All The Little Moments (47 page)

Anna sighed and looked up to the bed where Toby was sleeping soundly. “He’s just
so little.”

Kym turned her head and looked at Toby, curled up next to her leg. She ran her hand through his curls. “He is.” She looked up at Anna. “But he’ll be okay. The sand is a great idea, and so is
the jacket.”

Toby stirred then and sat up, hair tousled. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, face splitting into a sleepy grin as he took them all in. Finally, he zeroed in on Anna, grabbed his blanket, and half crawled to the edge of the bed, turning onto his stomach to slide off. Toddling over, he fell into her lap, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face into her neck as he yawned widely, not
quite awake.

Anna brushed the hair off
his forehead.

When she looked up, both Lane and Kym were gazing at Toby with smitten looks on their faces. “You two
are ridiculous.”

They both looked up at once,
surprised. “What?”

“You’re both only here to use me for the cute toddler.
Admit it.”

They looked at each other and shrugged. “We were hoping you’d take longer to clue in,”
Kym said.

Poking her tongue out, Anna tugged Toby closer; he quickly became indignant and squirmed to be put down. When Anna set him on the ground, he stood for a minute, blinking and looking around, before sitting soundly back in
Anna’s lap.

Lane rolled her eyes. “He
adores you.”

“Jealous?”

About to reply, Lane was cut off as they heard the door
open downstairs.

“I saw Nurse Lane’s car! And Kym’s!” Ella’s voice came yelling up
at them.

“Ella! You don’t have to scream it out.” Sandra’s voice reached them, and Toby stood up, looking delighted at the sound and bolting for
the door.

“Well, where
are they?”

All three stood up and followed Toby out into the hall, where the toddler was about to launch himself down
the stairs.

Anna raced forward. “Toby! Wait for us or take
the rail!”

Blanket clutched in both hands, he didn’t even look at her as he started to climb down. Quickly, Anna reached forward and grasped the back of his
shirt. “Toby!”

He looked up and tried to keep walking forward, Anna holding tight to his shirt so his little legs kicked at air. “Toby Andrew Foster!” She tugged him up, and he squirmed in her arms. “You know you need to hold the rail or wait
for me.”

He squirmed more and made a whiny noise as Anna
gripped him.

“I
do it!”

Secretly delighted he’d just thrown out a sentence, Anna held onto him and started walking down. She could practically
 
feel
 
the amusement coming off Kym and Lane behind her. Her mother looked up at them, Ella bouncing from foot to foot next to her in her
school uniform.

Anna looked at Toby, who had half twisted around trying to get down. “Nope. Now you get carried because you
didn’t listen.”

She blew a raspberry on his neck, making him half giggle and half whine before she set him on the ground at
the bottom.

Instantly, Toby ran to Sandra, his goal since he’d heard her voice. Anna’s mother bent down and picked him up. “Toby! Are you
being naughty?”

“Nan!” He looked absolutely delighted with himself, his little chest
puffed out.

Unable to be grumpy at him, Sandra chuckled and kissed his cheek, looking up at Anna. “Hello, and hello to you two,” she greeted Lane
and Kym.

Bouncing forward, Ella attached herself to Anna’s
legs. “Hi!”

Anna chuckled and ran her hand over Ella’s braided hair. “Hey Ella Bella. How
was school?”

“Boring.” She looked around Anna’s legs to Kym and Lane. “Are you guys staying
for dinner?”

Plopping down on the stairs, Kym reached forward to pull Ella between her legs, wrapping her arms around the girl.
“Sure are.”

Whispering in Kym’s ear in a voice that everyone could hear, Ella said, “Is Nurse Lane cooking? ’Cause Aunty Na cooked last night, and it was covered in
black bits.”

As soon as everyone sniggered, Anna threw her hands up in disgust and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, calling after Ella, “I was going to offer you an after school snack, Ella, but I might burn
the banana.”

Her niece’s confused voice floated down the hallway, “How can you burn
a banana?”

The group appeared in the
kitchen doorway.

Lane looked down at Ella. “Your aunty was
being silly.”

“Oh.”

“And yeah, I was going to cook. What did
you want?”

Anna chose to ignore them all and start
cutting fruit.

“Pancakes.”

Scooping Ella up and tickling her, Lane said, “You’re going to turn into a
pancake soon!”

“Am not!”

When Kym sat down next to Sandra, Toby instantly squirmed from her lap and made a beeline for the basket in the corner filled with trains and cars. Content, he ran one over the floor, making
crashing noises.

“Are too! We can’t have pancakes. There has to be at least three different
food groups.”

Back still pulled into Lane, where she half hung with Lane’s arms around her waist, Ella
pouted. “Um—sgetti!”

“Spaghetti?
Okay. Deal.”

“Yay!”

Lane looked up. “You
staying, Sandra?”

“Twist
my arm.”

As Anna dropped banana into two plastic bowls, she eyed her mother. “Twist your arm to not have to cook
for once?”

“Have to pretend to not jump at a free meal, dear. Don’t want to
look cheap.”

A squeal of protest from Toby had Anna looking up sharply, eyeing her niece, who was holding a train. “Ella, did you just grab the train out of
his hands?”

As quick as she could, Ella dropped the train back into Toby’s lap; the little boy clutched it to his chest, looking at his sister like she’d utterly
betrayed him.

“I wanted to show him
something cool!”

“So don’t snatch it from him. You
know that.”

Ella reached forward and grabbed a different train out, grumbling, “Fine.
Sorry, Toby.”

With a smile, Toby held the train out
to Ella.

Happy the kids weren’t about to kill each other, Anna went back to the fruit, smiling as Lane kissed the back of her neck on her way to fill up
the kettle.

