Across the Water by Ingrid Alexandra

Author:Ingrid Alexandra [Alexandra, Ingrid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-03-30T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Erica

June, 2017

Sunday, 3pm

I don’t need to work. I’m lucky that way, or at least that’s what my sister likes to tell me. Samir’s income is enough by miles for us both to live on. Which is good, because I’m used to my creature comforts; they’re the only remaining comforts I have. If I had to give those up, too, I don’t know what I’d do.

I work because I need to keep busy. And the hospital is just that – busy, busy, busy. It’s perfect for me. Or at least it was, before the Incident. The incessant noise and the fluorescent glare grated on the nerves of my co-workers but not on mine. Those lights kept me awake, alert, their reassuring buzz an integral part of the symphony along with the hum of machines, the background chatter and the slap of shoe-soles on linoleum. The coffee was bad yet hot and there was never time to stop and dwell; it was all shuffle onwards, chatter with the other midwives, settle babies, answer calls.

It was only part time – three days a week – so the perfect work-life balance, really. And because the hospital is down in Sydney I sometimes slept the night at my sister’s place after work. It wasn’t just the convenience; it was being surrounded by the precious squeals and smells of my twin nephews, Jamie and Jake – their soft yellow curls like duckling down, the smell of bubble-gum shampoo after their splashy, steamy bath, the nostalgic aroma of mac and cheese or fish fingers or spaghetti bolognaise filling the house. I quite enjoyed the novelty of sleeping in my old childhood bedroom, even though I was still partly annoyed Sylvia had inherited the house (apparently I didn’t need it, what with being married to Samir), and listening to the soft snores of my nephews in the next room, until one – or both – of them would wake and climb into bed with me. There was always something happening. Chaos kept the thoughts out. But now … all that’s gone. And all that remains are the thoughts.

It was inevitable, I suppose. Jeannie and Gaz were having problems, for one thing. Nothing too serious, as far as I could tell. Their main issue was renovating on a budget so tight they’d blown it by day one. It didn’t help that they knew we had plenty of money and I didn’t offer to help – I make a point never to lend money to friends or family; it’s too troublesome – and then there was the fact that Jamie and Jake had reached the Terrible Twos and their preschool was cracking down on their ‘behavioural issues’.

I suppose it also had a bit to do with the Incident – the toll it took on me and how I wasn’t handling it too well. And the fact that they had two toddlers and I’d been staying so often … I don’t blame them, really. They’re a young family, decent people trying to make ends meet.

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