Carol Marinelli - Australian Affairs - Seduced

‘Don’t worry about the kids, you just get well, Evelyn,’ Harry said. He didn’t want to worry Evelyn with the places his mind had suddenly gone to—namely the twins contracting chickenpox. They had been immunised, surely? But, then, Jill had seen to all that. As both a doctor and a parent Harry’s mind was racing through several scenarios even as he put down the phone. ‘She can’t come,’ a rather distracted Harry told Marnie.

‘Then you’d better get Adam home.’

‘You know, you really are inflexible at times,’ Harry snapped.

‘Oh, but I’m very flexible, Harry,’ Marnie responded. ‘In fact, if twenty critically ill patients came pouring through that door at this very moment you’d see just how flexible I can be. I know exactly where my staff are and what they are doing, and I can call them at any given time because they are not keeping an eye out for a sick child.’

She made a very good point; unfortunately, Harry was in no mood to see it. He was trying to do the best by the department and do his best by his children too. He was worried that an unwell Adam might be in the early stages of chickenpox, which meant, if he was, no doubt any day Charlotte would be too. Marnie just didn’t seem to understand.

‘You just don’t get it,’ Harry said, picking up his jacket. ‘You’re not a mum.’

IT HURT.

And it still hurt as Marnie drove home but she did her best to push it aside when there was a knock at the door a little while later and it was her youngest brother, Ronan.

He’d just started work and was frantically saving up to move out from home, but every now and then he came and stayed for a couple of days with Marnie.

‘How’s the new job?’ Ronan asked.

‘Frustrating,’ Marnie said. ‘It would be a great department if there were enough staff and people didn’t keep using the place as a drop-in crèche…’ She stopped herself from elaborating. ‘Don’t mind me,’ Marnie said, but Harry’s words were still smarting and, in no mood to make dinner, she suggested that they eat out. ‘My treat,’ Marnie said. ‘On the condition that you have dinner waiting for me tomorrow when I get home.’

It was nice to get out. Marnie drove along the beach road and into the small town and they soon found a gorgeous pub and sat outside, overlooking the bay, in the late sunlight.

Ronan, who was permanently hungry, dived into a huge steak while Marnie had prawns and a mango salad and enjoyed just sitting back and relaxing in front of the view, as she had promised herself she would of an evening. She wouldn’t trade places with anyone. Watching a family on the next table, the mother spooning puréed pumpkin into a hungry baby’s mouth as the father tried to amuse an overtired toddler, Marnie was very glad to be able to simply linger over her meal with her brother. She listened as Ronan told her about his work, and then got to, perhaps, the real reason he had asked to visit.

‘You know what Mum’s like,’ Ronan said. ‘I’m just warning you that she was upset you didn’t come and visit at the weekend, or the last.’

‘She surely knows how busy I am with work,’ Marnie said. ‘And moving! She could’ve come and helped with the move, like you did—she knows she doesn’t need a written invitation to come and see me.’

‘I think that she’s just upset that you’ve moved so far.’

‘It’s not as if I’ve gone back home to Ireland.’ Marnie sighed. ‘I’m an hour’s drive away.’

‘She thinks you’re punishing her for us emigrating…’ Ronan attempted to make light of it but it was a bit of a dark subject and Marnie had to push out a smile.

‘I’ll try and get over one evening, but…’ Marnie shook her head; maybe she was avoiding her parents a bit at the moment but she just didn’t want to discuss it with Ronan. Or rather she simply couldn’t discuss it with anyone in her family. That time of the year was coming up. The time of year that no one in her family ever spoke about because no one in her family knew what to say.

Declan would soon have been thirteen.

She looked over to the little family at the next table—the toddler was eating ice cream now, the baby falling asleep on its mother’s lap, and sometimes, just sometimes, she would like to trade places.

Marnie took a long sip of her iced water and couldn’t come up with a suitable line as to why she had been avoiding her mother, so she settled for the usual instead. ‘I’m just busy, Ronan.’

So too was Harry.

After an evening spent trying to find vaccination certificates, as well as asking his parents if they could have the twins for a couple of days, Harry was in no mood for a very groomed Marnie the next day. She was busily writing on the white board while telling Kelly, who was frantically fishing to find out more about the elusive new manager, that the prawns she had had last night at Peninsular Pub were the best she had tasted.

He doubted Marnie would have been eating alone.

Yes, his response was terse when Marnie had the gall to ask him how Adam was.

‘He’s at my parents’,’ Harry said. ‘Along with Charlotte.’

‘Is she sick as well?’

‘Neither is sick. Well, Adam’s got a bit of a temperature,’ Harry said. ‘But my babysitter has shingles and I can hardly send them to day care knowing that any minute now they could break out in spots.’

‘Weren’t they immunised?’ She was so annoyingly practical; she might just as well have been asking if the puppies’ shots were up to date.

‘You’d have to ask my late wife,’ Harry snapped. ‘I can’t find the records.’

Ooh, they bristled and they snapped their way through the day, though the animosity was put on hold when a worried-looking Kelly came over and had a word with Harry, just as Marnie was finishing checking and ordering the scheduled drugs.

‘I’ve got a seventeen-year-old girl in who’s pregnant and bleeding. Sheldon estimates her to be around twenty-four weeks. The thing is, her parents are with her and Emily keeps insisting that she doesn’t want them to know that she’s pregnant. They keep asking for updates and are getting really angry that I won’t let them in to be with her and that the doctor hasn’t been in to speak with them. I’m just not sure how to deal with patient confidentially and Sheldon’s concerned…’

‘I’ll come now,’ Harry said, but as he made to go so too did Marnie.

‘I’ll come with you,’ Marnie said, then spoke with Kelly. ‘I’m happy to deal with her and the family.’

‘Please.’ Kelly let out a sigh of a relief. ‘I don’t blame Emily a bit for not wanting to tell her parents. They’re not exactly the most approachable pair.’

Emily was very young, very scared but very determined that this baby was wanted. Sheldon had already started an IV and an ultrasound machine was being wheeled in as Harry and Marnie took over. ‘Reece was going to come over at the weekend and tell my parents with me,’ Emily tearfully explained as Harry gently examined her abdomen. ‘Do we have to tell them now?’

‘Well, we don’t have to tell them,’ Marnie answered, ‘though I think they might start to guess what the issue is when they see you strapped to a foetal monitor or they see the sign for Maternity when I take you up.’ Harry saw the small smile on Emily’s lips as Marnie softened things with wry humour. ‘Do you not think they have an idea?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Emily admitted. ‘Dad did say that I was putting on weight and I was about to say something but then Mum said it was because I was spending all my time sitting down, studying.’ Emily started to cry. ‘They’re going to be so angry.’