Page 59 of Elijah
Amy
aged 28
“You really don’t need to do this,” Matty said, scratching his head and holding his other hand against his chest. “It’s too much, Ames.”
I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave a squeeze. Nothing would ever be too much for him, or my new nephew or niece, and buying a pushchair was what I wanted to do.
“Matty’s right.” Carla looked at me with anxious eyes as she ran a hand down the hood of the top of the range pushchair. “We can’t possibly accept this, Amy. It’s far too expensive.”
“No it’s not. I want to do this for you.” I turned to the sales lady. “You’ll be able to keep it here until the baby is born, won’t you?”
“Why?” Matty asked.
The lady, with greying hair and bright-blue, twinkly eyes, gave me a warm, understanding smile. “Of course we can.”
“But why?” Matty repeated.
“I think I heard it’s bad luck,” Carla chipped in, moving to walk around the pushchair and taking a closer look.
Matty’s gaze swung to mine, his mouth parted on a gasp. I smiled and rubbed his arm. “It’s fine, Matty.”
“I-I didn’t know,” he stammered.
“Do you want the matching baby bag?” I asked, changing the subject.
Carla’s head shot up from her inspection. “God, no. Honestly, the pushchair is enough.”
I turned to the sales lady and nodded. “We’ll have the bag too please.”
“I think we can get you a little discount on that,” she replied with a smile. “I’ll go and get one from the stock room while you have a last look over the pushchair.”
“God, Ames, I don’t know what to say.” Matty blew out his cheeks. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough. That’s eight hundred quid’s worth of pushchair there.”
He looked at me with the look of a man in pain and I couldn’t help but laugh. It was typical of Matty, he’d give his last penny away, but found it wholly uncomfortable if anyone helped him out or showed him kindness. I didn’t care how he felt though, I wanted to do this, they deserved it because it was going to be hard enough being young parents and living with my mum and dad. Not that Mum and Dad were awful, but they’d have very little personal space and if I knew my mum, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from giving Carla and Matty the benefit of her advice, no matter how much Dad and I had warned her not to. If me buying them a pushchair helped them to save more to be able to move out, then so be it.
Carla rushed over to me and pulled me into a tight hug, and I had to quell the reaction that her slim arms wrapped around me brought. I’d been close to tears at the slightest thing recently; ever since I’d realised that I still loved my ex-husband. Although, helping my little brother to prepare for the arrival of his child was pretty emotive in itself. With my feelings for Elijah filling my heart, anything else that happened was simply that cup of water which overfilled my glass of emotion.
“Thank you so much, Amy.” Her words were muffled as she squeezed tighter. “You and your mum and dad have been amazing.”
Matty came closer as his hand came out to rub Carla’s back. The three of us standing in the middle of a host of pushchairs and highchairs in a little group hug.
“Okay,” I finally said. “Let me go and pay while you take a final look at it and make sure it’s the one you definitely want.”
“Oh god, we do,” Carla gushed, swiping at tears on her cheeks. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
As Matty pulled her into his arms, I left them to meet the sales lady at the cash register. As she started to put everything through, including a cute little baby sleeping bag that I couldn’t resist, I turned to watch the street outside. It was then that I saw them – Elijah and Mia, holding hands and carrying a couple of bags each. Mia was talking animatedly to him and he was listening intently, his head slightly cocked towards her, with a smile on his face.
I felt sick and my legs felt weak. My heart drummed hard and the sensation of falling took over my body. It felt as though I’d lost my grip on the parapet that I’d been gripping and no matter how much I screamed or scrabbled to get my grasp back, I was going to thud to the ground and never get back up.
“It is a card, you’re paying with?”
The sales lady’s voice broke my living nightmare and when I turned back to her, I had the feeling she’d already asked me the question once before.
“Sorry,” I said, handing over my card. “I was in a world of my own.”
Not saying anything but simply smiling, she took the card from me and I dared a glance back through the window, but they were gone.
Feeling hot and clammy, I unzipped my leather jacket and ran a hand across the back of my neck, under my hair. It was sticky and the feeling of nausea was still there – I couldn’t un-see how happy they were. I’d never get that image out of my head.
