Antibodies 20

© Copyright BG Taff

Characters.
Verna Spiro Type one Virus
Nana Bev, Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie, Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.
Charlotte and Lucy - Jamie’s younger dancing & clubbing friends.
Rose and Violet. Cis-girl friends of Jamie.
Dr Williams Virologist
Jennifer Jamie’s girlfriend. (Sleeping partner.)
Shirley Jamie’s niece.

Chapter 20.

Shirley simply laughed it off as she sprang to her feet.

“It’s only a bit of mud Auntie Bev, I’ve lived on this farm all my life so it’s not going to harm me.”

I was relieved that she didn’t make a big fuss about ruining her clothes but instead, declared that ‘they were only working clothes anyway, and it’ d wash off.’

“Her mother had seen us landing from her kitchen window so she and Jamie welcomed us at the back door as the family emerged from various places around the farm to join in the welcome. Very quickly, we were gathered around the big kitchen table as Shirley removed her outer clothes then hurried to her toom to clean up.

While she was getting clean her mother asked about her.

“Did my daughter behave herself?”

“Yes, perfectly.” I replied.

“What! No arguments, no sulking, no tantrums?”

“None at all.” I assured her.

“There, I told you she’d be okay.” Jamie interjected. “Space is a pretty effective pedagogue.”

“And an unforgiving one.” I added. “She made a couple of ‘First tripper’s’ blunders that gave her a fright and she quickly realised there was little room for mistakes. Discovering that you can die out there from the slightest error or blunder soon sobered her up. I think you’ll find you’ve got a much more responsible daughter now. She won’t be so cocky in future.”

“Was Jamie ever cocky?” Her sister asked.

I grinned as Jamie glared with sibling annoyance at her sister.

“Not with me, but you have to remember, she was already a working girl when we met.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Jamie concurred. “Lot’s to learn though.”

“Well, it is rocket science after all,” I grinned as I welcomed a mug of tea and a large, buttered scone.

We chatted at length about how the Verna-Spiro virus had affected the neighbourhood then Jamie reminded me about my mother.

“A lady claiming to be your mother has visited the village. She didn’t come to the farm though.”

This reminded me of the letter I was carrying and I passed it to her.

“Oh yes. Here read this and tell me how you feel.”

“When did you get this?” She asked as she read the first few sentences.

“This morning when we landed in Dennis’s freight yard. He handed it to me.”

Jamie read and digested the letter at length while I finished a second mug of tea finally she looked at me.

“D’ you want to reconnect with her?” Jamie asked.

“I dunno,’ she’ll want to see the kids.” I cautioned. ”I doubt that it’s me she wants to see. It was all about family with her, and respectability with my father.”

“Well he’s out of the picture now,” Jamie observed as she tapped the letter. “What do you feel?”

I fell silent. I’d managed without my parents since I was sixteen so did I really want any new complications in my life. Ever since I had managed to get a toehold into space with my acquiring Digger through my family connections and shareholding left to me by my great-grandfather Charlie Sage, I had been forced to plough my own furrow. I had a lot to thank Charlie for and I knew he had been forced to overcome some terrible injustices in his early life.

My mother was Charlie’s granddaughter but she had married a man who had proven to be a transphobic bigot as far as I was concerned. My mother was the only connection I had to the famed Sage family name and even that was via a double-barrelled name, so typical of upper-class snobs who wanted to advertise any family connections.

At the time of my eviction I knew little of such things but it was the ‘Sage’ in my sir-name that had enabled my access to space and I had innocently exploited that privilege.

Now that Sage connection was coming back to haunt me. Did I really want to rake up cold ashes. There was a very slight niggling feeling in my gut.

Charlie Sage was my esteemed great-grandfather and he had never harmed me or caused me harm. Was I wrong to hold the Sage name at fault? I asked myself. Jamie seemed to read my mind.

“According to this letter, it was your father who did you down, not your mum.”

