"Mum, are you sure you're going to be alright today? I don't have to go to school you know?" I said to Mum as I stood in the doorway of her bedroom. She had finally caved into the fact that she needed to have a rest before the baby was born. Michelle had taken over running the factory with lots of keen help from Sally.
"That's not true and you know it. You do have to go to school, and I will be absolutely fine, I'm barely going to move from this bed all day." She said. I walked over and kissed her on the forehead before saying goodbye and leaving the flat to go to school.
In a way, Mum was right, I did need to go to school. I had started my GCSEs this year. Although I did feel on top of things, I knew that when the baby was born that things were going to become busier at home and it would be harder for me to revise. Mum had always been adamant that I was studious, although she was successful now, she didn't do very well when she was at school and she always felt she could have done better. She tried her best to make sure I had the resources and time I needed to revise. I always wanted to try my best to make her proud. She worried a lot after Dad died that her being a single parent with a failing daughter would look bad. I remember hearing her telling Michelle that when I was nine or ten, and ever since, I always knew I needed to do my best, so she didn't look like an awful mother.
At lunchtime, I sat with my friends Violet and Ruby and ate lunch. I sent Mum a text to ask her how she was and when she didn't reply, I assumed she must have been asleep.
"Orla, what's wrong? You've been quiet all day." Ruby said.
"I'm sorry. I'm just worried about my Mum." I said, pushing my pasta around my plate.
"I'm sure she'll be alright Orla, won't your auntie be around for her?" Violet said.
"Yeah she will." I replied.
"Why don't you skip netball practice after school? We'll cover for you to Miss Dale and Mrs Pullen if you want." Ruby said and Violet nodded in agreement.
"No, no, it's alright. She'll wonder why I'm home early, she knows that netball is after school on a Monday." I told them. They nodded and for the rest of lunchtime, tried to distract me from thinking about Mum. I kept checking my phone, to see if she'd replied. But nothing.
I got off the bus when it pulled up outside the salon after netball practice. I crossed over the road and waved goodbye to Ruby, who stayed on the bus and began to walk down the road towards home. I walked past Roy's and as I did, I saw Michelle coming out of the door of Victoria Court. She must have been over to see Mum after she closed up the factory. She saw me as the door shut behind her and stormed towards me.
"Orla Connor, where have you been? You were meant to be home over an hour ago. I've been looking for you. I've been calling Orla and you haven't answered your phone." Michelle said.
"I was at netball, it's Monday, I'm always at netball on a Monday. My coach makes us leave our phones in the changing rooms. What's the big deal anyway?" I asked.
"Oh Orla I'm sorry, it's just been a bit of a day, you know? Right let's go." She said, beginning to walk in the direction of the pub.
"Wait, what? Where are we going?" I asked.
"We've got to go and see your Mum." She said and I followed her towards the pub. "Get in the car." I was confused but followed her. I was too exhausted to argue with her. We left the street and Michelle drove towards town.
"Wait, why are we going to the hospital? Is it Mum? Michelle, please, please tell me Mum's ok." I said as we turned into to the entrance of Weatherfield General. She put her hand on my knee.
"Hey, listen to me, she's alright, she's fine, I promise you." She said. We parked the car and got out. Michelle wrapped a jumper round me. I was still wearing my netball dress and it was the middle of November, so freezing cold outside. She held onto my hand as she led me inside the hospital.
"Here we go," Michelle said as we reached the maternity unit. A nurse buzzed us in the front door and I followed Michelle through a few corridors before we reached a room with a small whiteboard which read CONNOR in big black letters on the door. "I've got a little someone here to meet her little sister." Michelle said as she pushed the door open. I followed her inside the room to see Mum lying in a hospital bed staring at a little pink bundle in the cot beside her. Mum pulled herself up, groaning slightly in pain.
"Hey, you don't need to get up." I said, a massive smile plastered across my face. She sat up anyway and put her arms out for me to hug her.
"Hello Orlie, where have you been?" she asked as I hugged her.
"Netball, sorry, we're not allowed to have our phones. I'm sorry I wasn't here." I said.
