Dreamstone

Sleepover

"Sweetheart...the twins will be back tomorrow...assuming they stop crying about going to stay over with their best friends, of course...and you will have Rebecca for company later on you know?" Caroline reminded me, stooping down to dab at my eyes with a tissue. "I will miss them too, but once they stop crying about leaving you, they will have fun...and so will we. All of this was booked ages ago...when you didn't want to be glued to the twins?"

"Sorry, Mummy." I said, throwing my arms around her neck, knowing that she would pick me up. She did not disappoint me. Being small, and light, had its compensations. She carried me back inside the house, pressed the button to close the electric gates, and took me into the kitchen, eventually putting me down on a chair at the table. It was still covered with the remains of breakfast. I missed the twins so much, and they missed me. It was like I could feel them in my heart, like we were connected, all the time.

"Next time they are invited anywhere, without you, I'll ask you if you want to go...people are just used to you not wanting to." She said, starting to clear up. "And to be honest, I couldn't always trust you to behave, darling...but I would now...things seem to have changed...don't they?"

"Yes, Mummy."

"You like Rebecca, don't you? Debra and Andrew are taking Sebastian to some rugby thing and they asked me to have her...I didn't think you'd mind?"

"She is nice, Mummy."

"Good...and I agree, Rebecca is lovely...she will be here soon." Caroline told me, whilst she loaded things into the dishwasher. I nodded, giving my lip another chew. Kelly did that, when she was nervous. I frowned at that thought, because I had not realised it before. I remembered Caroline looking at me, a little strangely, when I first did it in front of her. Because she had never seen her Catherine do that before. People had physical ticks, things that they did that only their close family would see. Like Kelly's mum. She always took her glasses off and sucked the end, when she was worrying about something. Not my mum. Not anymore. Inner Kelly disagreed, but that was how I felt, as Caroline rinsed another plate. "I thought that you two could just have a quiet day...after yesterday, you could use one...and Rebecca always likes just hanging out upstairs...but I am open to alternative suggestions?"

"Can we just stay home, Mummy?" I asked, and she grinned, nodding at me. Inner Kelly was freaking me out. Not because she was sulky and stubbornly unhelpful, like inner Cate often was, but because she was hidden in the shadows, in the background, not with me, somehow distant from me. I had not realised the change immediately. I knew that I really was Catherine immediately, as soon as I let go of the Dreamstone, but I thought that I was still Kelly as well inside, like a second skin, like two into one. But ever since I had woken up, I had noticed that Kelly had receded, like a half-remembered dream. And I felt that if I lost her, if I let her go any further into the shadows, she would be gone. Forever. And that scared me.

"Of course, as long as that is what you want...you do need to recharge your batteries."

"I didn't fall asleep on the train, Mummy." I pointed out, and she laughed, giving me one of her looks. I was getting to know her, and her little ways. Inner Cate would have stopped me thinking like that, filling my head with her opinions, but she was not there anymore, so I could make my own mind up.

"Cheeky chops...it was a busy day and I just closed my eyes for a moment or two..."

"Did you feel the Dreamstone, Mummy?" I asked, out of the blue. Chloe and Grace had felt the warmth, or so they said, so I wanted to know if Caroline had felt it as well.

"Feel it? I am not sure what you mean...but it was funny...all of us touching it at the same time and making wishes...to be honest, as I told you yesterday, I was thinking about the twins praying for you, darling..."