Seven Letters by Sinéad Moriarty

Author:Sinéad Moriarty
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844884087
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

28

Mia greeted the children as they arrived. After so many days at the hospital, she had decided that doing something ‘normal’ might be good for her. It was getting harder and harder to sit in that little waiting room in the ICU, slowly losing her mind. Instead, she had come into school and would pop in to see Sarah in the evening. This state of limbo could go on for months if the medical team could keep the baby alive, and it certainly wouldn’t be good to live in that limbo the whole time. She had to be strong and try to live some sort of life as well.

Some parents dropped the children and hurried off, avoiding having to talk to Mia. Others were childminders who spoke little English, but a handful of parents said they’d heard her sister was unwell and hoped she’d recover soon. Mia smiled sadly, nodded and thanked them. She didn’t want to get into a conversation with any parent about it. She had no answers and the reality of the situation was too complex to explain, and too painful to talk about.

Fiona Kelly, the headmistress, had told all of the other staff members and any parents who enquired that Isobel Brown’s mother and Mia Wilson’s sister was in a coma and was non-responsive. It was the line Mia had fed her and it kind of summed it up. If anyone had guessed otherwise, they didn’t say so to her.

The last child ran in and Mia closed the door.

‘Good morning, everyone,’ she said.

‘Good morning, Miss Mia,’ the twenty-three children answered.

‘What have you been up to while I’ve been away?’

Milly’s hand shot up. ‘Miss Hannah kept us up with our Communion work and we did our spellings and our maths.’

Sam’s hand went up. ‘Em … your sister is in a coma. I’m sorry, Miss Mia.’

‘That’s very kind of you, Sam, thanks.’

‘What’s a coma?’ Kerry asked.

‘It’s when a person is lying down and sleeping but also kind of dead,’ Sam explained.

‘Don’t say dead! My mum said not to say dead,’ Conor stage-whispered.

Sam’s eyes widened. ‘Sorry, Miss Mia, I didn’t mean dead.’

‘Sam, it’s fine. We should move on now, class. Take out your spelling books.’

‘I saw Izzy crying at lunchtime yesterday,’ Niamh said.

‘Yeah, me too,’ Kelly said.

‘Did you go over to see if she was all right?’ Mia asked.

‘Yep, I did,’ Niamh said. ‘She said she was sad because her mummy won’t wake up, but I said, “Izzy, she’ll wake up just like Sleeping Beauty. Maybe your dad just needs to give her true love’s kiss.”’

‘Eww, gross.’ Conor made a vomiting face.

‘You’re so thick, Conor. If a husband kisses his wife, it’s fine. If he kisses someone else’s wife, that’s bad.’

‘My dad kissed someone else at a party and my mum was suuuuuuuper-cross,’ Alexandra said.

Yikes, thought Mia. Alexandra’s parents wouldn’t want that broadcast around the school.

‘My dad went off with his girlfriend and now they have a baby together and my mum hates the baby and says it’s ugly and stupid.

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