Unsure of what to do I hit the ball into Jamie’s court.

“Do you think our children would want to know about their roots?”

“I’m sure they will!” Jamie replied. “The moment they realise they’re related to the Sage family; they’ll want to know more.”

“Do you want to meet her?” I asked Jamie.

“Not if it vexes you or distresses you.”

“I’m not sure what it does,” I replied, “the more I think about it the less certain I am.”

“Less certain of what?” Shirley demanded to know as she returned from changing her dirty clothes.

“Never you mind. It’s nothing to do with you.” Her mother warned her.

“What! Another family secret. Another skeleton?”

Shirley had unwittingly hit a bullseye with unerring accuracy. Firstly Jamie’s eviction from her family and now she was learning of mine. I tried to deflect her by telling her it wasn't important but she snapped back with venom.

“What? Like learning I had another auntie when I was a teenager; is nothing to do with me! Like learning my other Auntie is a Sage. Then learning both aunties are transgendered. It’s all nothing to do with me.
Am I a part of this family or not?”

I felt an ironic laugh forcing itself through my diaphragm. Shirley could be so perspicacious. Then she administered her coup-de-grace.

“I’m sitting in a room with the mother and father of my biological half-sister and half-brother who are technically also my cousins by law, but it’s not my business!”

“Well you’ve got the biology right.” I was forced to concede with a smile. “I suppose you might as well get the history right.”

“So what is it Auntie Bev? You never kept any secrets from me in space.”

“That was to keep you alive Shirley! Space is about life and death kid; as well you already know. Family stuff is just about life but yes; I think you’ve a right to know.”

Having wrought what she considered a concession out of me, Shirley, settled onto one of the kitchen seats and gazed expectantly. After glancing at Jamie to confirm her agreement, I laid my early history onto my fifteen-year-old niece. Occasionally her jaw sagged, especially about my blagging my way onto a spaceship by exploiting my family connection to Charlie Sage. Finally she was ‘up – to – date’ with my story and after a couple of questions she settled back with satisfaction before exclaiming.

“Jeeze auntie Bev! Are all families like ours?”

I let go a chuckle before replying.

“I dunno’ Shirley How many families do you know at your school?”

“Well lots, but we don’t talk about relatives and stuff.”

“Na-ah; I suppose it’s all boys, music, makeup and sex.”

“Pretty much,” she confessed.

“So nothing changes. Now if you’ve any more questions you’ll have to wait until you can interrogate your great aunt; - my mother. She can give you all the stuff about your great, great grandfather, Charlie Sage.”

“We’ve actually done him in our history of space classes. It’s hard to make sense now.”

“Well, she’s got all the dirt on my great grandfather, she’s even got lots of his private letters. You can guarantee an ‘A’ in history if you choose to study it.”

“Nah, it’s space and spaceships for me. My maths and science grades have virtually guaranteed me a place at Uni.”

We chatted as the family collectively prepared and ate dinner. Then, finally, sleep overtook me and I trudged off to bed. Later I heard Jamie’s partner Jenifer coming home and that was it until morning.

ooo000ooo

I awoke to a typically wet Saturday morning but because I was on a break, I was free to curl up under my duvet while the rest of the household had to rise and go about their daily farming and mothering tasks.

Eventually, about mid-morning ten a.m., somebody mustered the courage to ‘go and wake that lazy bitch upstairs.’

“Are you getting up today Auntie?” Shirley chirped,- far to brightly for my liking.

“Unngh! What time is it?” I demanded grumpily.

“Ten o’clock, you’d better get up.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because the lady claiming to be your mother has phoned to confirm if you live here; - and if you do, can she meet you?”

I lay curled up in silent contemplation under the duvet. ‘Did I want to meet this lady?’

Shirley sensed my indecision and declared.

“Auntie Jamie thinks it might be good for your babies to meet a paternal grandparent.”

