Behind The Church

III

Kat

Something wasn't right with that family. Christina was up and down with her moods and her Father gave me a strange feeling. Not a good strange either.

One thing I can say though, is that Kate loved Christina. She was asking all of last night if we could take her to the park or have her come over or something. She's never made a friend so quick, so I'm glad that she's taken to Christina like that, since I will be seeing a lot more of Eliza now.

Our husbands work together now, and Peter said that they'll be away a lot on trips, so Eliza and I will have to find company in each other. It should be okay though, we have a common ground already and I do find myself intrigued by her character.

"Mammy! Can we please go and see Cubby again?" My daughter begs.

"I'll have to check in with Eliza first. Get your shoes on."

The men are at work today so as far as I'm concerned, Joshua won't be there and maybe we'll see Christina come out of her shell.

I pull up to the house with Kate and Anaheim in the back, Kate blabbering about Christina and Anaheim making incoherent noises.

"Let me just go in first. You stay here."

"We can't go anywhere, Mammy! We're stuck in our seats!" Kate exclaims. Such a big character in a small body.

I knock on the front door and Eleanor answers.

"Hi, is Eliza in today?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'll just go and get her." the girl disappears into the house and when the door opens, Eliza is there alongside her.

"Kate really wanted to come over today and play with Christina. Is that alright?"

"Yes, of course. Bring her in, Eleanor will go and find Christina."

The girl nodded and disappeared again. I make my way back to the car to retrieve my girls and bring them inside.

"Cubby! I'm here!" Kate shouts as she walks through the front door.

"Kate, not too loud, spud. It's quite early in the morning still."

"Sorry, Mammy."

My eyes are drawn to the stairs as Eleanor descends them with Christina in her arms. She has her face buried in her sister's shoulder and refuses to look up.

Eleanor whispers something in a different language to her and tries her best to cheer her sister up.

"Cubby, look. Kate is here."

"I know."

"Don't you wanna go play with her?"

"Yeah, Cubby. Let's go and play!"

"Okay..." her voice is tiny today. Compared to what I heard yesterday, her character has seen to have shrunk. Eleanor puts the girl down and Christina leads Kate out to the back garden, where she immediately starts a game of tag.

"That's a lovely little girl you have there, Kat." Eliza says, fixing two cups of coffee.

"Thank you. I truly am blessed to have her. She was so easy to raise. Christina is quite shy, eh?" I reply, adjusting Ana on my hip.

"Only sometimes. Her confidence can be knocked down like a house of cards though. Takes too long to build and one gust of wind or a look in the wrong direction and it comes crashing down. We're trying to work on that."

"Kate loves her. She only met the poor girl yesterday and she's already obsessed. I think she might have ADHD or something. She hyperfixates a lot and Christina seems to be just that. Or maybe it's something more."

"What do you mean?" Eliza asks as she brings the coffees into the living room and I follow.

"Kate, she's- not like the other girls. All about makeup, high heels and dreaming of a Prince to sweep her off of her feet someday. Instead, she watches Spy Kids and only cares about Carmen. I think she might be gay. She's never had any interest in marrying a Prince Charming. You know?"

"Eleanor was the same. She had always told me about the pretty girls at school. Now she's going to high school, we don't really talk that much anymore, because she's a big girl now but she'd never have anything to say about boys. None of the girls do. Apart from Audrey and Quinn, they both have their boy crushes but I know that they swing both ways."

"What about Christina?"

"She's a tough one. She never wants to go out and has a total of two friends, but the fact that she's taken a special interest in Kate tells me something. I think she's a more of a personality type of gal, you know? She doesn't care about gender, just if they have the personality that suits her."

"I think Kate might have a crush on her. Christina is a very beautiful little girl, it wouldn't surprise me if she did."

"There's a lot more to her beauty though." her voice was dark and I could tell that that statement had a double meaning. It set me on edge a little bit. "How's this little cherub?"

I remember that my one year old daughter was on my lap and gave her a kiss on her baby head.

"She's good. Not as good as Kate but I think I was too blessed with her. She's lovely though and-"

"Mammy! Cubby fell over and her head is bleeding! She isn't waking up!"

Eliza was immediately out of the back door and I was trying my best with Ana on my hip. She found the hurry amusing and starting laughing as I ran out to the back to see an unconcious Christina on the floor.

"Tina Bach, wake up." her mother said to her softly, gently shaking her. There was still no response. She checked her breathing. Apparently she was still breathing, so that's a relief.

"Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"No, I'll just take her myself. I'm a nurse."

"Let me drive. Kate, come one." I usher my child back through the house and out to the car.

Eliza sits in the front with Christina in her arms and whispering to her in Welsh and kissing her head while holding a cloth to her head.

"Is Cubby going to be okay, Mammy?" Kate asks from the back.

"She should be, spud. We're just going to take her to the hospital and get her checked out."

"Okay."

"What happened exactly, spud? Hmm? Can you tell Mammy that?"

"Cubby was it for tag and I was running away from her. Then I heard a loud thud and then I turned around and she was on the floor, bleeding!"

"Okay, spud. But there's no need to worry, I'm sure she'll be fine."

We arrive at the hospital and Eliza rushes her in.

I then didn't see her for hours...