Past? What Past?! [ F I N I S H E D ]

Past? What Past! Part12

"Hello," I said, "this is Abi Wallace."

"Abi! Baby, we've missed you!" Mum? "We want you to come home!"

Home? But I was at home! What was my mother talking about?

"Darling? Are you there?" Mum asked through the phone.

"Home?" I whispered.

"Yes, silly! 28 Bothwell Gardens, Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. The place you've lived for your whole life! Where did you think I meant?"

"Dunbar?" I sighed.

"Yes! You're Aunt Harriet has your passport and you're to drive home immediately with Aurora and all your things. We've missed you so much, darling, and we are truly sorry for sending you down to England. We were just so upset at your choice to keep the baby and we were out of order. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us."

"Mum, I'm at home," I told her. "I love it here. I don't want to go back to Scotland."

"I understand. You're still upset. Of course, that's understandable. How about you come back to Dunbar and we talk about this, face to face."

"But I don't want to."

"Don't be silly, darling! You need to come home! Ah - here's your father. He wants to talk to you..."

There was a quiet muttering on the other end of the phone as my mum explained to my dad what was going on. She always used him to control me. I was kind of a daddy's girl. I heard the sound of the phone being exchanged and then I heard my dad's voice.

"Abi, honey, what's this about you not wanting to come home?" The sound of his deep, melodic voice that was full of authority shocked me. I had forgotten what my father's voice sounded like. "Don't you want to come back and see all your friends again? What about your mother and I - wouldn't you like to see us? And I know Andrew has sorely missed Aurora. He's been wanting us to call you to bring you home since the day you left! Also, Cal's been round, wondering when you were coming home. We gave him your new mobile number. He said he's been calling, but you've not been picking up."

"Yes," I told him harshly, "I know. I've been ignoring his calls, father. I don't want to talk to him."

"Why ever not, Abigail?"

"I'm sorry, father, I can't really talk about this right now. I'm kind of in school and I really need to get back to class. I'll phone you later to talk about this."

"But you need to leave to come home," my dad told me.

"Gordon," I said, using my dad's first name. "England is my home now. I'm sorry, I'll call you later." I hung up and put the phone back in the cradle. Turning to Grumpy-frumpy, I thanked her and left the office and returned to class.

As I sat in my blue plastic chair beside Harry, I started to shake. What had I done? Had I really just passed up the chance to go back to Scotland where I used to be happy?

"What was that about?" Harry whispered.

"I'll tell you at the end of the day," I whispered back, looking at the clock. We only had ten minutes until school was over, and I needed to think about what I had done.

* * * * *

"What do you mean, they asked you to come home?"

"They want me to go back to Scotland," I said, puzzled by my reaction and my parent's decision to ask me to go home.

"What did you say?" Harry enquired.

"I - I told them I didn't want to," I said, my eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.