And the Ducks Go Quack.
"Gerry why didn't you wake me?! I said I needed to get Liv up at 7." Sandra shouted as she walked through to the living room only to find her daughter watching tv and Gerry making another cup of coffee.
"Morning Sandra. Coffee?" Gerry called back and next thing he knew Sandra was sitting at the table behind him.
"Yes please. Why didn't you wake me?"
"You've had a hard time of it lately. You deserved a lay in."
"Has she had breakfast?"
"Yeah. She's also had her teeth cleaned and your mum bathed her then dried her hair."
"Where is mum?"
"In the shower."
"Okay. Thanks." Sandra smiled as he put a steaming cup in front of her.
"What are you doing?" Gerry asked as Sandra sat on the floor half heartedly playing with Liv while she was trying to do something on her phone.
"She's playing with me. She's got Belle and I have Boo." Olivia replied.
"Belle means pretty in French but then being French you probably knew that!" Sandra replied cheekily.
"Here..." Olivia began before she ran back to her room where her toys were in her case before returning again with another teddy for Gerry. "You can play too, this is Po."
"Thank you."
With Gerry now playing too it meant that Sandra could get away with mostly trying to find what she was looking for on her phone.
"What are you trying to find?" Gerry tried again.
"A number for Heathrow customer services."
"We aren't far, I could just run you in again to see."
"No, I can't get there's and my hopes up again. I'd rather be sure before I did that. Listen I'm going to take Liv out to feed the ducks then if I can't find anything out by later then I'll go out to the airport to see."
"Okay."
"Liv go and ask your Granny if she wants to come and feed the ducks with us." Sandra told her daughter who happily ran off to do what she was told. "We're just going to get out your hair for a bit." Sandra told Gerry as she turned back to see him.
"Granny said she'd come."
"Great, let's go and get your coat on."
The three generations of Pullman's walked down the path alongside the river where several other families were stood feeding the ducks and several swans. Olivia's hand was in her Granny's, Sandra walked slightly behind watching them. If she could freeze this moment as it was then she would, every minute Olivia was growing up a little and slipping through her fingers. When she was pregnant these were the kind of moments that she'd never expected but now savoured the most. She stood still for a moment and just watched her mother and daughter laugh while they threw chunks of bread into the river.
"What noise does a duck make?" Grace asked Olivia, meanwhile Sandra found a bench near by where she could still hear what her family were saying.
"Quack quack." Olivia mimicked the noise a duck made. Neither of them even noticed that Sandra was no longer behind them, instead she sat at a bench with a piece of paper and a pen and looking up every so often, her family were so engrossed in the ducks though.
"Is all the bread gone?" Sandra asked as she rejoined her family having now sorted what she needed to, that was the real reason she'd had to get out of Gerry's flat, she wouldn't be disturbed while she was out. Olivia didn't say anything and instead stayed watching the ducks as if fascinated by them but handed her mum the empty bread bag. "I'll take that as a yes. How about we go and buy you a new toy for being so good while we've been here?"
"Can we watch the ducks for longer first?" Olivia asked.
"We haven't got any bread left." Sandra reasoned.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear but we've got to be going now and we've got some bread left, would you like it?" A woman with a little boy who was about the same age as Olivia asked.
"Thank you." Sandra smiled as the woman passed her the bread and left. "Okay, once this bread is gone we're going!" Sandra insisted and Olivia nodded only she knew she wasn't going to get away so easily.