Sandra turned to Kym, resting a hand on hers. “You look
tired, Kym.”

She said it with a mother’s concern, and Kym gave a weak grin. “I had a
long night.”

Patting Kym’s hand, Sandra murmured something that caused her to nod. Anna didn’t quite catch what it was as she dropped some apple into the bowls and walked around the bench, holding them out to the kids, who both grabbed at their
fruit instantly.

“Ahem?”

“Thank you!” Ella’s voice had turned singsong as she bit into a piece
of apple.

“Tobes? Ta?”

Bulging cheeks impeded
his “Ta.”

“You’re welcome.”

Taking a seat, Anna thanked Lane as she put a mug down in front of her. Kym was looking a little better, and Anna sipped her hot drink, wondering how Sandra could murmur words of comfort so easily. After so many months supporting her mother as she fell apart, Anna liked to see that she could still get it together to
comfort Kym.

The afternoon passed easily, and Lane started to prepare dinner, Sandra joining her in chopping vegetables, while Kym read stories to an
enthralled Toby.

Anna slid behind Lane and murmured something in her ear, loud enough for Sandra to hear. They both nodded as Anna slipped over to the table where Ella was colouring in. “Ella Bella? Is that
a unicorn?”

“Yup. She’s even going to
have wings.”

“Wow. That’s way too cool. Kind of like
My
Little Ponies
?”

Ella looked at her
blankly. “What?”

God, Anna was old. She heard both Sandra and Lane chuckle behind her. “Nothing. Wanna come upstairs with me for a bit? I wanted to talk to you more about what we talked about
last night?”

Instantly, Ella’s demeanour changed. She kept her eyes glued to her picture for a second. Anna didn’t push it, waiting for her to make the
first move.

Finally Ella put her pencil down and pushed her chair back, standing up. She was eye to eye with Anna, who leant forward, kissing Ella’s cheek and smiling at
her reassuringly.

When she stood, Anna patiently waited for Ella, who stood staring into the kitchen where Lane and Sandra were busy pretending nothing important was happening. Eventually, she held her hand up for Anna to take. Wide green eyes stared up at Anna, and Ella suddenly looked a lot older than her
six years.

“Did you pack
their stuff?”

“Yeah. I’ve started to. But I wanted to make sure you got all the things you wanted. Did you want to go
look now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay. Let’s go, honey.” They started walking to the hall and up the stairs. “Toby chose some things,
you know.”

Halfway up, Ella paused.
“Did he?”

Wanting to be eye to eye, Anna sat down on the
step. “Yeah.”

Fingers fiddling with the zip on her jacket, Ella looked up the stairs almost nervously. “Good. ’Cause he’s just a baby and he needs stuff to remember them.” Watching such a young child be so contemplative was humbling. “Aunty Na, do you remember things from when you were
a baby?”

Anna shook her head slowly. “No,
I don’t.”

“I don’t really, either.” Ella was gnawing her lip, and Anna sat still, letting her work out where her thoughts were going. “Toby’s
really little.”

“He is, yeah.” Some hair had fallen loose from Ella’s braids and Anna tucked it behind her
ear gently.

Ella’s eyes searched Anna’s face, and her voice came out a whisper. “He’s not going to remember Mummy and Daddy,
is he?”

“No, not really,
Ella Bella.”

Ella’s forehead furrowed and her eyes shined. “But I
remember them.”

“Yeah,
you do.”

“And you do.
And Grandma.”

“Yeah.”

“But
Toby won’t?”

Anna shook her head. “He’ll have a feeling about
them, though.”

“A feeling?”

“Yeah. A feeling of them. Of how much they loved you
and him.”

Ella nodded absently. “And we’ll help him remember. I’ll help him. I’m his big sister, I can help him remember all
about them.”

Pulling Ella between her legs, Anna wrapped her arms around her tiny frame. With a sigh, Ella leant
into her.

“You can definitely
do that.”

They sat for a minute, Ella playing with the pendant around Anna’s neck. Anna kissed the top of her head
and waited.

Ella finally took a deep breath. “Can we go
up now?”

“Yeah, we can. There are lots of boxes, and a lot is packed up, but if you think of anything I haven’t kept out, you ask and we’ll dig it
out, okay?”

Hand in hand, they walked up the stairs, pausing in the doorway. Ella’s eyes flicked from the bed to the boxes, taking in her parents’ things packed away. Without looking at Anna, she whispered, “How does it all fit in boxes? They’re
so
 
big
.”

Not sure what she meant, Anna looked around at the medium-sized boxes. With a stab in her gut, it occurred to her: Ella meant her parents, the memory of them, was so big. To Ella, nothing that huge could fit in
a box.

“I don’t know Ella. I wonder the
same thing.”

“Are we gonna throw it
all away?”

Anna shook her head adamantly. “No. I was going to put a lot of it away, for now. But I thought—you know how at Christmas we collect things to put in boxes and give to people who can’t
afford stuff?”

“To the
poor people?”

“Yeah.”

Ella looked back into the room. “Yeah, Mummy always gave lots of stuff. We’d go to the stores and pick out toys I thought other kids would like and we’d wrap them, and they’d get given to kids who couldn’t
’ford presents.”

The story tugged at Anna’s heart. Sally had been such an exceptional person. “Well, I was thinking, their clothes? Maybe we could give most of them to a charity? So people who can’t afford clothes can
have some.”

Ella was quiet again before she finally nodded. “Yeah. Mummy would like that.”

“I thought
so, too.”

And finally, they stepped into the room together, Ella’s hand tight in
her own.