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‘Yes,’ they said in unison, their voices radiating utter glee.
‘Grrroooowwwlll. Off we go, then.’ Walking with big steps and swaying from side to side, Jasper carefully made his way upstairs to his mother’s kitchen. The house was the perfect arrangement for all concerned. He and the girls lived on the lower level and his parents lived upstairs. They had their own bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living areas, giving privacy where privacy was needed and security for the girls when Jasper was called to the hospital in the middle of the night. They communicated via an intercom so if he was called out, he could buzz through to his parents and they knew to check on the girls, who had a child monitor situated in their perfectly pink bedroom.
His mother was in the kitchen, making coffee, as he crashed towards her, still growling. ‘The granddaughter express from the land of Giganticor is here,’ he announced, and Iris, his mother, came over and took the girls from him, one at a time.
‘Oh, thank you, Mr Giant. You are so kind to deliver such beautiful girls to me.’ When the girls were seated at the kitchen table, Jasper kissed his mother’s cheek then poured himself a cup of coffee.
‘Mmm. Just what the doctor ordered.’
Both girls giggled. ‘You say that every morning, Daddy.’ Lilly grinned up at him. ‘Can I have some coffee?’
‘I want some too,’ Lola added,
‘Ah. I believe Grandma has some yummy milk for you to have.’
‘I want the coffee one.’
‘I want it, too.’
Iris rolled her eyes. ‘And you say that every morning,’ she told her granddaughters. ‘Kiss Daddy goodbye or he’ll be late for work.’
Both girls puckered up and Jasper spent the next five minutes being smothered in kisses. ‘I think I need another shower,’ he remarked as he took the lunchbox Iris handed him.
‘Make sure you eat that breakfast muffin sooner rather than later, Jasper Edwards, or there’ll be trouble,’ his mother warned.
‘Yes, Mum,’ he replied with mock meekness, then winked at his daughters. ‘See you all tonight. Love you,’ he called as he headed back down the stairs.
‘Love you, too, Daddy,’ the girls yelled, loud enough to wake up their grandpa, which only made Jasper smile even more.
Jennifer walked through the hospital just before eight o’clock, eager to start work. The past week she’d spent at Sara’s, trying to finding a suitable apartment, had been busy but very much the calm before the storm. The problem was, she hadn’t found an apartment near the hospital and most of her belongings were still in Melbourne. If she didn’t find a place soon, she’d have to put everything into storage and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
Anyway, she reminded herself, she would be spending most of her time here at the hospital, keeping busy. Work, work, work. She’d been thinking for some time that she needed to find a life outside work, but she was beginning to wonder if she ever would. Her one and only opportunity to have it all—to be a doctor, a wife and a mother—had been cruelly taken away from her when Arturo had died. Now that she’d achieved what she’d wanted to achieve professionally, she was beginning to realise how monocular her world was. For the past eight years she’d lived and breathed work, and it had been fine for the first few years. After that she’d simply fallen into a bad routine where she’d spent more hours than necessary at the hospital, too many hours studying for her doctorate and declining every social invitation that came her way.
In fact, for the past two years she’d barely received any social invitations, and while she tried not to let that bother her, telling herself it was just as well because she’d have had to turn them down anyway, quietly she was upset at the way her life was turning out. She knew Arturo wouldn’t be happy for her to be all alone and it was for that reason alone that she’d jumped at the chance to move back home to Parramatta. Here, at least, she had the hope of finding more depth to her life, mainly because when she reflected on her past, Parramatta was the one place she could remember being truly happy.
On the drive to the hospital that morning, she’d passed the high school she’d attended with Sara. She’d passed the medical school where she’d met Arturo on her first day. She’d passed the gardens where Arturo had kissed her for the first time, and she’d passed the small hospital chapel where his memorial service had been held.
The hospital itself had changed a great deal since she’d been a lowly medical student but she was able to navigate her way to the orthopaedic department where her new office was situated. She walked up to the reception desk and was met by a smiling woman she guessed to be in her fifties.
