Two women and a little girl stood in a group outside their large flat on a sunny Sunday morning, a breeze ruffling their hair. They were huddled around the open car window where John Wade sat, who was looking noticably cheerful. The previous evening and the morning had been emotionally nurturing and stabilizing for him.
"We'll keep in touch with each other, yeah, either your place or ours or a quick lunchtime drink. Just remember, don't let Gill push you around or pull a fast one on you," Nikki urged in her gentle voice.
"Right, Nicola. I've had such a lovely time. I won't forget," John answered cheerily. He was sure that his positive frame of mind wouldn't sink under him once he'd returned to his flat. The little group stood on the pavement and waved as John 's car morored off down the road and was lost to sight.
"Right Rose. Nikki and I have a lot of housework to catch up with before our friends come, Trisha and Sally-Anne," Helen said, her hands on her hips.
"I think I can remember them calling. It was a long time ago. They're nice," Rose said, a look of concentration playing on her face as she checked her memory.
The two women exchanged surprised glances as they couldn't recall the visit. It signified that their daughter was growing up fast and was surprising them with what she knew. It was getting to the point that nothing was more constant than change. They set to work cleaning, hoovering and ironing while Rose decamped to her bedroom and was prompted to rearrange her fluffy toys, combs and brushes and the books she was starting to collect. In the middle of all this activity, the phone rang. It was Trisha.
As Sally-Anne had driven them over to their destination, it crossed her partner's mind that her experience of children was virtually zilch. Her whole life had been spent amongst women of all shapes and stripes. All her chatting, comforting, bonding and flirting had been adult conversations and the thought of encountering a child made her nervous. It had been a long time since she'd been one herself and was foreign territory, ancient memories buried deep and beyond recall. She'd visited Helen and Nikki in hospital when Rose was born and that was a wonderful bonding experience and had made a visit in passing some time later.
Once Trisha had nervously crossed the threshold of their friends' flat, she and Sally -Anne exchanged kisses as normal, took in the homely atmosphere and then came to a mental dead stop. Their attention was riveted by a little girl a long way down with longish slightly tousled brown hair cut in a fringe over her forehead, the sharpest green eyes imaginable and an endearing smile. Trisha stammered out hers and Sally-Anne's introduction and the following words escaped her mouth unbidden.
"Do you know, I've beren really nervous about meeting you? I'm really not used to children," the normally self-possessed woman confessed to her friends.
"Oh, I'm not scary. Some people find me scary but that's only because they don't understand. I guess I'm a little different," Rose chirped away in her friendliest manner.
A beaming smile spread across the fair-haired woman's face as she adjusted herself to this girl's level.
"Do you know you make a lot of sense. I like what you say."
"I'm Sally-Anne," called out the dark-haired woman from out of Trisha's shadow
"Two names? That's unusual," Rose asked, her curiosity immediately engaged in what she'd not come across before.
"My mother liked both names, couldn't make up her mind which to choose so she chose both. It makes sense once you've got used to it," the hark-haired woman found herself explaining something she'd pulled out of the memory bank.
"Sounds right to me. I've got two family names Stewart and Wade after my mummies. Not everyone gets it," the little girl said in her laconic fashion that impressed the two women in the way she was comfortable her identity.
This was the ice breaker that drew the five of them into the kitchen for a welcoming cup of tea and a glass of orange squash for Rose. They chatted awhile on this pleasant day when everything felt good, the sun shining in from the back garden.
"Want to play hopscotch?"Rose suddenly asked, warming to these two pleasantly understanding grownups. It seemed the obvious thing to do.
"I well, err,"Trisha started to say when Sally-Anne intervened.
"We've not done it for years. Suppose you show us," she said as ancient memories came back into her mind. Besides, she'd always been a bit of a daredevil.
"Nice idea Rose but we can't use the back garden and you need a decent pavement," Nikki intervened, wanting to be practical.
"What about the pavement outside the house? It's wide enough. I mean,is anything or anyone going to stop us?"Rose countered with devastating logic. Out of the mouthes of babes, the dark-haired woman thought to herself with a spreading grin on her face that Rose spotted along with mummy's suppressed smile.
"We'll come with you just to make sure," Nikki said with a little grin on her face as ideas were stirring in her mind.
With great satisfaction, Rose disappeared into her bedroom and found a piece of white chalk and a smooth round yellow piece of stone she'd retrieved in her explorations. She scampered towards the front door, leading the way with her eye on the broad stretch of pavement. Once outside with a crowd of grownups around, she looked questioningly at mummy.
