Page 54 of Two Wrongs
‘What is going on wi’ the pair of you?’ asks Mum. Meanwhile, Dad has assumed his foreboding father position, arms now crossed.
‘Ivy,’ Dad says. ‘You’ve got something you want to tell us?’
More statement than a question, I nod once.No more hiding.I take a deep breath, and as I breathe it out, I make a strange, nervous sound.
‘My news. My news is... a wee bit more shocking, I’m afraid.’ So afraid. Afraid of disappointing them, at the very least.
‘Oh, my God, George.’ Mum clutches Dad’s arm. ‘She’s ill!’
‘No, no, I’m not, Mum. Calm down. Although I do feel sort of wretched, but I’m told it’s temporary. A sort of nine month thing.’ I titter nervously. Even from this distance, with this connection, I watch the blood drain from my mother’s face. Watch her hands fall away from my father’s arm.
‘You . . . you’re?’ See, even she can’t bring herself to say it. ‘But you don’t even have a boyfriend.’
‘You don’t need one o’ them to get pregnant,’ scoffs Mac.
My mother deflates physically before me. And me? I’m probably doing the same from the other side of the screen. I feel so small. So insignificant. Such a fuck-up.
Seeming to come back to herself for a moment, Mum asks, ‘Is it anyone we know?’
‘No.’ One word to convey a thousand. One word that has the potential to paint me as a bit of a slut.
‘How did it happen?’
Okay, so maybe that one word didn’t quite manage to convey quite a thousand.
‘I know it’s probably been a while,’ interrupts Mac. ‘I din’nae ken—but maybe you don’t remember? But when a girl and a boy like each other enough to—’
‘Enough,’ says my father, speaking for the first time, though I’m thankful to Mac for diverting her line of questioning. ‘The man—the father—I take it he doesn’t want to know.’
Or maybe not so much.. .
‘Something like that.’ I duck my head in shame.
‘And you’re well, Ivy? You’ve seen a doctor, and there’s nothing wrong?’
‘Other than the bit where I’m pregnant, she gave me a clean bill of health.’ God bless my dad, even if his words make me want to cry.
Dad nods, satisfied. ‘You’ll be okay on your own for a few weeks more?’
‘Hey, you’re not cutting short your trip. This was your big dream.’
‘And being a grandfather is my other one,’ he says, all matter-of-factly.
My dad. A man of few words. A man who knows how to make them count.
And God, I start bawling.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ivy
It takessome persuading to ensure my parents continue with their holiday. Not really my dad—he’s inclined to treat me more like an adult. But Mum—well, she cries a little while pretending not to for the camera. Then she began to fuss, saying she’d need to be there to support me, to hold my hands at the appointments. What appointments, I’m not sure, but if she thinks she’s coming into the delivery room with me, she’s mistaken. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if I can have this baby with my absence in there, too. What stopped her complaints and fretting, or rather who, is when Mac announced, as clear as you like, that he’d take care of me until they returned. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my mum stunned into silence. You see, Mac and I aren’t particularly close. I mean we love each other and all, but it’s just that when we are close—in proximity, at least—sparks fly.And not the good kind. We tend to argue and snipe and generally get on everyone’s nerves. Always have.
Some might call it sibling rivalry, and I might agree. He’d always been a wee bit jealous of me.
‘They’ll be fine, Stella,’ my dad placates while, over the Skype connection, Mum leans closer to the camera, as though attempting to discern the reason for Mac’s words.
‘What do you meanyou’ll take care of her?’ she repeats, almost suspiciously.
