Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Four

Four

 “Your life must be so simple,” Amy said, placing a plate of biscuits on the table in front of Helen, “with no man to complicate it.”

Her sister coughed sarcastically. “Oh yeah, it’s a walk in the park; juggling two kids, a full time job and the upkeep of the house with no live-in help. You’re the one who’s got it easy - and don’t put those there, you know I’m on a diet. If I don’t lose a few pounds I’ll be stuck with my ‘simple life’ forever.”

“Sorry,” Amy said, taking a Hob Nob before moving the plate. “I didn’t mean to sound disparaging. I know you work really hard. I’m just a bit anti-men at the moment.”

Amy was the middle sister of three; Helen being the eldest by three and a half years. As children, the two of them had been very competitive, and fought over everything, including Natasha, the youngest of the three. Natasha was a very gregarious girl, loved by everybody. And her popularity caused Amy and Helen to vie for her attention. Natasha, being quite precocious, learned at an early age that she could use this to her advantage - and she did; playing them off against each other, being ‘best friends’ with the one who could offer the most sweets or the best array of toys for her to play with.

But as they grew up, the three of them became closer. Natasha still liked to get her own way and would still try to manipulate her sisters at times, but it didn’t wash quite as well as it had when they were little. Eventually, she moved away, and they these days they saw very little of her.

 Their mother was a very intelligent level headed woman who had decided, after their father left her for another woman whilst she was pregnant with Natasha, that she’d set herself up in business. She hadn’t worked for several years, but had the brains and the gumption to make a go of it. So she began making curtains and selling them, locally at first, and by the time Amy was six, her mother owned a successful upholstery business, dealing with large retailers all across the country. When all three of her daughters had grown up and left home, she re-located to New Zealand where by this time she had a large number of clients.

 “Why are you so anti-men?” asked Helen, “I thought Ben was ‘Mister Perfect’.”

Amy sat down with her Hob Nob. “Last week, he was.”

“And this week?”

“He’s convinced himself that I’m sexually dissatisfied and I spend all my time slagging him off to my friends. So in order to resolve the situation, he’s taken the decision to behave like a total arse.”

“And why would he think that?”

Amy sighed and leaned forward resting her chin on her hands. “Oh, he’s just got a bee in his bonnet over this bloody ‘Debenhams’ business. He doesn’t like the fact that I talked to Becky about trying to spice up our sex life.

“So you are dissatisfied?”

“No, not exactly dissatisfied. I just fancied doing something a bit different. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, Becky decided I fancied doing something a bit different.”

 It was a rare opportunity for Amy and Helen to chat openly like this without four little pairs of ears absorbing various pieces of information, jumbling them up and blurting out an amalgamation of half conversations at the most inopportune moment. James and Holly had gone swimming with Ben, and Helen’s daughters, Chelsea and Leigh, were spending the weekend with their father, Marcus.

 Helen watched Amy munching her way through a second Hob Nob, and her willpower failed her. “Oh pass me a biscuit, I can’t sit here watching while you scoff them.” Amy offered her the plate, and she took two. “I know you’re going to jump down my throat when I say this,” she went on, “but he has got a point. I mean, you must have given Becky the impression that something was lacking in order for her to suggest a bit of