"That's alright my girl, now there's someone I want you to meet." Mum said as we pulled away from each other. "If you can get Michelle to let go of her, then I want you to meet your little sister." Mum said. While Mum and I had hugged, Michelle had picked the baby up from her cot and was gently rocking her backwards and forwards. Mum shuffled over on the bed and I sat down beside her as Michelle came over and lay the baby gently in my arms. I gasped as she did, I couldn't believe how small she was.
"Mum, she's so cute, so little." I said.
"I know, considering how big you were." Michelle said jokingly and the three of us giggled. Michelle and Mum carried on talking, but I wasn't listening. I just stared down at my little sister in my arms and couldn't quite believe she was here.
"Hey, you alright?" Mum asked, putting her hand through my hair. She pulled my head in, so it rested on her shoulder.
"Yeah, I just can't believe it, she's actually here." I said.
"You'd believe it if you'd pushed her out like I did." Mum said, laughing. "What do you think about her name then?" she asked. "I don't think she looks like a Lyla, or an Ella."
"I think she looks like an Isla." I said.
"Isla Hayley Connor. How do you like that little one? Are you an Isla?" she said to the baby.
"Orla and Isla Connor, they sound like a dream team, don't they?" Michelle said.
"I can't believe I have you both here, both in my arms together. My two girls. Oh Orlie, if you have ever heard me tell you that I didn't want to become a Mum, please know that I never thought about this, about this moment of having the two of you here in my arms together. I love you always my Orla Belle and my Islie girl." Mum said, beginning to tear up, she brought her other arm around, so it rested next to mine underneath Isla, who lay asleep in my arms.
"It doesn't matter. None of that matters now, nothing that's happened for the past year matters now." Michelle told her.
"I never thought I wanted any of this. I always thought I never wanted to be a mother and after I had you Orlie, I never thought I'd want to do it again, but now, with you, little Islie, oh that suits you, little Islie, you are so so loved already." She said. The three of us sat in silence for a while, all just staring at Isla.
"Now come on, I want a picture of you three, the future of the Connor's." Michelle said. Mum and I smiled while Michelle took a photo on her phone.
"Most of the future." Mum said to Michelle once she'd taken the picture.
"What do you mean?" I asked, looking at them both completely clueless.
"I think our dear Michelle here has something to tell us." Mum said. Michelle looked up from her hands to Mum.
"How do you kno-" Michelle said.
"I just do darling, just like you knew with me." Mum said.
"Knew what? What are you two talking about?" I said to them. Mum and Michelle both looked at each other, Mum nodded to her.
"Isla is going to have a little friend running around soon." Michelle said "Steve and I, we're having a baby." She continued, putting her hands on her stomach. Clearly Michelle hadn't told Mum and she had guessed. We congratulated her and chatted for a while longer before a nurse came and told us that visiting time was over. Michelle and I said goodbye to Mum and to Isla before walking out of the hospital and back to the car.
"You are under strict instructions not to tell a soul about the baby, ok Orlie?" Michelle said in the car on the way home.
"I promise, no one will hear it from me." I said.
"Thank you, not even Liz knows yet, ok?" she told me and I nodded. "I've asked her to make up the top bedroom so you can stay with me until Carla gets out of hospital with Isla."
"Thank you, Michelle. When do you think she will be out?" I asked.
"Tomorrow or the day after I think, it won't be long, she had a very smooth birth and you know what Carla's like, she'll be desperate to get back to her own bed." She said.
Two days later, I rushed home from school as fast as I could as Mum was coming home with Isla today. I had been over to the flat early this morning to take my things back from Michelle's and tidy up a little. I changed Mum's bed sheets and made sure the dishwasher was empty of stuff. I wiped down all of the sides in the kitchen and even bought some flowers from Dev's to put in a vase on the kitchen island. I hoped to finish tidying my bedroom and make some tea for Mum for when she got home.
I went up in the lift to the flat while finding my key in my school bag. I opened the front door of the flat frantically thinking about the rest of the tidying I was going to do.
"There's my girl, Isla has been waiting for a cuddle with you all day Orlie." Mum said. She was sat on the sofa with Isla in her arms and a muslin cloth over her shoulder. Michelle was stood at the kitchen counter cooking.
"Hey Mum, hi Chelle, I was going to do that, you don't need to?" I said to her.
"I know, but we are the ones who look after you, not you look after us. Come here, you look tired. I didn't even see you this morning." Michelle said, giving me a hug. "Go on, go and sit down, I'm just making a cuppa." I listened to her and went over to sit on the sofa beside Mum.
