Strangers
"Niamh is doing so well at school now. Can you believe she's going to high school next year? How time flies, huh? And we're going on our trip to Barbados this summer. It's funny that you called, actually, as Phil rang me the other day. He said he's fine and he's enjoying London, but he'll be going up to Glasgow soon for work. Only a few weeks. Little Oliver is fine, he says…"
Rachel continued stirring the risotto, not bothering to interject or make a sound that suggested she was listening. It seemed normal. As if this wasn't the first time they had spoken in two years. How nice, she thought, for her sister to be going on holiday and that her daughter was incredibly intelligent. Of course she would be. With her father's genetics and Phillip's influence, it was bound to run in the family.
She didn't question the fact that she had only seen pictures of Niamh, having never met the girl. Phillip had shown her a photograph a year or so ago, but that was the last she had seen of her niece.
Besides, Melissa was happy to talk to herself. Chatting and chatting until she could talk no more. Not an unusual occurrence, even before Niamh's birth. Over ten years ago… Melissa was right- how time flies.
There were many things that Rachel wanted to say. She didn't care about the holiday and how Melissa always burnt in the sun; she wanted to know if there had been any arguments between her and her new partner, Alex; what Niamh's hobbies were; whether they were able to afford their new car. Those things that suggested they were involved in each other's lives. But she never asked and so, she was never told.
Rachel knew Melissa well. The way she would disappear when she was stressed, how her left eye would twitch if she was lying, and the way she laughed when she was flirting with whichever guy she fancied at time. But even with all that knowledge, Rachel knew nothing about her sister at all.