Not Your Child by Sheila Norton

Author:Sheila Norton [Norton, Sheila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

The following evening, as I was getting Poppy out of the car outside my house, one of my neighbours from along the road, a middle-aged woman called Amanda, happened to walk past and called out hello.

‘Haven’t seen you for a while,’ she commented. ‘Or your other half. Are you both keeping well?’

‘Oh.’ I felt my face drop. I only knew a few of the neighbours, and not well enough to have felt like broadcasting the news of our separation to any of them. ‘Well unfortunately we’re not together any more,’ I said, and turned away, wanting to leave it at that.

‘Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,’ Amanda gushed. ‘I did wonder… what with your sister having moved in with you.’

‘My sister?’ I stared at her. ‘Oh – you must mean Crystal. She’s not my sister, she’s a friend. And she hasn’t moved in. She’s just… spending quite a bit of time with me. Helping me, actually.’

‘I see.’ She nodded. ‘Well, that’s nice, and I’m glad you’ve got someone to help you. She’s always up and down here with your little one, isn’t she? Hello, dear!’ she added to Poppy, and then turned back to me and went on, half under her breath, ‘Such a shame for her – her daddy leaving. Bye, love.’

‘Bye bye, lady,’ Poppy called after her as she walked down the street.

I was seething. Nosy old bag. I was sure Crystal hadn’t told anyone she was my sister, Amanda had just said that as a ruse to find out exactly who she was, not that it was anything to do with her.

‘Lady in the sweet shop,’ Poppy said as I opened the front door.

‘Lady? The lady we saw just now, Pops? She lives along the road. You’ve seen her in a shop?’ I said, surprised.

‘Sweet shop. Gives me buttons.’

I was frowning now, confused. ‘That lady – Amanda – you’ve seen her in the sweet shop? What, the shop round the corner? And she gave you chocolate buttons? When was this, Poppy?’

‘Yesterday.’

To Poppy, everything in the past was ‘yesterday’ so it really didn’t tell me anything. I wasn’t sure if she was making this up, or…

‘Was it when you were out with Crystal?’ I guessed.

‘Yes. When I goes with Crystal. In the sweet shop.’

‘And… hang on, has this happened more than once? The chocolate buttons?’

‘Yes, in the sweet shop!’ she said, sounding impatient now. ‘Play with me now, Mummy?’

There was no point questioning Poppy any more, but I pondered over it during the evening, while she was in bed. It sounded innocuous enough for Amanda, if it was her, to see Poppy with Crystal in the post office and buy her some chocolate buttons. Poppy called it the sweet shop because I often treated her to sweets when we had to queue in there. Nice of her, but out of the ordinary. So it seemed odd that Crystal hadn’t mentioned it. And odd if it really had happened more than once. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable: I could have thanked her, if I’d known about it.

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