Page 106 of Lyrebird

It is the first word she has said in days.

‘I’m here, Mum, it’s Laura,’ Laura takes her hand and holds it to her lips.

‘Mummy,’ she repeats. Her eyes are open, they look around as if searching for Gaga.

Laura’s heart pounds. She hurries to the window and peeks through the blinds toward the garage. There’s no sign of Gaga, the customer’s car is still in the drive. She looks back from her mother to the garage, feeling trapped, the most trapped she’s ever felt in her life. If she calls Gaga, the customer will hear or see her. They’d all made a pact that Laura would never be seen, not until she’s the legal age. It was long understood and long unspoken. The idea of her being out in the world before she’s sixteen terrifies them.

Laura is torn. Her mother’s breathing is shallow, she knows she’s leaving the world, she can’t call Gaga and risk anybody discovering her existence, but she can’t let her mum go thinking that she’s on her own.

The panic. The hot feeling that overwhelms her body, as sweat breaks out on her brow and trickles down her back. The palpitations. The cold fear. She is losing her mum and while she wants to shout to the world for help, she knows she can’t risk being taken away from Gaga too. She would lose everything.

She doesn’t want her mum to die thinking she is alone, just as she will feel without hers. She doesn’t want Gaga to know that her daughter died without her thinking she was there. She sits beside her, closes her eyes and wills every single part of her to solve the problem, to save her in the moment.

She opens her mouth and sings, and when she sings, she hears Gaga’s voice, the voice of an older woman with a Yorkshire accent. Isabel squeezes her hand.

The broken tree, with a broken limb,

Stands where the grass is brown, and the sky is dim.

Flowers are forever buds,

A skeleton tree in the luscious woods.

No spiders crawl, no animals reign,

On the broken tree, with a broken limb.

But on the branch a She Bird props,

With her beak held high, and her eyes apop.

As she sings her song for all

The buds open wide and the petals fall.

The spiders crawl and weave their webs,

The fruit flies flee from the strawberry beds

The broken tree is broken no more when the She Bird sits to sing her lore.

The tree’s alive, the limb’s repaired,

The animals inhabit because they all have heard.

Children climb, and laugh and play,

The broken tree comes alive for just one day.

The She Bird’s song stops and she flies away

And the broken tree returns that way.

Solomon and Bo are holding their breath as they watch Laura. It’s not just her voice that has changed as she recalls the song from her mother’s deathbed, somehow she has managed to allow the spirit of her Gaga to inhabit her. It is nothing short of magical. Bo turns to Solomon, looks at him for the first time since she effectively left him; her eyes are wide and filled with tears. He reaches for her hand and she takes it, squeezes it. Laura opens her eyes and looks at their hands, joined.

Bo wipes her cheek and Laura smiles.

‘Was that …’ She clears her throat to remove the emotion and starts again. ‘Was that the first time you realised you had this skill?’