Dreamstone

Easter Bunnies

"Catherine...no...Auntie Debra has guests today and Rebecca is expected to be there...she cannot come over here all the time, darling." Caroline said, firmly. She was changing my diaper before we headed off to church for the big Easter service. It was two whole days since I had last seen Rebecca, and longer than that since we sent the email, and I had been pestering Mummy from the moment Mrs Scott picked Rebecca up on Good Friday morning. "But she said she would have you three one day next week, and you will see her at church...so, do stop going on, pickle."

"You could ask, Mummy...I bet there won't be any other girls there, so Rebecca will just be bored...and the twins love her so much..."

"Yes...they do...we all do...including you...and it's so sweet that you have such a crush on Rebecca...but she isn't coming today...period...and no sulking young lady...I want you on your best behaviour today, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Mummy." I mumbled, pouting a little. Caroline rolled her eyes at me, and then pulled me up, so that she could lift me down from the changing table.

"You have been such a good little girl, since your episodes, and Daddy and I are so proud of you, but I can't kidnap your friends just because you want to be with them all the time. Rebecca has her own friends to see...and her family...so, if you want any chocolate eggs later, you need to buck your idea's up a bit, pickle."

"Why does Auntie Debra treat Rebecca like she is little, Mummy?" I asked, frowning up at her as she carefully smoothed down my pale pink and white sailor dress. Kelly used to watch Anime cartoons about girls who wore things like that, I remembered.

"Catherine, little girls do not have mobile phones...but Rebecca is still at school...she still needs a routine...and boundaries." Caroline replied, moving onto the pink bow in my hair.

"She is old enough to drive...isn't she?" I persisted, earning one of Caroline's looks.

"Legally, yes...but some people believe that childhood is precious...and should not be quite so rushed as the majority of people seem to think...Debra and Andrew are giving Rebecca a lot more freedom this year, but she is still...a child...and she seems quite happy to me?"

I did not argue. I could have, because I knew that the world outside our electric gates thought that people like us were weird, or strange. But Catherine did not know anything about the real world, even as Cate, because she had been seven when her mother died, and only nine when her father married Caroline and moved into her life. Sitting in the car, driving to church, I could imagine what it must have been like to move into Broomwaters. Cate was an ordinary girl, as far as I could make out, when she was nine. Not at private school, although Charles had a good job, and not mollycoddled, like the twins. And she was also grieving. Kelly had lost her dad to all intents and purposes, but he was not dead, of course. It was different, like a black hole in my head, somewhere that Cate did not want anyone, not even me, to go.

"Honestly...you would think they had not seen each other for months!" Mrs Scott exclaimed as I beat the twins to hug Rebecca. We were in our pink coats, and Rebecca was in a grey tweed overcoat with pink ribbons.

"Rebecca has three huge fans, Debra...they were all desperate to see her," Caroline laughed as I came up for air. "It's sweet, don't you think?"

"Yes, it is...so, how about they come to me on Tuesday morning...my parents are staying until tomorrow, but they can have the whole day together on Tuesday...and the night..."

"And then Rebecca can come to us, Auntie Debra...because if you are having all three of us to stay, Rebecca has to come to us three times to make it fair...doesn't she?" I suggested, and the adults all laughed at my logic.