44
"So you still love Mummy now?" Tom asked, followed a second later by Joe asking Maggie her version of the same question. Satisfied by the answers, both Joe and Tom smiled huge matching smiles, their blue eyes twinkling with happiness.
"Ok," Maggie brought them back to the reason they were all sitting there. "So now you know that 'tective PJ and I loved each other lots and lots. Well, we were really happy for a long time, and then something bad happened, and Mummy had an accident." At the scared looks that they gave her, Maggie immediately moved to reassure them. "Don't look so scared, I'm ok, I'm right here aren't I? I'm absolutely fine now. Now, you know that before you two were born, Mummy had a bad accident, the one that gave me the mark near my heart?"
Tom nodded, Joe scrunching up tighter to his twin, who held his hand tightly. Maggie paused, before continuing, knowing that this would be hard to hear.
"Well, when Mummy got hurt, when I had that accident, I was in the hospital for a long time, and it wasn't a hospital near 'tective PJ, so he didn't know what was going on. Nobody told 'tective PJ where I was, so he was very sad and he thought I'd gone to Heaven." Maggie said, doing her utmost to simplify what had been the most traumatic time of her life so that her small sons could understand.
"But Mummy, why didn't you tell 'tective PJ? Why you not stand up and say' here I am, here I am' like Tom and I do when he can't find me when we play hide and seek?" Joe asked.
"See that's the thing, sweetheart. When I eventually did wake up in the hospital, something funny had happened to my head, and I couldn't remember anything. You know how you sometimes forget to do things, like when you went to Kay's house last week and you couldn't find your gumboots, and then we found them hidden in the back of your cupboard where you'd put them cos they made you feet feel squelchy?" Tom nodded, transfixed by the story.
"Well, when Mummy woke up in the hospital, I couldn't remember anything. I couldn't remember my name, I didn't remember Mount Thomas, and I didn't remember anything about 'tective PJ at all."
Tom glanced over at 'tective PJ as Mummy said that, and his little heart clenched with sadness at the look on 'tective PJ's face. Scooting forward on the sofa, Tom reached out and patted PJ's leg.
"It's ok, 'tective PJ. Mummy loves you now, she loves you like chocolate ice-cream now," he said comfortingly, and PJ had to bite back his emotions.
"I love her too, son," he managed, and to his surprise, Tom didn't mind being called son. Somehow it didn't seem to upset him quite as much as it had done before.
"Yeah, ok, so ah – " Maggie too bit back her tears, and Joe moved forward to give his Mum a hug, before wriggling back into place next to Tom on the couch.
"So," she gathered herself and kept going. "So I woke up in the hospital, and I was all confused, and then some doctors and some policemen thought they would help me and they told me a story. You see, some bad people had tried to hurt me, and when I woke up in the hospital and I couldn't remember anything, the doctors and policemen thought it might be better if I moved away from Mount Thomas and started again in a different place. So they didn't tell me anything about 'tective PJ, and because I had forgotten anything, I didn't remember him anyway." Maggie stopped again, glancing over at PJ, who gave her a supportive smile, before replacing that with an even more supportive kiss.
"Mummy? " Joe was very inquisitive, much more so than his brother. Maggie smiled at him, before nodding at him to continue. "Mummy, why didn't 'tective PJ come and get you then?" he asked, turning his blue eyes on PJ.