"Mum? Mum? ...Mummy?!"
Grace collapsed into the arm chair nearest her mother, her legs flung over one arm, her toes nudging Connie painfully in the thigh.
"Stop it, yes...what is it?"
Connie side stepped Grace's prodding toes and turned away from where she had been standing at the window. It was 10:25 and with every passing minute she could feel the nervousness within her heighten. Her stomach shifted uneasily and as she turned she noticed that her hands that she hugged to herself were pinching her skin. She released them, but in finding she had nothing to do with them other than hold them anxiously against her chest, she clasped and unclasped them again as if in constant need of touch and reassurance.
"Please can I have some Converse?"
Grace asked, tutting and shifting dramatically as Connie swatted her feet away from her thigh.
"I'm sorry?"
Connie frowned, not following.
"What would you like to talk about?"
She asked warily, and Rita, who was leaning against the window looking out toward the drive, snorted a laugh through her nose.
"Sorry."
She smiled, touching her hand to her mouth, her eyes laughing as Connie looked back at her none-the-wiser. She glanced to Grace who was looking equally confused.
"What?!"
Grace asked, with the exasperated disdain usually seen within teenagers.
"Converse."
Rita rested one hand on Connie's shoulder for support and gestured with her foot, sticking out her red converse and wriggling it pointedly. Connie looked down, the realisation dawning on her.
"Well that's a ridiculous name."
She snapped, and as she spoke the doorbell sounded.
Both Connie and Rita looked toward the door of the sitting room that led to the hall, eyes wide. Rita swallowed, she'd been watching at the window so that she could prepare herself, and now here they were, the two halves of her life, about to collide.
"Are you going to answer it?"
Grace asked, looking between the two women who seemed to have frozen before her.
Connie inhaled sharply and forced her arms to rest by her sides.
"My daughter seems to be turning into you."
She murmured, shrugging Rita's hand from her shoulder before making her way across the sitting room to the hallway, smoothing down her hair as she went, the bell sounding again just as she reached the door making her jump.
Rita stopped short behind her, she touched her fingertips to Connie's back, a silent gesture of support before Connie turned the handle.
A flurry of cold air met them as soon as they opened the door, stealing their breath and making them shiver, and errant flakes of snow fluttered onto the doormat at Connie's feet.
"We thought we'd got the wrong house!"
Rita's mother announced before anyone could say anything, giving no explanation as to why she'd thought that.
"Mr and Mrs Freeman..."
Connie began, holding out an arm, gesturing for them to come in.
"Oh, no! Just Alice...Alice is fine."
Rita's mother wafted a gloved hand, cutting Connie off, and she gestured vaguely to her husband who stood behind her.
"And this is Phil. Rita, sweetheart, how are you?"
She bustled in through the doorway, past Connie, leaving Phil to follow her, both pausing to wipe their feet thoroughly on the mat whilst Rita murmured her reply through her mothers scarves as she hugged her close.
"It's nice to finally see your face..."
Phil looked pointedly at Connie, his eyes were the same dark chocolate brown as Rita's, and they glittered with amusement, as his daughters so often did.
"Er, yes..."
"Dad!"
Rita had freed herself from her mothers grasp and now reached out for her father, drawing him in for a hug and taking the opportunity to glance over his shoulder to Connie who was standing, mouth partly open, her hand still on the door knob, the cold wind from outside still blustering in about their legs.
Sorry
She mouthed, catching Connie's eye.
"I see you've gone for the older woman, just like I did with your mother."
Rita caught Connie's visible wince at her fathers words and she allowed him to squeeze her tight for only a moment longer before pulling away and gesturing hurriedly to the kitchen.
"Come through, I'll make you hot drink...warm you up..."
She said, ushering her parents through the hallway as they unbuttoned their coats, leaving Connie to close the door.
She shivered as the last of the cold air buffeted about the door, and she glanced down to the glittering flakes of snow that were melting like diamonds at her feet.
Older woman...
She murmured to herself, and she clenched and released her hands at her sides before following them into the kitchen.
-.-
More later today. Thank you as always for the lovely reviews, they always make me smile and spur me on to write more! :) xxx