Chapter 34

"That isn't me! It doesn't even look like me!!"

"I've known you since the day you were born and even I find it difficult to believe you could look and talk like that. You stood there, 100% young female, but in a way that anyone, men included, could relate to. That is unusual for a woman to be able to do at any age but I've never seen it in an 18 year old before"

"But if I did it again today the result would be totally different. That day I had surprise on my side to to carry my point, the way I learnt watching you. I might wish I were as secure in myself as that person, but that isn't me!"

"Nobody expects you to repeat it Venus, but with that as an introduction to you and to the series you have given the project a whole new level of credibility. It will open doors but at the expense of you becoming a public figure once it is aired at Christmas in 11 weeks time."

"What if I wasn't here?"

"Do you mean hide from the press behind closed doors or do you mean in disguise?

" Neither, I mean on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic!"

Litara seemed to take my suggestion as fatuous but I knew from the chats I'd had with yachties in Bilbao that several yachts would set out from November onward for the Caribbean so it was the right time of year. As long as I ignored the fact that less than 60 hours before I'd been on an operating table; that I didn't have a boat, enough money or friends to sail with willing to accept my extra bit, there was no problem!

"I'll take your silence as meaning you'll think about it then Litara?" Naturally I had to duck as I said it to escape the inevitable thrown cushion but I knew that I'd provoked her enough to treat my idea seriously.

I'd have loved to do some serious shopping for warmer clothes while in London but my surgery was still fresh so I used Litara's laptop to look for things locally on eBay which is how I happened to be wearing the brightest floral jumpsuit I'd ever seen when Litara got in on Friday evening.

"Whatever possessed you to buy that?" she demanded.

"It has no waist to rub my surgery scar, it cost £2 and I only had to travel on the lift because the woman selling it lives in the building."

"You were done! She should have paid you to take it away" she said donning her sun glasses.

"You won't want to see what else I bought then!" I retorted, which was a bit pointless with the evidence hanging on the back of the door she had just entered in the form of another jumpsuit and an exuberantly designed coat .

"Who stole my sister and put this alien here? I bet it was those doctors who stole your brain and filled the space with oestrogen!"

I really couldn't see what the fuss was about. Clothes are clothes, they keep out the cold, off the rain and prevent sunburn while stopping you from being arrested. What more was there?

Although Saturday was the first day that Mr Pitt thought I should contemplate making the journey to Cardiff we made two stops along the way to stretch our legs so it was pretty easy. What I hadn't expected was how strange it felt. A month away isn't long but at 18, after a sheltered life and with so many recent changes in a very short time, I felt significantly different from the girl I'd been… Whoops - would I forget in time I'd been a… I couldn't think it…even to myself! Very odd!

Although mum knew we were coming I phoned ahead to warn her of our arrival time when we were 30 minutes away having no idea that she would use those minutes to arrange for just about the whole family to be there for tea.

"If you love your dad please go along with everything Tina, your Mum and Sophie suggest." Dad whispered to Litara and I before we were ushered into the lounge. There was a lot of hugging and quizzing to be done as all the phone calls in the world couldn't satisfy my family's hunger for gruesome medical details and Grandma Tina broke every social etiquette rule in the book at the news of my ovary when she literally said "I told you so! I told you she was a girl!"

The reason for the tolerance toward Grandma became obvious when she pulled out a folder of photos announcing "As Litara and Venus are to be my bridesmaids I want them to have the final choice on their dresses."

This was wrong on so many levels! First I'd assumed the wedding was to be at a registry office. Wrong! Second bridesmaids were little girls. Wrong, those are flower girls and bridesmaids should be single and of marriageable age! Third the dresses were for summer temperatures while I thought the wedding was to be soon as, to put it bluntly, the couple were 75 and 77 years old. Right and right where two rights make a… Wrong! The wedding was to be soon, as in New Year's Eve but in The Dominican Republic.

"That is so romantic Grandma but I won't be able to be a bridesmaid," and I went on to explain about the Bilbao interview with the Christmas showing of the programme which would bring out the press hoards ready to destroy our family maybe even getting photographers to invade the wedding.

"You're so kind to offer to give up being a bridesmaid for me" Grandma said, kissing me on the cheek. "You mustn't worry about that though as you won't be with me. You'll be with Bill and Isaac sailing to the wedding!"