"Sophia! Time for school!" Amy called up the stairs. Sophia came down with her backpack hanging off one shoulder, her school cardigan unbuttoned, black makeup on her eyes, orange powder on her face and her lips painted bright red. Reg was sitting in the kitchen and he stared at her as she came in. "What on Earth have you done to your face?" He asked. "You look like you're going to work at a strip club!"
Sophia rolled her eyes. "It's only makeup, Reg." She'd refused to call him Dad, no matter how many times Amy had tried to get her to. And she always tried to act older than eight.
Amy came back into the kitchen, looked at her daughter, and then did a double-take. "What the--oh hell no. Sophia, did you go through my makeup?" Sophia laughed.
"No mum, your makeup is worse than this! Flora gave it to me." Sophia was actually wearing the orange tanning powder because she'd woken up feeling sick and her face was pale.
Amy ran a teatowel under the tap and approached Sophia with it. "No!" Sophia ducked her head. "Don't touch me!" She ran out the front door. Amy went out after her. "And button your cardigan up!" But Sophia was already running away down the road.
Amy went back into the kitchen, and Reg saw that she looked sad. "What's the matter?" He asked her. She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. "I feel like I'm losing my baby. She's trying to grow up too fast, Reg. She doesn't want me near her anymore." Amy's eyes teared up. "That's not true Amy," Reg kissed her cheek. "She's just...going through a weird stage." Amy shook her head. "That's not what it is. She really doesn't want me around. And..." Amy looked down and covered her stomach with her hand. "She's going to kill me when she finds out about this."
At 1pm, Amy got a call from the secretary at Sophia's school telling her Sophia had been sick and she needed to be picked up. Amy explained to Reg what had happened as soon as she put the phone down, and drove quickly to get Sophia. She found her sitting in a chair outside the secretary's office in a cardigan and t-shirt that weren't hers and much too big for her. All the makeup had been scrubbed off, she looked pale, sorry for herself, very young and very small.
"Sophia?" Sophia looked up when she heard her name, and saw her mum standing there. Amy held her arms out. "My poor baby." She said. Sophia burst into tears and jumped into Amy's arms, forgetting all about trying to be grown up.
Amy and Sophia, when they got home, were sitting on the sofa together with the lights off watching films. Reg was still out at work, it was around 8pm when Amy, who'd been trying to figure out how to tell Sophia something, and she'd finally worked up enough courage to tell her. "Soph?" She tapped her daughter on the shoulder. Sophia reluctantly looked away from the film and looked at Amy. "What is it mummy?" She was enjoying her evening being a mummy's girl without Reg around, she hoped Amy wouldn't talk about anything too serious.
"I wanted to tell you something." Amy said. "We aren't moving?" Sophia asked anxiously. Amy laughed. "No my love, we aren't moving." She bit her lip nervously. "Sophia, sweetheart...please don't be angry. But, uh, I'm pregnant."
Sophia didn't say anything for five minutes. She just sat there, staring straight ahead with a look of shock on her face. "Sophia?" Amy asked, nervous, touching her daughter's shoulder. Sophia jumped off the sofa. "How could you!" She shouted. "I thought I was enough for you but when you married Reg I knew I wasn't! So I thought I was the only kid you wanted but I guess I'm not! You're never satisfied with what you have! Why can't I be enough for you?"
Sophia ran out of the room, crying. Amy sat there in shock. "That was not the reaction I expected." And then she ran upstairs to Sophia's room to talk to her. But Sophia wasn't there.
She searched all over the house, but Sophia wasn't anywhere. Panicking, Amy called Reg to come home.
When Reg got back to the house, he was in a state of panic as well. Amy was crying on the phone to the London police in the kitchen. An eight year old lost by herself in London was a serious problem. Reg used the landline to call Amy's dad, her mum and her brother to tell them what had happened, and they all came over, and the five of them went out to look for Sophia.
After two hours of searching they still hadn't found Sophia. Amy was crying again, and she cried the whole way home. "She was right," Amy cried on Alex's shoulder. "She was right about everything! She should be enough for me, she is enough for me! I don't need any more kids, I just want my little girl!"
Reg took her inside and Amy ran straight up the stairs to Sophia's bed and curled up in it under the duvet, breathing in Sophia's peppermint toothpaste and lavender soap smell until she fell asleep.
