Loving Family

Evalynn: Mick's family

Meeting Mick's family was always going to happen at some point sooner rather than later, but I don't think any amount of mental preparation was going to make me and mamma ready for it. Mick seemed obsessed that his parents would be fine and accept it, but me and mamma weren't so sure - it wasn't exactly normal to acquire a granddaughter with no notice, so it was a little bit hard to predict the outcome. At least nanny and grampie had a knowledge I existed before I became part of their lives, I'm not sure Mick's parents even had that. But life had to go on as normal and I had to meet them some time, especially given they lived up right near us. It had just turned out mamma, who was as anxious about the whole thing as I was, had been putting them off with stupid excuses for as long as she could whilst trying to work out how best to explain the whole story to them until one day she couldn't put it off anymore. I was told they were planning on coming on Saturday, mamma sat me down and explained what to expect, and then for a while it was left there, neither of us really sure how to continue the conversation.
"Do I have to call them urhm... grandma and grandad?" I asked mamma when she came back from tucking Benjamin into bed. I'd been trying to ask Mick for help with my physics homework while there was some peace, but he'd been on the phone so I'd left him to it and started worrying about the grandparent (well step-grandparents officially) thing again.
She thought for a moment. "I'll never expect you to call them grandma and grandad or any terms along those lines if you don't want to, and I'm sure Mick won't either. Especially given you don't call Mick dad. You can tell them what you think you want to call them and we can ask them to respect that."
I nodded. "Er... what are their names? I think maybe I might just use those instead."
"That's sensible. Helen and Paul."
I nodded again, quietly repeating it to myself so I didn't forget so easily. "Is it okay to be nervous? I mean nanny and grampie at least knew that you'd had me but they... Helen and Paul... don't even know that do they?"
"I know Helen knows that you exist, because last summer I ended up having to tell her. But I don't know if she realised that meant you'd move up here or that she'd meet you so soon. And Paul, well it's whether Mick, Helen or Ben have told him about you. But baby it's fine to be nervous, I'll be here and we can deal with it together because I'm a little nervous too."
Mick came to join us then, sitting as if he wanted to join in our conversation but didn't know what to say. He still somewhat struggled with precisely how our relationship lay and I could tell he worried about crossing some unspoken line that just wasn't right for the two of us where we were at the minute. Being fair to him I still struggled a little to work out our relationship and what we really needed was to sit down and talk about what things we wanted the other to do. For example I loved to give him a hug or have him hug me, but he'd never initiate one worrying it maybe wasn't a good time and waited instead for me to hug him, lean against him or for him to be invited. There were many conversations about us working that out waiting to happen. "It's gonna be alright Ev. I can't see them being too mad at you, more surprised I would suspect."
I nodded, though I knew the true reassurance would come from the event itself.

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Me and mamma were messing around out the front of the house, supposedly we were cleaning the windows, though we were mostly just splashing each other with the sponges because it was a hot spring day. Mamma had teasingly announced it was fine because we were watering the plants in the process but I'm not sure it really mattered, we were having fun.
"Mamma?" We both looked round to see Ben stood behind us, bare feet on the pebble driveway.
"What is it Ben?" She asked.
"Is Auntie Jodie coming?" He asked.
"Yeah, she'll be here soon. Oh where are your shoes little monkey?"
I laughed as Ben looked down and then shrugged before lifting him up. "Come on lets find some shoes, those stones have got to be hurting your feet!"
"They hurty." He frowned, but reluctantly nodded at finding some shoes. "Can I come out after?"
"Of course, but we just don't want you to hurt your feet anymore." I explained.
"Can you get my hat while you're inside?" Mamma asked.
Knowing exactly where I should find that I nodded.