Foxblood: Rise of the Hellion (WattyAward 2012 Finalist)

Part Twenty-Seven

“There’s another one, Soph…and this time it’s alive,” Beth shouted from the living room.

I was in my room, in the process of stuffing the last of Mum’s things into a bin bag. “What is it?”

“Hungry I think. It’s trying to eat my hand.”

The constant stream of presents had begun arriving almost immediately. All the usual suspects at first. Flowers, of course, enough to turn the flat into an extension of the funeral home downstairs. The odd box of chocolates too, but after the last chocolate experience, they remained uneaten. And when those things didn’t sway me, other more imaginative presents followed. The new mobile was a plus, and was worth receiving if only to witness Beth’s jealous face. I’d never owned such a modern piece of gadgetry, and the screen was forever lighting up with Sebastian’s number—not that I planned on answering it. A CD of Sebastian’s violin playing (enjoyable), a sofa bed for Todd (handy), a masseuse for the morning (relaxing), the guy serenading me from the pavement outside (very embarrassing)…and now this, whatever it was.

“Send it back,” I shouted.

“What? I didn’t catch that.”

“If it’s alive, send it back,” I said, on my way to see what all the fuss was about, “I can’t afford another mouth to feed, Beth.”

“But it’s so cute. Can’t we keep it…please?”

The fluffy, white kitten looked up at me and licked its nose. I was too soft hearted.

“You keep it then, if you must. But you’re taking care of it.”

“Yay.” Beth’s face lit up like a child’s at Christmas. “I think it’s a girl. I’m going to call her Mitsy.”

“Mitsy? Who do you think you are, Paris Hilton?”

I studied Beth’s aging kimono dressing gown with half a week’s breakfast down the front, and her purple feather mules with the worn through soles, and decided she looked more like a reincarnation of my Nanna.

“Snowflake then,” she said.

I scowled. “Too cliché.”

“Ooo, I know…Nimbus.”

“Huh?” Where did that come from?

“You know, like the cloud.”

Sometimes it puzzled me how Beth ever got into uni. She could be so dim. “Isn’t that a rain cloud?” I asked.

“Is it? Oh well, I can’t be bothered to think of anything else, and I think it suits her. Nimbus it is.” Beth kissed the kitten on the nose and set her down.

Sebastian’s gifts didn’t change the fact that I was still mad at him. But the anger was diminishing with time, and I did miss him. I kept picturing how he’d looked that last time I saw him, and my brain made up dozens of scenarios of how the evening could have gone differently. All of which ended up with us spending the night together.