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‘MUM! MUM I’M HOME!’

‘What time do you call this Morrigan?! C’mon go help your sister with her homework before I put tea out! She’s been waiting for you.’

I dumped my backpack on the settee in the living room before I made my way over to the dining room, where I found my little sister sat at the table scribbling on a workbook with a pencil.

‘Hey Mona. Sorry I’m late I got held back at uni.’ I said to my sister as I sat beside her. She looked up at me and smiled.

‘It’s okay Mori. I think I’ve done okay but can you check it for me please?’ Monica said to me, nudging her workbook over. I picked it up and studied her neat writing.

‘Hmm is this your biology homework?’ I asked, looking at the paragraphs and pictures my sister had done in her workbook.

‘Yeah they wanted us to explain how trees and plants work. Like photosynthesis and osmosis and stuff. I don’t know if I got osmosis right though.’ Monica pointed at the little diagram she had drawn. I looked at her drawing and the definition she had given below it.

‘Yeah actually you got it right there. Osmosis can be difficult to explain in a way that can be understood easily.’ I said.

‘You’re doing Chemistry at uni Mori you should be able to like, understand everything.’

There was the teenage sass I was expecting. Well, Monica wasn’t that bad to be honest. She wasn’t a typical teenager to begin with though, no woman in our family had ever been a typical teenager. We didn’t have that luxury.

‘Well unfortunately, I don’t. I try my best though.’ I grinned. Monica just smirked at me. ‘Where’s Miriam and Miranda?’

‘Oh, I think Miranda’s upstairs painting Miriam’s toes or something, ‘cause she can’t reach she’s that big.’ Monica stated. Miriam really was massive right now, in fact she was nearly at full term. A few more weeks and she would be well past nine months. Miriam also wasn’t coping well in the last few months of her pregnancy; she was having frequent hot flushes, her feet and legs were swelling up all the time, plus she had heartburn pretty much all of the time and she did nothing but piss like a racehorse. And she had ballooned in size to the point where she could barely bend down or even over. The doctors were saying that the little girl growing inside her belly would be fairly large and that Miriam would be getting a C-Section if there were any complications at all with a natural birth.

‘I hope that’s not my littlest sister talking about how big I am.’ I heard Miriam’s voice call from the bottom of the stars. A few seconds later and she waddled over to the dining table and ruffled Monica’s hair up before she squeezed my shoulder and eventually sat down; picking up a place mat off the table and steadily fanning herself with it. I would’ve said she was glowing, but that wasn’t a healthy glow that adorned her face; Miriam was having another hot flush. We were in September, not one of the warmest months but not one of the coldest either, none of that mattered to Miriam though; she was always in a light floaty dress and flip-flops these days because of her swollen feet and hot flushes.

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‘How you doing sis? You look bollocksed.’ I asked Miriam. She let out a huge sigh.

‘I am bollocksed Mori. I can barely walk properly, I can’t pick anything up off the floor, I’m pissing every five minutes, the smell of anything citrus is making me heave and I’m eating my own body weight in green peppers.’ Miriam huffed as she continued to fan herself with the place mat.

Just then, we all heard a noise in the hallway. It was the sound of hurried footsteps coming down the stairs that then shuffled in to the kitchen. Miranda then came through with a big dish full of steaming hot vegetables held in her hands with a pot towel on the handles, protecting her hands from the heat. She placed the dish down, rushed back in to the kitchen then came back through with a big jug of gravy balanced on top of five plates which she also laid on the table. Mum soon came through with a big dish full of beef stew and another dish full to the brim with Yorkshire puddings.

‘Dig in girls before it all gets cold.’

‘Thanks mum.’ We all chorused.

We passed around all the dishes, making sure we all got something on our plates. Miriam managed to eat something, even though eating much of anything wasn’t something she was doing as of late. She had said that she was finding it difficult to eat, because everything was giving her heartburn and there were only so many Rennies and Bisodol she could take.

We tried to do this every Friday evening, get together and have a big family meal. Just us girls and mum. I still lived at home because I was attending uni and didn’t live in dorms and Monica obviously still lived at home as she wasn’t even out of secondary school yet. Miriam and Miranda lived with their husbands in other parts of Greater Manchester and in Miranda’s case, her three girls; Melody and the twins Molly and Macy. Now Miriam had said she was following the family tradition and was giving her girl an M name, but she wasn’t telling us what it was until she was born. We couldn’t even get it out of her husband Mike either.

Suitably full from our big tea and the desert of raspberry cheesecake that Miranda had made and brought over, my sisters had retired to the living room to watch whatever rubbish was on telly while I helped my mum clear up from tea. Mum had treated herself to a new dishwasher a little while back which she swore she couldn’t do without now, especially when she did cook any big meals. It made clearing up a doddle now, so I poured myself and mum a big glass of vodka and apple juice each and we stood just outside of the back door, smoking cigarettes.

‘Miriam’s having that baby tonight y’know Mori.’ My mum said to me, matter of factly.

‘I know. I don’t think she does though.’

‘She won’t. Her power’s too weak, she’s ignored it for too long.’ Said mum as the took a puff of her smoke and a gulp of her drink. ‘And she’ll be in agony. She’s always been awkward has Miriam, she gave me the most grief when giving birth, more than the rest of you girls.’ She continued.

‘Really? I thought Miranda was the worst?’

‘She was a bit difficult, but not as bad as Miriam. You and Monica slid out though.’ Mum carried on smoking her cigarette. I nearly choked on my vodka. I gathered myself together after having my little coughing fit.

We all spent a few hours on the settee watching telly for a few hours and chatting away, I would get up occasionally to refill mums vodkas and also put the kettle on for Miranda, Miriam and Monica who would drown themselves in copious amounts of tea, making myself one here and there as I knew something was happening later. Normally Miranda and Miriam would leave around midnight, but with Miriam being as heavily pregnant as she was and tired as hell; they left at around ten. Miranda had been picking Miriam up and dropping her off for the past few months now as she wasn’t comfortable driving, plus it made sense as Miranda lived in Stalybridge and Miriam lived in Dukinfield; not too far away from mums house in Waterhead.

We all ended up having an early night, well earlier than usual. I must have only been asleep for a few hours when I woke up with a start and grabbed my Nokia off my bedside table. I glared at the screen in the darkness, knowing that the thing would start buzzing in a few seconds. It did. I answered instantly.

‘I’m coming Miriam.’

I shot out of bed, magicked myself in to jeans, trainers and a hoodie and quite literally threw myself in to a portal directly to my sisters house. I ran through in to the kitchen where I sensed Miriam, finding her leaning on the counter top with a puddle next to her feet.

‘I, I… I’d only came down for a drink a… and my, my… my waters broke.’ Miriam was stammering. Her nose was running and tears were flowing freely from her eyes and she breathed deeply.

‘Have you rang Mike?’ I asked her, pushing the glass of water she had just got herself over so she could quench her thirst.

‘No, I rang you first.’

‘Ugh he picked a fine fucking time to be away.’ I groaned. ‘I’ll call him and message him too.’

‘He’s probably out… in some club.’ Miriam grunted. ‘He’s on a bloody stag do.’

‘Fat chance of getting in touch with him any time soon then, or sober. C’mon sis we gotta get you to hospital. Tameside’s the closest I think.’

I held on to Miriam with all intentions of teleporting to the hospital with her but she loosened herself from my grip.

‘I know, it’s quicker… but… ooft.’ Miriam grimaced as she spoke. ‘Hospital remember, loads of people and… cameras. Ah!’ She winced in pain as she spoke. ‘We’ll use my car… My go-bag’s at the door.’