For All Eternity

From Here to the Moon and Further

Connie wiped her milky face on her school jumper, as her mum came down the final stair with an almighty groan- which to Connie, wasn't the least bit unusual anymore. Her Dad would tell her off for saying it but her mummy's bump was huge! So big, in fact, that she couldn't even wrap her arms all the way around it anymore. Connie loved it though, especially because it was a good place to rest a packet of crisps and a bowl of hummus but an even better place to blow raspberries because her baby sister would kick back as she did it.

"Mummy," she said, as she sat on the floor to buckle her school shoes, "Daddy told me you might be taking me to school."

"Mmhmm," Dianne said, leaning against the wall, catching her breath.

"So, are you?"

"Yes, I feel like going on a bit of a walk today. Have you brushed your teeth?"

"Not yet, how's my baby?"

"Still kicking, not long now eh? Tomorrow will be the month she's born in hopefully!" Dianne said, as Connie stood up and patted her bump, pushing her face into it.

"I can't wait, but Daddy has to finish where she's sleeping first," Connie said, running behind her up the stairs, "I brush my teeth now!"

"Gonna have to fix your hair too love," Dianne sighed, beginning to climb the stairs again.

Stairs were no longer Dianne's friend, not that they ever had been, but especially not now. Now, by the time she got to the top of just one of the flights of stairs in their new house her hips would be burning and she usually had a shooting pain right down her sciatica. Not to mention the ugly varicose veins that plagued her legs would scream in ungodly pain as she summitted the last steps. And that was going up. Going down was a whole other story. Walking down those steps, especially with a bump that completely covered her feet, felt like she was going to tip forward and fall at any moment. She had done, at 3am in the second night in their house, trying to get to the kitchen for a bowl of hot chips covered in cheese. The only injury that had concurred was a stubbed toe and pulled shoulder where she stopped herself from hitting the ground using the banister. She hadn't told Joe about this, of course, just lied and said she was having a hot bath to try and relax their daughter- rather than her aching shoulder. Manoeuvring both up and down the stairs resulted in Dianne losing her breath. Or as she put it, becoming puffed. That was the worst part.

"Why?"

"Because Daddy's still not quite got the hang of plaits. Shall we sit on your bed to do it?" Dianne liked doing Connie's hair on her bed, but getting upstairs to her bed was not something she was willing to do.

"We don't have a brush,"

"Oh, were did Daddy do it?" Dianne asked, sat on Connie's bed.

"In the kitchen. He brought the hair bag down."

"Lovely," Dianne sighed, and stood up, pausing whilst her sciatica screamed in pain and her stomach tightened in a practice contraction, "I'll just go and grab that Doodle. You keep on with your teeth."

"I'll do it Mummy, the baby hurts your back and hips," she said, quickly spitting out her toothpaste, wiping her mouth on her school jumper and running downstairs.

"Co-co's good isn't she little one, so helpful."

"Here you go Mummy," Connie said, launching the bag at her, sitting on her feet, which were constantly swollen and achy. Dianne leaned as much as she could, her solid bump leaning against her daughter's head and started to brush, leaning back every so often in order to properly breathe.

"There we go, right," Dianne checked her phone after speed plaiting Connie's ever-growing hair, "run up, say bye to Daddy, then we have to get going if we want to walk."