"Go ahead Rose. We're with you. You know what you're doing," Helen called out in her gentle reassuring manner. She knew that Rose had moments of self-doubt no matter how she appeared on the surface. With a grin of gratitude, Rose masterfully marked out the eight boxes and numbered them firmly. When she'd finished, she carefully explained to Sally-Anne, her most willing accomplice the rules of the game who was imbued with a sense of excitement in rediscovering her lost past. Both Helen and Nikki grinned at their daughter's great solemnity and watched as she threw the stone into the chalked out markings and proceeded to go first.
The little girl carefully flighted the stone into the air to drop it where she had chosen. With practiced agility, she hopped from square to square on one leg, twisted around at the end and bent to scoop in the stone one-handed and with one final hop, finished with a grin of triumph.
"Remember, you can't touch any of the lines," Rose reminded Sally-Anne relentlessly.
"But I'm taller than you and my feet are bigger," protested the woman to this artful child.
"You're bigger and stronger than me. In any case, I made the squares extra big. You'll do fine I bet you," Rose persisted with a winning smile.
Sally-Anne measured the squares with her eye and figured out that Rose was possibly right but she doubted her own skill. Suddenly, she reached for her nerve with both hands and launched off with ungainly determination to begin with but ancient long forgotten instincts came to her aid. With great effort, she hopped all the way, long hair flying in the wind and arms waving, scooped in the stone with a supreme effort and breathlessly finished, pink-faced and eyes glowing. She wanted to do it all over again.
"Hey this is fantastic. Thanks Rose," she said a little breathlessly.
Nikki moved next into line with a grin on her face and limbered herself up. She was sure it would all come back to her as she remembered how she always beat her brother John at this game. Helen and Trisha conferred amongst themselves tentatively considering the matter.
"Thought you would Nikki," smiled Rose at the sportier of her two mummies
Wearing her favourite denim jeans and black T-shirt, Nikki looked ready prepared and she agilely hopped across the squares with her arms poised for balence and with a practiced flick set course for the return journey with obvious flair and a broad grin on her face, sparkling eyes and wind ruffled hair.
"I loved it. Just like old times," she said nonchalently.
"Showoff," retorted Helen and Trisha in unison while mentally vowing not to be outdone. There was a palpable air of excitement amongst the growing crowd and all everyday cares were twemporarily banished. None of them thought twice about the blank-faced windows who might have been looking at them. This was all harmless kids stuff.
Deep inside their flat, Cassie and Roisin were locked into yet another wearisome, energy draining argument with Michael which had formed into an unending pattern, conflict without end. He'd become unkempt and this formed the first battle of the day qhich made Roisin shrill with frustration. He'd always been reasonably tidy but he had become a fourteen year old teenager and a stranger, his room was strewn with discarded clothing, coke cans and cheap magazines. another bone of contention was the new friends he hung around with and on the rare occasionsd they called round, their manner was scornful and contemptuous without actually saying anything they could pin them down on. Even Cassie was being drawn into becoming sharp-tongued as her relaxed authority was starting to fray. On the other hand, Niamh was starting to withdraw into herself and was quietly resentful how the family was startuing to revolve round Michael's moods and that her goodness was rewarded by her being thrust into the background. a tense atmosphere swirled around the spiritual gloom of the wasn't what she'd wanted for the family, Roisin miserably considered when she'd moved next door to their friends and she remembered having driven them to hospital when Rose was born. Finally, Niamh took herself away from the living room which was starting to get her down and she went off to her mothers' bedroom. At least it was coloured white and pure and a place where love still lived. She also loved looking out of the two large bay windows at the world outside which made her wonder who she was and how she counted in it where questions about her identity and introspective self doubts were starting to trouble her.
It was at that moment that she saw figures outside that to her idle gaze looked like a print of a Lowry painting her art teacher had shown her. A moment later, she rubbed her eyes and couldn't believe what she saw. Four grownups and a little girl were cavorting about in a carefree fashion playing hopscotch and calling out excitedly to each other, three of whom she recognised. It was like catching a rerun of a film she'd once engaged with when she was a happy, carefree child. Suddenly her mind was made up. If these grownups could play, so could she and so could her mummies. as for Michael, that was up to him, she gestured dismissively as he'd become an alien.
"Right, that's it. We should be doing something completely different. Rose and her two mummies and their two grownup friends are playing hopscotch outside. We'd feel so much happier joining their game. All this endless arguing is getting us nowhere."
The unexpected force of Niamh's intervention stopped everything dead. Michael looked sullen and resentful that this threatened to take attention off him while Cassie and Roisin were open-mouthed. After a few moments of wondering what to do, Cassie was the first to collect her wits. She was sick of the whole situation.
