At last ‘A life’
By Julie D Cole
Chapter 36 A night of revelation

We hugged for ages and then mum lifted my chin to ask if I was OK. Somehow it wasn’t a shock to me but it was to Julie who was crying. This was very unusual for Julie.

Mum just said ‘Chrissy you have always been my son and now I’m happy that you have become a second daughter and I like it very much. I have always felt that you were my connection to Judith and we were very close. These last few days it has been as if she walked back through the door but she is still young whilst I’ve grown old The resemblance is remarkable and it shocked Gran back into reality.’

‘Mum do you think I was the cause of her stroke?’

Not at all Chrissy. She had one before as you know and she has a blood pressure and diabetes problem so it’s nothing to do with you.’

Julie sat up and smiled at me. ‘Sis you are my sis no matter what. You were my brother but I love you more than ever as a sister.’

Now she made me cry.

‘Mum what happened after the crash?’ ‘Why did Aunt Judith, my other mum, die and yet I lived?

‘The doctors had a choice to make and no time to loose. Judith was in a terrible state and they couldn’t stop the bleeding. After they saved you she stabilized for a while but she’d lost a lot of blood. I was called to see her and my lasting memory was that she opened her eyes and tried to reach me.’ ‘It was the most awful night of my life.’

‘So what happened after that.’

‘You were placed in an incubator and since you were very premature you hardly weighed anything at all.’ ‘You were there for three weeks long after the inquest and the funeral and Gran and Granddad did come to see you.’

But what about my father? Where was he? What about dad, Where was he?

‘Your dad was looking after Gran and Granddad and later he dealt with the hospital and the registrations. We had to get special permission to register ourselves as your guardians since your real mum was dead and we’d no proof about your real father only suspicion that it was Professor Harper.’ ‘I had to contact him and he was devastated and blamed himself for not standing by Judith.’

‘So what happened to me after that since you said that my father took me away?’

‘Well it’s a complicated story after that since the lorry driver was prosecuted by the police and the newspapers were hounding him. Gran was in a permanent daze and I had been making preparations to marry your dad so we had to suspend everything. Then there was you to consider. A poor little mite fighting for his life and no mum to take care of you and feed you..’

‘Gran got worse and was admitted to hospital for a while for observation. She attempted to kill herself with an overdose and luckily Granddad found her in time because he’d come home from work early.’

‘Your dad and I discussed what to do and he persuaded me that we should take care of you and that I should pack in my job and we would then wait for Gran to recover enough to help’.

‘Dad and I collected you from the hospital and you were a little angel’ ‘We postponed our wedding for 3 months and I sacrificed all the glitz for a small wedding with less than 30 close family and friends since my darling sister was missing.’ ‘We had a honeymoon in Cornwall and then 12 months later Julie came along.’

Mum then said it was late and that she’d had a long and stressfull day so she was ready for bed. We tidied up and went to bed and Sally was still awake.

I snuggled up beside her since she was warm and she’d waited patiently.

Then I told her about mums revelations and how the surgeons had made a choice between me and Judith and how sad I felt. She just said ‘Chrissy it wasn’t your fault you were not to blame.’

‘Yes I am and look at me now. Was this my punishment? Was I born premature and ended up in the wrong body?’

I eventually fell asleep but I tossed and turned all night thinking about what mum had said.

Did I mean Mum or Aunt Jennifer? It was strange because mum is my mum.

Now I was determined more than ever to have the photo of my real mum and to look through her belongings in her room that were my true inheritance.

I woke up early and went downstairs for some tea. ‘Mum’ was already up and she embraced me as I entered the kitchen. I must have looked like I was dragged through a hedge but she ruffled my hair to tidy it up.

‘Chrissy I’m sorry that I never told you before but each time I tried something bad seemed to happen

First Grandad was taken ill and then when he was better Gran became ill again. Dad broke his leg and was made redundant and we struggled for a while so I started work again. Dad found another job which meant he worked away a lot and then Granddad was taken ill again and he never recovered.

You became very introverted and your school work suffered for a while so I did some extra tuition at home. I just couldn’t risk telling you incase you were badly affected.

Then one day Professor Harper turned up at our door and I flew into a rage and called him a coward. I told him that he didn’t have the guts to face the music and how he’d never shown his face once and shown any interest in me.

I said ‘Mum you told me that he took me away so where did he take me?.

‘Chrissy he never took you anywhere. He just showed me a letter that he’d received from Judith and as I read it I collapsed’.

To be continued…………..