Family For Beginners

“No!” Molly shrank from her and Izzy felt that rejection like a blow to the gut. She’d just been on a horse for goodness sake. She was starting to think her walk would never be normal again. The least her sister could do was join her for a dip.

“But you love swimming.”

“I don’t want to.” Molly burst into noisy sobs while Izzy stood, stunned.

What was wrong? Her sister loved everything to do with the water.

Confused, Izzy dropped to her knees and hugged her. “There,” she said soothingly. “It’s fine. You don’t have to swim if you don’t want to.” But why wouldn’t she want to? Was this a tantrum? Was she tired after the horse-riding? Izzy’s whole body ached from holding on and trying not to fall on her head and die, so that was possible.

Molly’s sobs intensified until she was gulping in air in between each heartrending howl.

Izzy started to panic. This was her sister. She knew her sister. But she had no idea what was going on here. “What’s the matter? Did something happen? Have you hurt yourself? Was it the horse? Did it bite you or something?”

Molly shook her head, her face crumpled. “I miss Mommy.”

“I know, I know.” Izzy hugged her, totally out of her depth. There had been the nightmares of course, and the bed-wetting, but those had been easier to deal with. This? She had no idea what had brought it on. It couldn’t have been the horses. There were no memories there. Her mother wouldn’t have gone within a million miles of a horse.

She rocked her sister as she howled and glanced desperately at the Lodge. Her dad was still sailing. Where was Aunt Clare? Probably in the shower at the back of the house. Aiden, too.

“It’s okay, honey.” She stroked Molly’s hair. “It’s okay.” Please be okay. Please stop crying.

“Don’t—want—” Molly hiccupped, her breath jerking as she tried to get the words out “—go in—water.”

“You don’t want to go in the water. I get it. You don’t have to. You can sit on the edge and watch me, and—agh—” She gasped as Molly almost broke her ribs.

“Don’t want you—to swim—” jerk, hiccup “—either.”

Her sister’s arms were crushing her. “Right. Okay.” But it wasn’t okay of course. It was bemusing and a little scary. She used to have confidence dealing with Molly, but right now she felt clueless.

Desperate, she glanced at the Lodge and saw Flora appear by the window.

Izzy hesitated, trying to breathe even though her sister’s arms weren’t giving her lungs the space to expand. She didn’t want to ask for help. She wanted to handle this herself. She wanted to be indispensable. On the other hand Molly’s sobs were killing her. She couldn’t bear to see her sister this upset.

“Tell me what’s happened, Molly.”

But Molly just clung and cried and Izzy started to feel like crying, too.

She usually knew exactly how to comfort her sister, but not today.

With a huge effort, she forced herself to call out. “Flora!”

In an ideal world Flora was the last person she’d turn to for help, but this wasn’t an ideal world, was it? In fact most of the time right now it felt like a pretty crap world.

Flora’s head turned and she gave a little wave and then stopped, her hand suspended in midair as she took in the scene beneath her. “I’m coming—” She vanished and moments later was sprinting across the lawn toward Izzy and Molly.

Thank goodness, was all Izzy could think. Later, she was sure her insecurities would bubble over, but right now she was just relieved not to have to handle this on her own.

“What happened?” Flora knelt down beside her. “Hey, Molly, what’s wrong, sweetie? Has she been stung or something? Is she in pain?”

Molly clung to Izzy, her fingernails digging in Izzy’s flesh.

Izzy didn’t know about her sister, but she was in plenty of pain.

She gritted her teeth and tried not to yell “ow.” Her sister seemed determined to damage the few parts of her that weren’t already aching after the horse-riding.

Flora was rubbing Molly’s arms. “Did she fall? Hurt herself?”

“No. She just doesn’t want to go swimming. Although why she couldn’t ju