Part Seventeen: Husband and Wife

I was in shock. Bryce's words echoed in my ears. I You have to have actually /I had I a divorce for that to work. /I I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely speechless.

She hadn't gone through with it. Mum had never had the divorce. That meant she and Alex were still married! Oh my god. OH MY GOD! Did Tess know about this? Why wasn't I informed? My head began to feel dizzy, with all these ideas swarming around inside.

I whirled around. Where were they? I had to find my Mum. Hazily I tried to remember when I'd last saw her. She'd been following Alex, trying to calm him down, but where had they gone…I remembered seeing them cross the road, yes…but where…

I scanned the sidewalk with my eyes, and stopped when I saw Mum and Alex standing beside the Post Office. There! I looked at my watch, and swore. There were only about five minutes of recess left. It would take me at least two minutes to get across the road on my crutches (perhaps less, cars tend to be sympathetic to the crutches and usually stop in due time), so that left three minutes in which to argue over six years of family history and thirty odd seconds in which to calm both parents down to appear reputable in court.

Could I manage it? Even for me, it was a tall order. Well, I was damn well going to try. Swinging my leg forward, I set off.

They saw me coming. Darn it, I wanted to sneak up on them. See exactly what they were talking about. Oh, well. I took a deep breath. I exhaled. I took another breath.

I was stalling.

I couldn't believe it! I'd lost my nerve! I was furious with myself, and was contemplating the best way to bring it up when Mum came over. I cursed inwardly.

'Charlotte?' She looked surprised. 'What is it, sweetheart? Is something wrong?' Ugh! That did it. The innocent look! It was blinding!

'Y-you…you're…' I spluttered. She looked at me strangely.

'Spit it out, Charlotte.' Alex said impatiently. 'We've got to go back in.'

'You're MARRIED!' I accused, pointing the finger best I could without toppling over.

Mum looked at me uneasily. 'Charlotte, what are you talking about?' She darted a glance at Alex, seemingly nervous. Then it struck me; he didn't know! I nearly laughed out loud. I had assumed she and Alex were in on it together, after all, who gets a fake divorce without knowing?

I took a moment to look at Alex. His face was priceless, it really was. He looked from Mum to me, and back again. His jaw hung open slightly in bewilderment. I guess that meant he believed me. Then he spoke.

'To who?' Alex narrowed his eyes, and his voice sounded strangely strangled. I covered my eyes, and I couldn't help it: I laughed. This whole thing was just so funny. Only Alex, dear old Alex, would ask 'who?' at the crucial moment.

Mum was approaching this very carefully indeed. 'Maybe we should sit down.' She suggested, pointing to the park bench.

'Sit down? Have a cuppa? Watch the grass grow? Come on, Claire, what's going on?' Alex said, his temper starting to get the better of him. I hoped Mum would be quick, Alex was about to blow.

'We're still married.' She whispered, and put her face in her hands. 'I'm sorry.'

'We…?' Alex repeated slowly. 'As in, you and me?'

'No, Alex, me and Charlotte, who do you think?' Mum snapped.

I watched this heated exchange with interest.

'We,' he motioned to himself and Mum, trying to take it in, 'are still married.' Mum gave a miserable nod.

'Claire! Bloody hell!' he swore. And then it happened. He erupted. 'Six whole years! Six bloody years and you didn't tell me! I see you nearly every single day and not once did you care to tell me we're married. I can't believe this.' Alex was visibly distraught.

'How did you do this?' He said, suddenly interested in the finer details. 'And why?'

Mum ignored the second question, but of course that was the only one we REALLY wanted the answer to.

'It was easy, really.' She shrugged. 'I just…never handed in the divorce papers. You never asked. Nobody ever asked.' Now, there's a very fine line when you're questioning my mother. If you cross it she starts to get really defiant and then shuts up real quick. I willed Alex to be careful. If he crossed The Line, and I suspected he would, we'd never get anything out of her.

'You lied to me.' Alex said, clearly hurt. I think that hurt him more than the marriage thing did. In fact, I thought he would have been rather pleased with the whole situation, had Mum not hid it from him for half a decade.

'Well,' she held up a finger, 'technically, no I didn't. You just assumed I handed the papers in.'

'Oh for crying out loud, stop with your technicality bull woman!' Alex thundered. For a second I was scared. Alex could certainly get angry at times, violent even, but never –never- at Mum. Ever.

'Claire, I can deal with you being annoying. I can deal with you being stubborn. But I can not, NOT deal with you being a liar.' Alex said firmly. He was still in shock. 'The Claire I know would never lie. You were always honest, Claire, you always insisted on telling the truth. What the hell happened?'

Mum stuttered, not knowing what to say. And that was it. She'd clammed up. No more information today.

'Oh god.' Alex moaned. 'That means I've cheated on you. I've cheated on my own wife and I didn't even know it.' I looked at him strangely. He was working his was through his issues at a rapid pace. It was hard to keep up. Mum moved closer to console him.

'No, no, you didn't.' She said soothingly, patting him on the shoulder. 'It's not your fault.'

'That's right, it's not.' He glared at her. She hastily backed off, realising she'd miscalculated and he was still in the angry stage, and had not yet moved into the forgiveness sector of performance.

'Why? Alex said finally, looking her in the eyes for the first time. Mum looked down, and toyed with her sleeve. And then, something very peculiar happened. Mum un-clammed. It's the first time I've ever seen her make a comeback like that, usually once you lose her that's it, you've gotta let her sleep on it before she'll talk to you.

'I thought it would blow over.' She admitted. 'I thought you'd come back to me, and when you didn't…I didn't WANT to believe it was over, Alex.' She squirmed uncomfortably, not looking at us.

Alex's face softened a smidgen. But only for a second before a dark look crossed his face again. 'S, Claire.' He said, letting out a long breath. 'What the hell do we do now?'

And then, with the impeccable timing all government people seem to have, our judge called us all back in for the afternoon session, leaving a beautiful mess for us to sort out in the evening.