"Let's see for ourselves what's going on from our bedroom. I'm interested,"Cassie said with bright enthusiasm.
"I'm not coming. Sounds boring,"Michael said, trying to squash this diversion from his needs.
This was the moment that something in Roisin snapped. She'd been pulled in different directions, including her own suppressed needs so she reaised her hands to her head in distress.
"I can't stand it anymore," she shouted, her eyes swivelling around.
"Come here with me Roache. We need to talk," Cassie answered, taking the lead with her gentle but forceful voice and laying her hand on her partner's arm This was the moment of looked away while Niamh caught Roisin's eye.
"Running away?" Michael sneered, looking on disapprovingly.
"We're going to have a private talk. our decision," Cassie shot back, directing a look of sleet at the lad.
"You can't have your own way all the time Michael," Roisin said with curious calm, the mists starting to clear from her eyes as Niamh's suggestion started to look unbearably attractive.
A couple of minutes was all it took for the two women to decide. Roisin strode back into the living room with a determined air at which point Niamh filtered in from her own bedroom. With arms folded across her chest, Roisin delivered her verdict.
"Right, for once in our lives for a long time, we're going to enjoy ourselves and join the game."
"That's great mummies," Niamh said eagerly, fixing them with their joyous eyes.
"I'm not coming," Michael said sullenly. He'd well and truly boxed himself in and he couldn't lose face.
"And why?" Roisin demanded with sharp precision.
"I don't want to," came the predictable response.
"That's fine by me. If you stay in, I want to see your room tidy. If you go out to your friends, you'll be back when I say or you'll be grounded. That's our decision. In the meantime, we're joining in with the fun outside," Roisin retorted with firm determination before leading the way out of their front door to be welcomed unselfconsciously into the game..
An hour or so later, Rose was lying the full length of the settee sucking her thumb which was the sign of her tiredness. Her cushion was her mummies' laps on of whom stroked her hair affectionately. She waved her hand casually to her two playmates who smiled affectionately back at her. The day's activities made her feel that she knew them very well. She thought kindly of Cassie, Roisin and Niamh who had acted like big sister and friend all over again.
Eventually, the clock was ticking away the day in Trisha's and Sally Anne's mind as they had a club to run and they had to make a move.
"So you'll come back another time and play? I really like you both," Rose said in a sleepy voice.
"We've had such a great day. We're both busy but we'll make time to come over again. We're only sorry we've not seen much of you before,"Trisha explained carefully as she and Sally-Anne marvelled howe this very remarkable creature had taken them out of themselves and how they'd missed out on so much till now.
"Doesn't matter. We're friends now,"came the devastatingly simple yawn mixed with a yawn.
"Hey, we thought you'd come to see Nikki and I as well,"joked Helen at the way their daughter had adopted them. It raised a general laught.
"What were you doing? Everyone was looking at you," came the first blast of sourness as a wind-blown Roisin, Cassie and Niamh burst laughing into the living room where the lad sat brooding on his problems.
"They might but we don't care. What's the problem with child's games? No point worrying what the world might think of you. I got over that one when Cassie and I got together," Roisin said carelessly. She and Cassie had beel welcomed with open arms when Helen and Trisha had needed a breather and, well, it was what a crowd of cooperative children did best.
Something in the texture of Michael's expression told Cassie that he was burdened by a set of worries he was suppressing at an age when some teenagers become self-conscious. All his unpleasantness was displaced from elsewhere onto them. She, Roisin and Niamh resolutely continued to be cheerful in their homely surroundings feeling tired in a pleasant, self-satisfied fashion.
The five of of them were standing by Trisha's and Sally-Anne's car when suddenly, a reason for their visit came back to Trisha's mind. All the simple uncomplicated fun of the day had swept everything from her normally well-organised mind up till now.
"Before I forget, I must ask you if you and Helen would be interested in joining in with Chix out in the London Pride event. The club has been asked to have a special float and all the girls talked about it last weekend. Sally and I'll do the hard slog."
"What's Pride?" an instantly curious Rose intervened. I might have known, thought Helen, smiling slightly but bereft of words.
"Oh it's like a carnival for families of two mummies or women who live together like Trisha and Sally-Anne," Nikki said, choosing her words carefully.
"And can't children come as well?" pursued Rose in a determined fashion which made Trisha and Sally-Anne laugh affectionately. Why not, they both thought but it wasn't their place to say.
"We'll seriously think about it. after all, we played in your game so why can't you play in ours?" Helen finally said. Finally, the two of them waved off their friends as the afternoon started to draw in as a fitting close to two intensely satisfying and enjoyable days.