Spirit; Part Three

Sophie opened her eyes and looked at the old fashioned alarm clock, 7:25. She could hear Simon moving about in the shower room but from the sound of it both children were still in bed. She took a deep breath, threw the quilt cover back and slid her legs out of the bed. She brushed her long dark hair out of her face with a slim hand and picked up the clock to cancel the alarm before it went off at 07:30 with its annoying ring.  A tall, lean man wearing just a pair of Calvin Klein’s, his hair still damp from the shower, came into the room and began to dress himself in a grey pinstripe suit.

‘Wake up sleepyhead, can’t laze about in bed all day.’

‘Bloody hell Simon, give me a break’ she retorted ‘I was up in the night.’

‘Yeah, and so was I in case you hadn’t noticed Sophie and I’m getting sick of it. You need to do something with that child, it’s getting ridiculous. It’s practically every night now.

‘Well’ replied Sophie starting to get angry with him  ‘It’s not Lily’s fault is it, it’s just a phase she’s going through,  I  suppose you never had nightmares, anyway, She’s your child too, it’s not just up to me.’

‘Well I won’t be here for a couple of days now so at least I’ll get a decent night’s sleep’ Simon spat back.

Sophie could feel her temper rising. ‘Oh brilliant, and when were you going to tell me then. It’s funny how you always have to go away in the school holidays. Just once it would be nice to spend time as a proper family.’

Simon lowered his voice and said in a more placatory tone. ‘Look, it’s not my fault, it’s work, it’s not up to me when I have to travel. I’ll have a chat with Bruce about it and see if I can get some time off and we’ll go away, spend a bit of quality, family time together, what do you say? Anyway, we’ll upset the kids, let’s talk about it later.’

Sophie gritted her teeth and flashed him an angry look that suggested she wasn’t done with him yet. She didn’t believe him for one moment and she was ninety percent certain he was having an affair. These trips away were becoming more frequent and for longer periods. He always made a point of bragging that he was practically his own boss and could do pretty much as he liked, now, all of a sudden, he was forced into doing business trips and saying he couldn’t get out of them. He had made countless promises to speak to Bruce about getting time off but he never did.  He was right about one thing though, the children would be able to hear them so she calmed herself down, made herself smile, and then followed Simon down the stairs to the kitchen.

Sophie flicked the kettle on and the water started to bubble ‘do you want tea Simon she said to her husband who was putting on his tie in the mirror.

‘No thanks, got one’ he replied cheerily, I’ll have some toast though’

Selfish bastard could have made me tea she thought to herself as she slipped two slices of bread into the toaster and put a tea bag into her cup.

There was a thumping of charging feet coming down the stairs and a 10 year old boy came bounding into the kitchen dressed in batman pyjamas. He plonked himself down at the table, his round, freckled face topped with a shock of chestnut brown hair grinning at his mother.

‘Frosties please Mum’ he shouted at Sophie.

‘And good morning to you Jack, yes you can have Frosties but you don’t need to shout all the time.

‘Sorry Mum, I can’t help it’ he mumbled contritely ‘morning Dad’

‘Morning Jack, what plans have you got for today, enquired his father taking the plate Sophie had passed to him.

‘Nuffin, just chilling with my game and the telly’

‘Cool’ exclaimed Simon ‘I’m going away for a couple of days on business so you’ll be the man of the house again’

‘Great’ replied Jack while shovelling Frosties into his mouth, ‘does that mean I can boss Lily about’

‘No it doesn’t’ snapped Sophie.

‘Listen to your Mother, you’ll have to look after Lily and Mum so be good’ said Simon putting his toast plate on the table and picking up his briefcase.

Simon turned to leave and noticed Lily standing at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in her princess pyjamas, clutching her favourite teddy in one hand and rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the other.  

‘Hello darling ‘said Simon reaching down to pick her up for a cuddle

‘Are you mad at me Daddy?’ she asked plaintively.

‘No Honey, not really but you must stop waking up in the night, your screaming ruins Daddy’s sleep so he can’t work properly and makes Mummy grumpy so she shouts at Daddy all the time. If you have a nasty dream and wake up, just think nice thoughts until you go back to sleep again.

Sophie raised her eyes to the ceiling and muttered to herself. ‘You really don’t get it do you.’

Simon glanced at Sophie. ‘See honey, Mummy’s grumpy again and having a go at daddy, nag , nag , nag always nagging, you’re not going to grow up to be like that are you princess.’

‘No Daddy I won’t, and I’ll try not to wake in the night’ said Lily quietly.

‘That’s my girl, now be good or old grumpy knickers will start nagging you too’ laughed Simon as he placed Lily gently on the floor, picked up his briefcase and headed for the door.  ‘See you in a couple of days’

‘Bye Dad’ Lily said as she made her way to the breakfast table.

Jack jumped from his chair shouting ‘see ya Dad’ and threw himself onto the sofa, grabbed the remote in his pudgy fingers and turned the TV on. Simon closed the door behind him and Lily sat at the table for breakfast. Sophie bent down, took Lily’s face in her hands and looked softly into her eyes.

‘You don’t really think Mummy’s a nag do you?  Sophie asked.

‘Of course not Mummy, your lovely’ Lily answered flinging her arms round Sophie’s neck and squeezing tight.

‘And your lovely too my little treasure’ whispered Sophie returning the squeeze, ‘now what do little treasures have for breakfast?’

‘Cheerios today please Mummy’

‘One special bowl of Cheerios for a special little girl coming up’ Sophie put the bowl of cereal with Lily’s favourite spoon in front of her then cleared the table of the used plates and dumped them in the sink. ‘Right kids I’m going up for a shower now, behave.’ Sophie climbed the stairs to get washed and dressed

 Spirit watched from the corner of the room. She had followed Lily down the stairs and seen the whole thing. She was delighted to discover that Lily had a brother, and an older brother at that. A brother who could take care of her. Her own brother had been two years younger and she had been the one who looked after him. There was no doubt she had loved him dearly, perhaps too much because she had been paying for it ever since. It suddenly came to her, Benoir, her brother’s name had been Benoir. After two and a half centuries she couldn’t picture his face but now she had his name and she would have to try and remember it.

                                          *** Part four next week ***