Page 51 of All Mine
Papà: Follow that dream!
Isabella: Where has your dream taken you two today?
Mamma: We swam in a waterfall!
Isabella: How cool.
Papà: Not cool actually. Cold. In fact, freezing!
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Etienne
Brothers from Another Mother WhatsApp group
Fox: 2 p.m. at our house. George’s birthday party. Don’t be late.
Walker: I’ll be there.
Etienne: Me too.
Fox: Bring ear protectors. It’s going to be a noisy day.
Walker: Oops. Not just a noisy day, I’m afraid. Noisy year ahead. . .
Fox: Eh?
Walker: Are you going to tell him, Etienne, or shall I?
Fox: Tell me what?
Etienne: We bought him a drum kit.
Fox:
Etienne: Just kidding.
Fox:
Fox was not wrong about the noise. Ten three- and four-year-olds and their parents, plus some brothers and sisters andtheirfriends, packed into Fox’s four-bedroomed family home almost had Etienne’s ears bleeding within ten minutes. The fact that the children were existing on sugar and adrenaline also raised the decibel levels.
He made his way through the house to the kitchen diner which opened onto the back garden. On his way, he passed Fox’s study where the door had been taped closed with police incident tape and a notice had been stuck firmly in place:STAY OUT OR DIE. Obviously, the game design was at a crucial stage then and couldn’t be put at risk by cake-high partygoers.
As he picked up a beer from the table markedAdults only, the birthday boy barrelled into his thighs and hugged him tight. Etienne scooped him up to shoulder height so that he could see him properly.
‘Happy birthday, George,’ he said to the freckled face, who grinned widely before wiggling like a bag of cats to be returned to the floor, where he took off through the sea of legs towards the garden.
Etienne followed, saying hello to those he knew, and nodding to those he didn’t. A couple of the mums watched him with heavy eyes as he walked past; smiling politely, he moved on.
Fox’s kitchen was the most family place he knew. It reminded him of his own home growing up: pictures on the fridge, birthday cards on the windowsill, photographs on a corkboard on the wall. A shelf full of cookery books– which Fox used daily to make sure he was getting nutrition into the boys– a calendar full of play dates in red, work deadlines in black. A wooden table with spaghetti Bolognese stains deeply ingrained. All that was missing was their mum. Many a night he and Walker had sat with Fox around that table in the early days, offering beer and friendship while Fox kept one ear on the baby monitor and one eye on the clock for the next feed. Today aHappy 4th Birthday!banner hung across the ceiling, while red and blue balloons were tied in bunches in the corners of the room. It was amazing how much things had changed. Etienne was here to celebrate that today, just as much as he was here to chuck his godson around.
That had been a surprise too. When Fox finally came out of his shock at having two children and no wife, George had been almost six months old: a chubby baby who always wore more of his food than he swallowed. Fox asked if Etienne would be his godfather, saying with a smile, ‘Walker got Reggie, it’s only fair.’ But then, in all seriousness, ‘Honestly, mate, you’ve been a lifesaver. I’d love it if you said yes.’ He’d been choked up, tears filling his eyes.
Etienne glanced at the corkboard as he went past. Fox had a passion for photo booths. Earlier photos had Fox holding fat-cheeked George wearing bibs and rompers, with Reggie hanging on the side. The boys changed across the corkboard, George growing teeth, Reggie losing teeth, both getting curly hair. Fox looked exactly the same in every picture − same smile, same silver hair, just a different checked shirt. Right at the bottom of the corkboard there was one of Fox and Meg. In that one, his hair was darker with a silver fleck at the temples. He smiled widely at the camera, as Meg pressed a kiss to his cheek.
‘You’re late!’ Fox shouted from the garden. ‘But I see you found the beer.’ He beckoned Etienne over to the circle he was in where everyone still wore coats and rosy cheeks.
‘And I’ve already seen the birthday boy,’ Etienne said, lifting his bottle to cheers with Walker as he joined the group, grinning at Rosie and Wren who had brought Riley, who was in the same nursery as George.
