Lisa didn’t know. All she had seen at her own scan, barely six months ago, was a dark void wherethe flicker of a little life had once been, but she nodded silently.
‘It was then… then I knew everything would be OK. My baby was strong and wiggly, and Mum and Pete were by my side. It was like it made us a family, more than we had ever been.’
‘Oh, Flick, I’m so glad they were there for you.’ Lisa blinked, attempting to push away the tears she could feel forming and the painfulmemory of sitting in the scanning room alone.
‘And they adored each other, Megan and Mum.’ Felicity told Lisa how she knew and took comfort in the fact her mum had loved being a nana. ‘Funny, isn’t it? If I hadn’t had Megan when I did, Mum might never have been a grandparent. My life would have taken a different path.’
‘Sometimes things happen for a reason.’ The words slipped outautomatically, it wasn’t a sentiment Lisa held much faith in, but it felt like something Winnie might say and she always seemed to know the right thing to say. Lisa couldn’t believe how much Felicity’s life had moved on – how much she had coped with in her absence.
‘I guess.’ Felicity took a breath and smiled. ‘Sorry, I’ve been talking for so long. What about you? What have you been upto these past years, Lisa Blake?’
Lisa thought about her life, searching for something to say. She attempted to smile.
‘Travelling. Backpacking. Europe at first. Then, as you know, I met Ben who was going to India, and I joined him. It was a bit of a culture shock; the heat, the number of people, the noise and the intensity.’ Lisa remembered that her call to Felicity on her twenty-firstbirthday had been from Delhi, Ben was rushing her as he wanted to explore Paharganj, the main bazaar next to the railway station. ‘Eventually, we returned to Europe. We took seasonal work and travelled together for a couple of years, until just before my twenty-third birthday when we moved to London, rented a flat, got jobs. After that—’
A ring at the doorbell interrupted her. As muchas Lisa was relieved not to have to go into any more depth about her life in London, she didn’t entirely want the moment to end. It was as if moving would shatter it all. She and Flick were talking. Actually talking. As the doorbell rang again, Flick and Lisa sat staring at each other. There was still so much to say, a lot yet to be explained, but it was a start. The two of them together again, sittingback at Lisa’s mum’s kitchen table like they had so many times before. The doorbell rang once more. Reluctantly, Lisa stood.
As she walked down the hallway, she wondered who it might be and began to panic at the thought it might be Nathan Baker. Looking at her door as if it had become a portal to the past she held her breath.Surely not!Everybody knew Facebook friend requests weren’tactual, real-life friend requests, didn’t they? He wouldn’t just turn up at her parents’ home the way Flick had,would he?Preparing herself, Lisa opened the door, but as she took in the sight before her she did a double take.
‘What the…’ It seemed her day, and life in general, could indeed get more surreal!
Felicity heard the shock in Lisa’s voice and a commotion beyond the door.
‘Flick! Flick!’
Alarmed by the urgency in Lisa’s voice, Felicity hurried to the door, stopping in her tracks and swallowing hard when she saw Lisa standing open mouthed in front of Harold Martin, Chris Packham and a cameraman who, judging by the large van parked across the driveway beyond them, was from the BBC.
Felicity’s cheeks turned crimson as all eyes turned to her.She wrung her hands and offered a small smile before clearing her throat. ‘So, not Bill Oddie after all then.’