This remark conjured up old memories and I reluctantly conceded Shirley’s point. If our meeting didn’t work I could walk away from it anyway. Apart from Jamie and our twins, I had no responsibilities or ties anyway.

“Oh okay then. Where is this woman anyway.”

“She’s staying at a hotel in Sanderton, you know the one in Station road.”

I knew the place quite well, for I passed it whenever we went into the village and I’d stopped in several times for a quiet contemplative drink to savour my anonymity. I concluded that the best way would be to meet her there. I yawned and slowly emerged from under the duvet while Shirley stood watching.

“What ’choo lookin’ at girl?” I asked.

“You’re not in bad shape for an old woman.” She replied;- cheekily I thought.

“Bugger off and make some tea!” I scolded her. “I’ll be down in ten.”

ooo000ooo

Downstairs Jamie met me with one twin at her breast while her sister attended to the other’s nappy. The sister explained.

“Jamie says your mother want’s to meet you for lunch at one in the Sanderton restaurant. Is that okay?”

“S’ a good a time as any,” I yawned again, “is she alone?”

“I didn’t ask, though Jamie thinks your sisters want to meet you as well. She heard them in the background on the phone.”

As I sipped my tea, I contemplated my stratagem.

“Do you want to come Jamie?”

“How d’you want to play it?”

“I think I should enter alone; sort of emphasise the way I was left to fend for myself at sixteen. You can wait with the kids in the lounge.”

“She knows about me though. I spoke to her on the phone.”

“She doesn’t know who you are though, the mother to our kids and stuff.”

“That’s true, she’s no idea about the kids. To her I’m just another woman at this farm. All she knows is that I’m the closest person to you.”

“Well then I’ll go in alone at first, just to make the point and, if she shows sufficient contrition, I’ll call you from the lounge.”

“What about us?” Shirley asked. “Mum and us kids are family too!”

“Small steps slowly.” I cautioned. “There’s a lot of stuff to sort first. Let’s get over this hurdle first. If it works we can all meet tomorrow.”

I went back upstairs and put minimal makeup on. The slightest hint of lipstick and nothing else. I had no desire to try and impress for I felt I had nothing to prove.

As I dressed with scant regard to any sort of impact I might have, I looked in the mirror and realised I had few feelings for the woman I was about to meet. There just seemed to be a flat, immutable lump of ‘nothingness’ lying at the bottom of my stomach. It was only then that I realised that we would have little to talk about that would be of interest to me.

I had no wish to talk of my childhood years and anything of my life that followed after my eviction was entirely known to me already. I could see that the conversation, if any, was going very much a one-way street; - her finding out what had happened to me. I had no wish to know what had happened to them for they had been dead to me since I was sixteen and that was some twenty-five years previously.

By twelve noon; - ‘high noon’, I reflected to myself, the twins, Jamie, and I were ready. We left in two cars so as to arrive unconnected if she happened to see us in the car park. Jamie arrived first some five minutes before me and she settled with the twins in the lounge. I parked away from her car and made my way directly to the restaurant.

I saw my mother and two sisters, long before they saw me, so I had time to compose myself. They had chosen a table by the large inglenook fireplace with a good view of the entrance to the restaurant. Knowing the hotel as I did, I knew that the ladies loo had two entrances; one from the restaurant beside the inglenook fireplace and one from the reception hall.

I chose to enter restaurant via the loo and just appear behind my mothers’ seat from behind the inglenook. Like many hotels and inns in my country, the place had been converted and the inglenook now protruded into the enlarged restaurant as a pseudo-historic feature. The new loos were located behind the large stone fireplace.

Thus when I entered the loo from the reception hall, and emerged from the same loo in the recess beside the inglenook.
My mother was sitting with her back to where I emerged while my sisters were seated to her right and completely invisible to me.

I listened briefly to them discussing my anticipated arrival then I emerged from the recess like ghost behind my mother.

ooo000ooo