To: Jonas Zebila
From: Abi Zebila
Subject: NEWS!!!!!
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Are you sitting down?
I hope so. If you’re not and you’re reading this on your phone, SIT DOWN. You are not going to believe what I’m about to tell you.
We have a sister. Apart from me, you have another, real-life, full-blooded sister. It’s too complicated to explain all of it right now, but it was her that Mummy drew the butterflies for. This woman said when she was a baby, she slept in a box decorated with butterflies by her mother, who she never met because she was adopted as a baby.
All the while I’m talking to her, I’m thinking, this is mad, she’s not my sister, how can she be when Mummy and Daddy have been together since the beginning of time and have only done it three times to have us? And if she was really our sister then they would have … BEFORE marriage, and you know how much of a crime that is around here.
When I told her to come back to the house to meet Mummy and Daddy she got up and ran away. But butterflies. It all makes sense now.
All right, so by now I’m properly spooked. There’s some woman out there with my face and a sleep box like mine, so I leave work as early as I can. I come home, Mummy’s in the kitchen, Gran’s asleep in her room, Daddy’s still out and Ivor is on the computer in the living room with Lily so it’s safe to talk. I’m actually pretty impressed with myself that I didn’t think twice about going into the kitchen and shutting the door and fronting up to Mummy about it.
‘Abi, when you have washed your hands, wash the rice for me and put it on,’ Mummy said.
I went across the room and stood right next to her. ‘Mummy, do I have a sister that you had adopted?’ I said.
Yeah, all right, it’s not the most subtle or diplomatic thing to say but I had to get it out quick before I lost my nerve.
She was crushing big fat juicy plum tomatoes in her black mortar and pestle (you know the one Daddy brought her back from Nihanara the last time he went over there) and she just stopped. Only for about two seconds, then she started up again.
‘What foolishness are you talking now, Abi?’ she said. ‘Please, wash your hands and then put some rice on. Make sure you put enough on for today and tomorrow.’
‘I just met her,’ I said. ‘She looks exactly like me and she says she slept in a box covered in butterflies. I brought her home to meet you.’ Yeah, I know that last bit was mean but you know what Mummy and Daddy are like – they won’t admit to anything unless you have proof. As it turns out that was the worst thing I could have said because it shook Mummy up so much she knocked the black bowl off the worktop and it smashed on the floor and the tomato juice went everywhere.
Mummy looked really, really scared and said, ‘She’s here? You brought her here?’
I knew it was true then and I knew it was bad because she didn’t even notice about the bowl. I sort of shook my head, really nervous, and said that I’d wanted to but she ran away. ‘Is it true?’ I asked.
She still looked scared but she nodded. ‘You must not tell your father that you have seen her, nor your grandmother.’
‘Do they know about her?’ I asked. And she got angry! She’s the one lying all these years and now she was angry when she was caught out and I asked what I thought was a perfectly valid question.
‘Of course they know about her. Who do you think her father is? And you must not tell Ivor. None of them are to know until I’m ready to tell them, do you understand me?’ I didn’t say anything because what sort of a person would agree to something like that? ‘Do you understand me?’ she said again, more sternly, so obviously I’m the sort of person who would agree to that because I did. I sort of nodded and said yes, and I didn’t cross my fingers or toes. But she didn’t say I wasn’t to tell you, so I am.
Can you actually believe it? A sister. A SISTER. And I can’t tell anyone. Except you. I think Mummy wants to meet her, to see for herself, but after the way she ran away today, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
So there you have it. Big news. I’m typing this from Declan’s. I couldn’t trust myself not to shout something at the dinner table so I packed a bag for Lily and me and we’re going to stay here for a few days. Declan’s over the moon, Lily’s less than thrilled because I forgot her homework and I refuse to go back for it.
I don’t know how I feel about all this. I could scream at Mummy and Daddy, I really could. But on the other hand I know what good it would do me. I so want to see her again. A sister. I’ve always wanted a sister. (No offence.) I really hope there’s a way I can get her to talk to me.
Lots of love
Abi
xxxx