Chapter Twenty Five

 

 

Q. So you had a funeral to go to.

A. We did. Very demure we were too, in matching black dresses and little hats with veils and black handbags hanging with black ribbons - oh Mother knows how to dress for a funeral, she excels at it! One day she’ll make a wonderful widow. When Father finally dies, I mean. Uncle Phil was very subdued, as if it was all his fault. In part it was, but we know whose fault it really was, don’t we? Anastasia Webster. And I wanted to shout it to everyone - I liked the old lady.

Q. What else happened around that time, Tammy?

A. Oh you’ve heard! Or maybe you haven’t, you’re just guessing. Well, we found out we were being pretty damn stupid, Annie and me. We thought - and don’t ask me why we thought it - that our original parents had no idea who or where we were. It should have occurred to us to wonder why they came back to Salldown! It wasn’t just because they had some relatives there, was it? No, it was because they knew we were. All the time we thought we were spying on them they were spying on us!

Q. How did you find out?

A. Danny gave it away. We were at a disco one night, Annie, Mark, Niall and me, and Danny was there with a guy we didn’t know. No girlfriend around. Anyway, Annie saw him and started her usual pouting and come-on looks and he came over. He pulled her to one side, where no one was at that moment and said ‘listen little sister, it’s no good me getting involved with you, is it? It’s illegal,’ and walked off. Annie could have fallen down on the spot! All I felt was a rush of fear/shock/amazement and then fury.

Q. What did she do?

A. Typical Annie. Stalked after him, grabbed his arm, pulled him round and said ‘explain yourself, Mister Gibling.’ So they went to the bar, got Cokes each and sat and talked. That was when we found out they knew who we were, he knew he had twin sisters, he had been told the day someone told his mother who he had been seen with. She’d warned him off. And told him why. And admitted they’d moved back to Salldown so she could see the two precious girls she’d had to hand over.

Q. What did you and Annie make of all this?

A. I was amused, to think the old lady cared enough to come back, but I don’t believe that was all there was to it. I don’t think somehow that was the true reason for coming back. After all, if you were heartbroken at giving away a child, would you want to see that child grow up? Worse when it’s two girls, surely!

Q. So you were amused, and Annie?

A. Even more furious, if that were possible. To think her plans had been thwarted in that way, that her moves toward revenge were being wasted, that the time spent gluing the letters, was wasted, not to mention the phone calls! We had a whole evening of her ranting and raving around the bedroom, driving me mad, she was. Vengeance, that was all she was after. “How could they live here and us live her and they not care to try and see us or anything?” She slammed my books around, nearly damaged my new hi-fi until I stood in front of it to guard it with my life. Then she quietened down and sat on the bed, and said, “we’ll get them, Tams, we’ll get them. Kiddo, I tell you, we’ll do it if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Prophetic words, weren;t they?

Q. And your parents still knew nothing of this?

A. Nothing, and it was just as well. I feared Annie more in that quiet mood than in her ranting and raving, I can tell you.

Q. And?

A. Annie went to see them.