Family For Beginners

“Some days I can’t remember what she looked like. What if one day I wake up and I don’t remember at all?”

“I worried about that, too,” Flora said. “So I took my favorite photo of my mother, and I had copies made and I carry that photo everywhere with me. So in a way, she is always with me. I like knowing I have her there. There’s one in my purse, one in a frame I keep by my bed, one on my wall in my apartment. So if you have a favorite photo, we could do the same for you.”

“I don’t know which one is my favorite.”

“Maybe you and Izzy can go through all the photos together and choose the one you like best. The one that reminds you most of your mommy. Maybe when she’s dancing or laughing. Does that sound like a good idea? What do you think, Izzy?”

Izzy’s throat was thick. How could she say that she worried about the same thing? Worried that one day she’d forget what her mother looked like. She kept her mother’s perfume in her bedroom and on bad days when the images in her head were blurred, she breathed in the scent and remembered.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah, we can do that.”

“And now about this swimming.” Flora tipped Molly onto the grass and scrambled to her feet. “How about you and Izzy go swimming together and I’ll make us some drinks.”

“Will you watch me?”

Flora hesitated. “Of course I’m going to watch. Try stopping me.”

“Will you sit right on the edge?”

“Absolutely.” Flora’s skin color took on a faint greenish tinge that reminded Izzy of algae.

“Not right by the edge.” Izzy stripped off her T-shirt down to her bathing suit beneath. “We don’t want to splash her.”

When Flora gave her a quiet smile of gratitude, she couldn’t help returning it. She might want Molly to herself, but she was willing to admit that there were times when reinforcements were a good thing.

Molly was wriggling out of her clothes, apparently forgetting her sudden horror of the water.

She grabbed one of the floats Clare kept in the box close to the water and sped down the grass.

“Whoa! Wait up! You’re not allowed in without me,” Izzy yelled after her, and then glanced at Flora, knowing she had to say something. “Thanks. Sorry you had to handle that.”

“Well I seem to have caused it, so you’re not the one who should be apologizing. And you were great. You are so great with her. No one can handle Molly the way you do.”

Izzy felt like a parched plant that had suddenly been watered. She sucked up the life-giving praise through her roots and it spread to every part of her, reviving her wilting confidence.

She was good with Molly, she knew she was.

Just because she’d had to ask for help on this occasion, didn’t mean she wasn’t good with her sister, and it didn’t mean she wasn’t needed.

She gave a tentative smile. “Thanks.” Why had she built Flora up into a monster? She was just another person doing her best to handle what life threw at her. And life seemed to have thrown plenty. She’d lost her mother, too, and she’d had no dad and no big sister. “You were brilliant.”

“You’re welcome. As I was the one who caused the meltdown, it was the least I could do.” Flora paused. “Are you aching after the riding?”

Izzy pulled a face. “Like I’ve been kicked down the road by a pair of heavy boots. Or even a horse.”

Flora grinned back and for a moment they were just two bruised and aching people who had shared a similar experience.

“Better move. I’m on lifeguard duty.” Flora waved a hand and headed toward the water.

“No need to come any closer than that.” Izzy dragged one of the garden chairs a safe distance from the water. “And don’t worry. I’ve got a lifesaving certificate. You’re just there for show.”

“I hope so, because there is no way I could help anyone in trouble in the water. Thanks, Izzy.”

Feeling confident and a little more sure of her place in the world, Izzy slid into the lake and joined her sister.

17

Flora