The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 4 - Elizabeth Cole

Dinner that evening was a tense affair. The girls sat at opposite ends of the table, silently smoldering at each other between mouthfuls of Chinese takeaway.

They were both unhappy. Hannah was unhappy with Marie. Marie was unhappy with everything. It was the latter who departed their company first, leaving with her food half-finished.

Hannah ate all of hers though, of course. Ever since she'd been introduced to solids, she'd always cleaned her plate.

Before she left the dining room, Elizabeth caught her arm. "Hey, go easy on your sister, okay?"

Hannah made a face. "She's the one who's constantly in a mood."

"Some people handle change differently. You see opportunity, but your sister is thinking of all the things she's left behind."

"It's one thing to be upset. It's another to be unpleasant."

"She'll adjust. She just needs time to process it. You'll see."

Reluctantly, Hannah nodded.

But it appeared, to Elizabeth, by the disengaged flicker in her eyes, that her youngest daughter only wished to be seen to agree, rather than coming to any genuine understanding.

When they were both gone, Elizabeth sat alone at the candlelit table with her hands folded. She dragged Marie's food towards her before scooping up the unfinished soft noodles into a prawn cracker and then shoved it into her mouth. Internally, she swore that she'd get back to her low-carb diet once they were all settled in.

That would have to wait until she finished her wine and chocolates gifted to her by her former colleagues. Dully, she wondered if five wine bottles were enough to begin a collection. Perhaps she could convert their brand new basement into a wine cellar, assuming any of them ever found the courage to venture down into it.

After polishing off the rest of her food, she wandered out into the back garden. It was a pleasant night, warm enough to forgo a coat but cool enough to stave away the flies. Sighing, she lowered down onto the patio bench.

The garden itself was a jungle of weeds, long grass, and wildflowers. Clearly, it'd been a while since someone had tended to them. That would just have to be another project.

Through them, she spied a couple of marble statues, a bird bath, and more uncanny gnomes. Just as she had with the house, she would have to use her imagination and gaze beyond the current presentation to see the potential. It'd take buckets of elbow grease, but at least there was plenty to keep her mind occupied for now.

After glancing over her shoulder, through the glass patio doors to ensure that neither of her girls was watching, she fetched into her inside jacket pocket and retrieved a box of Brown's cigarettes.

The girls would be positively furious if they knew she'd taken up smoking again after everything they'd done to help her quit, but back in Ballyfield, in those last few weeks, those awful nightmares had returned to her. Her unhealthy coping mechanisms had followed like dutiful sidekicks. Hopefully, now that they'd arrived, the nightmares would fade again.

She popped the cigarette into her mouth and lit it.

As she inhaled and exhaled a stream of smoke, her muscles began to relax in a way they hadn't in years. Certainly, she'd had longer days in her life, such as the births of her two daughters, but this one definitely ranked in the top thirty.

Arriving through the air like leaves came through the notes of a song:

Here's the evidence, of human existence

A splitting binbag, next to two damp boxes

And I cannot find a name for them