"Do you want a cuddle with Islie?" Mum asked and I nodded. "Ok, here you go little Islie, here's Orla Belle." She said as she placed her in my arms. "I had a little idea about her name Orlie. I wanted her to share something of yours, that you two as sisters, only the two of you have." She said.
"I don't know what you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you, even though we call you Orla, you're Orabella, Bella or Belle meaning beautiful, I want to call her Isabella and be Isla for short so I have my two beautiful girls, Orla and Isla." She said.
"I love it, Isabella Connor, our little Islie." I said before placing a kiss on her cheek. Mum pulled me into her and hugged me.
"Right, tea's ready." Michelle said as Mum came out of her bedroom. She'd just put Isla down to sleep in her cot. I had had a shower and got changed into my pyjamas. The three of us sat down at the table and ate tea together. We had almost finished when there was a knock at the door.
"It's probably Steve, I'll get it." Michelle said getting up from the table. She went over and opened the door.
"Hi Michelle, sorry someone let me in downstairs, I was just here to see Carla and the baby." It was Ken. Mum and I got up from the table. Michelle looked to Mum as if to ask for permission to let him in.
"Come in Ken, of course, can I get you a drink or anything?" Mum asked as he walked in, and Michelle shut the door behind him. While the two of them chatted on the sofa, I cleared up the kitchen and stacked the dishwasher.
"I was hoping I could meet my granddaughter. I heard from Liz that you were out of hospital, and I wanted to come by and say congratulations and to give you this." He said as he handed Mum a gift bag. She put it on the coffee table in front of her as she thanked him.
"That's so kind of you Ken, you really didn't need to." Mum said to him. "She's asleep at the moment but it won't be long before she wakes up and I'm sure she'd love a cuddle then."
"That would be lovely, I don't want to intrude at all. It's just, she is my granddaughter at the end of the day, Carla." Ken said. Mum nodded to him, but you could tell by the look on her face she felt uncomfortable about it. There was a long silence in the room. Michelle was hanging some washing in the kitchen while I sat down on the armchair opposite Mum and Ken. "I have something else to ask you Carla." Ken said. Michelle looked up from the washing towards me and we both made eye contact that meant this wasn't going to be good.
"Go on." Mum said. Her tone of voice suggested she knew this wasn't going to be good either.
"Peter was hoping he could pop by sometime, to meet his daughter." He said. Mum's face dropped and Michelle did the same to the washing, walking over to the sofa and sitting beside her. "He doesn't want anything; he doesn't want contact or to take his daughter from you. He's decided to go to Portsmouth for a while and he wants to meet her before he goes."
"I guess if it's just the once, then yes." Mum said.
"What? Carla, no." Michelle said from beside her.
"Michelle, please. I need this closure. Isla needs this closure, despite the fact she'll never know him, never remember him." Mum told her.
"Isla" Ken paused, "Isla is a beautiful name Carla."
"Isabella Hayley Connor, but Isla for short." Mum said. Ken raised an eyebrow, probably to the fact that her surname was Connor. Mum and Peter weren't officially divorced yet. A moment later, Isla started to cry. "Speaking of the sweet girl." Mum said.
"I'll get her." I said as I got up from the armchair and walked into Mum's bedroom. I picked Isla up from the cot and held her gently in my arms as her crying settled. I walked back into the living room and towards Mum on the sofa.
"Pass her to Ken, Orlie." She said. I did as she asked, and Mum pulled me to sit on the sofa beside her. Ken held her and spoke quietly while the three of us watched the two of them. They stayed like that for about five minutes before Isla started to get unsettled.
"I think that's my que to go, I think someone needs her Mummy." Ken said, leaning forward to hand Isla back to Mum.
"Thank you for coming Ken." Mum said as she took Isla back and she settled in Mum's arms. Ken got his coat and said goodbye before Michelle showed him out. I stayed sat beside Mum on the sofa and gently stroked Isla's head as she lay in Mum's arms.
Michelle stayed in my room that night, while Mum had her first night at home with Isla. She was an angel; Michelle and I didn't hear her at all. Mum said she woke to be fed and after that she went right back to sleep. Like a true Connor woman, she truly enjoyed her sleep.