noise of the shop caused him to back out of Arthur's doorway and look around, his sister's shout perfectly timed to the sudden silence of the room.

He'd come home annoyed about some decision made about the horses, about to tell Arthur off, but he felt that anger leave him as he registered what was happening, the baby toddling towards him, her fair curls bouncing with each determined step. There was something new in her little gap-toothed smile, something in her serious uttering of the name she'd bestowed upon him months ago, the sound interspersed with her self-satisfied giggles, and it all made Tommy forget what he'd come in for in the first place because it was the most animated he'd seen the baby in months, the closest to happy he'd felt in months.

Arthur, Ada, and Polly were all watching by now, too, an almost foreign feeling which felt decidedly close to bliss swelling in them as Clara reached Tommy's side. The baby gripped the fabric of her brother's trousers in her small hands, tugging as she looked up to him.

"Up, Ta, up!"

Tommy leaned down to pull the girl into his arms, kissing her head. "Hello there, Clara girl."

"Of course her first steps would be following after you," Ada said, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against one of the tables.

"Oh, don't be jealous, Ada," Arthur said, rubbing his finger along the baby's cheek. "I had your first steps. It's only fair Tommy gets Clara's."

Clara put her palm to Tommy's cheek, turning him towards her when his eyes moved to follow the conversation of their siblings.

"No, TaTa, no," she said, her little voice sharp. "No. No. No."

She grasped Tommy's hand and swatted it. "No, Ta!"

Ada snorted, giggles escaping her lips as she watched the baby, her brow still furrowed despite appearing to be finished with her chastising.

"You're in fucking trouble now, Tommy," Arthur said, chuckling.

The handful of times the twins had picked up something they weren't supposed to, done some little bit wrong, or put themselves in some unsafe predicament, they'd gotten a little warning tap on the hand.

"What's that for, my girl?" Tommy asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"You've been bad, Thomas, ignored her when you came through just now," Polly answered. "And Arthur, find better words, please. I don't want the baby repeating that one."

Tommy shifted the toddler in his arms. "Is that it, my girl? Ta didn't say hello so you decided to walk in here to let me have it?" He kissed her head. "I'm very sorry, sweet girl. I should've said hello."

Clara was already cuddling into his chest, giving a hug, her little hands gripping his shirt and Tommy waited, resting his chin on her head and letting her cuddle a bit before placing her on the floor beside him.

"Alright, you go off to Ada now or she'll pout the rest of the evening," Tommy encouraged, wishing he hadn't yet started the conversation with Arthur. He'd much rather pass the hour before supper with Clara, but he had little choice in it now.

"C'mon. Show us those big girl steps and I'll see you for supper."

Clara took two steps towards her sister's outstretched hands, turning back when Tommy stepped into Arthur's office.

"Ta!" she said, holding a hand out to him.

Tommy took a deep breath, unable to hide his smile as he looked down at her.

"TATA!" she yelled, walking back to him.

"Give me a minute, Arthur," Tommy said, taking one of Clara's hands, stooping a bit to one side as she led him from the shop and back to the sitting room with Ada and Polly. Tommy settled her on the floor and played with his sisters for a few moments before standing up.

"I'll be back," he promised. "You stay with Ada."

Tommy was grateful for Ada's distraction, grateful that they didn't have to suffer a tantrum because he wasn't sure he'd be able to not give in to her on it.

Tommy and Arthur were just settling in to talk when there was a banging at the office door, a firm repetition of knocks.

"Christ, can't even have a fucking conversation in this place. Get that, Tommy, won't you?"

Tommy stood up and pulled his brother's door open, glancing down at the threshold to see their visitor.

"We have a walk-in appointment, Arthur."

"A what?" Arthur asked, unable to see a thing beyond his desk.

"A walk-in. Our Clara's here demanding an audience." Tommy lifted the girl into his arms.

"Well, best let her in, then," Arthur answered. "No hope in her staying where's she's told now. We really are fucked."

"Fuck!" Clara said, the same self-satisfied grin on her face as when she'd walked towards Tommy, her giggles filling the room as Tommy and Arthur both started laughing.

"I won't tell Aunt Polly if you don't," Arthur said.

"I don't think it's me you have to bargain with to keep the secret, Arthur," Tommy answered as he settled the giggling girl on his lap.

"Fuck," Arthur said again, covering his mouth as the three siblings dissolved into laughter once again, Tommy and Arthur finding themselves entirely incapable of returning to their previous discussion with the little girl shouting out her new favorite word every time their laughter subsided.