Chapter Eleven
Kriss was having a great time with Jemimah and Lilimay. It was great to have two extra pairs of hands with five young children. Jemimah fed Alicia-May while Dave bathed Llewey and Jim-Bexley and Lilimay cuddled Theo while Kriss got Chloë into her nightclothes.
"Mummy" Chloë asked, "is Lilimay Alicia-May's sister too?"
"No darling" Kriss responded
"Is she Theo's sister?"
"Yes"
"Is Jemimah my sister?"
"I don't know, you'll need to ask daddy"
Chloë carried on getting dressed without saying another word about it, Kriss thought that this was going to expand into a big awkward discussion so she was pleased that Chloë accepted what she was told.
Once Chloë was in her nightclothes and Llewey, Jim-Bexley, Alicia-May and Theo were in bed Kriss let Chloë stay up with Lilimay and Jemimah to play. They were singing Disney songs for an hour before Chloë started to get really tired
"Chloë" Kriss called "do you think you need to go to bed now, because I do"
"Okay Mummy" Chloë agreed "but can Lilimay read to me?"
"Yes" Kriss agreed, "if Lilimay wants too"
"I do want to" there was a beaming simile on Lilimay's face that spread from ear to ear "thank you Kristine"
"It's okay" Kriss responded "call me Kriss"
Lilimay walked over to the pile of Disney books and asked Chloë to choose
"The Little Mermaid" Chloë asked "thank you Lilimay"
Lilimay read to Chloë before she went to bed
"Chloë" Lilimay asked, "Shall I get your Mummy?"
"Okay" Chloë smiled "can I have a hug first?"
"Of course Chloë" Lilimay hugged her little sister "I'll see you tomorrow"
Lilimay went out to Kriss and gave her a huge long hug
"Oh, Lilimay" Kriss was surprised "what was that for?"
"I just wanted to say thank you" Lilimay smiled "can I just say, I think you're a wonderful mother to all of them, five children, you deserve a medal"
"Thank you" Kriss felt really proud of herself, Lilimay was so grown up, so much like Yvonne, Lilimay could have been fourteen, she was so mature.
"Kristine" Jemimah called "do you love any of your children more than the others?"
"No" Kriss answered, "I love all of my children exactly the same"
"Are you closer to any of them then?" Jemimah added
"Yeah" Kriss confessed, "I have a stronger bond with Chloë, I feel so close to her, but my twins, well Dave's much closer to them than I am, I love them, but we don't have a strong bond"
"Why is Dave closer to them than you?"
"Don't know really, I suppose they're everything he wanted, he always told me he wanted twin boys and one of they would be called Jim and Bexley"
"Where did Llewey come from then?"
"Me, I didn't like Jim but I quite liked Jim-Bexley so we put the two together and I chose Llewey" Kriss shook her head, "anyway, why do you ask?"
"We think that mum loves one of us more than the other" Jemimah explained
"Who?" Kriss asked
"Junior"
"Why do you think that?"
"Lilimay has been asking about Arnold for years, but nothing came of it, then Junior…"
"Jemimah, don't" Lilimay begged, "Mum will be angry"
"No Lilimay…" Jemimah answered, "This needs to be said"
"What?" Kriss asked "Jemimah, Lilimay, what's wrong?"
"Junior says one thing about wanting to know his dad and Mum starts looking for him, it's not fair on Lilimay"
"I understand" Kriss answered "I can't believe Yvonne is treating you both like this!"
"Mum always told me that boys are very important" Jemimah told them "I remember when Lilimay and Junior were young, Mum always said that she was so glad she had a son because boys are more important than girls"
"This isn't fair on you two at all" Kriss stated, "I'm very disappointed"
"What are you going to do Kriss?" Lilimay asked
"I'm going to talk to your mother"