Family Togetherness

Chapter 12- Family Togetherness

It was raining so heavily that the pellets of water pounded on the windows like tiny bullets. They splashed in time with each other; forming a drumroll so loud that Clara could barely hear her sister on the other end of the line.

"I told you when you last called," the tinny voice weaved through the phone receiver in thin threads of sound. "...don't want to cause any more drama... not enough time..."

Clara watched the raindrops sliding down the outside of the glass. "You keep saying that. I'm not getting any younger- and neither are they."

"Just can't do this right now..." Through the crackling signal, Clara could make out anxiety in her sister's voice. She didn't want to keep persisting. She wasn't a pushover, but she couldn't stand pressurising people into doing things. Even though this wasn't something her sister should have to feel pressured into. 

This was family; this was something that she should be playing an active role in. Clara had never experienced these things. She had never wheeled a pushchair to and from the school gates; or treated children to a hot chocolate in the café; or pushed a toddler on the swings so high that he begged for more when she stopped for a rest.

And she wouldn't have minded not being involved if she hadn't known that she had  a family- one who lived mere streets away, yet didn't even know her name.

"It isn't about what you can or can't do," she told her sister. "This is about family. Nothing that has happened matters anymore- you know that now. What's past is past."

But her only response was the sharp crackling at the other end; so Clara put down the receiver. She wouldn't be going out to her school's Science Competition tonight after all. There were lots of things to do around the house. She ought to get started.

*                                                                                                  *

"My name is Victoria Fairfield," Victoria announced, "And I am going to be reciting a poem that I've written."

That was the cue for the others to come on stage. It was a small, brightly lit platform; surrounded by wide screens and benches. Victoria normally thought she looked quite good on camera, but not today.

Today, her mouth was dry and her throat felt swollen. She wasn't sure if she could make it to the end of her verse to let Nathan take over. Today, she was dressed in a grey fleece and jeans which felt insultingly casual- the sort of casual that yelled out to all the staff that she didn't care about this audition. Today, she was standing in a strange building, holding open a poem that neither of her parents knew about. And she suddenly wished they did know, even though it wouldn't change anything.

It seemed to take her brothers and sisters an age to walk across the stage. They came with ease; shoulders held back, even stopping to smile at the camera woman. 

Of course they weren't nervous like her, Victoria realised as she watched their faces. This audition didn't determine anything for them. It was just a few hours marked in a calendar; a brief turn in the direction of their day. Not a turn in the direction of their lives. If Victoria failed this, she would have to re-think her entire future. She would have to accept that fame was not a career option; and turn to Plan B.

"Take your time," the camera woman's clipped voice broke into her panicked thoughts.

Victoria wished she could take her time, but she knew that wasn't an option. People always meant the opposite when they said that. They wanted to go home. So she smoothed out the paper and cleared her throat.

"Family Togetherness," she declared, "means more than people think it does. It's not a day out to the zoo; or a holiday to the countryside. It isn't doing the babysitting to earn some money, or picking up your siblings from school."