Three Wishes (12 page)

I think the ferry guy would have ignored them, but passengers started calling out, Wait, wait! So he rolled his eyes and put the walkway back out again and they all came clattering on, laughing and panting. Some of the passengers even cheered them. It looked like they’d just come straight out of the ocean. The little girls all had dripping wet ponytails sticking out of the back of baseball caps and bare feet caked in sand. The father had their beach towels over one shoulder and he said, “Thanks, mate!” and slapped the guy on the shoulder.

They walked right by us and I could hear them saying, “That was so funny, Dad!” “Let’s have an ice cream now, Daddy!” I realized they must have been sisters. Well, being only an only child living in sad, sodden old Manchester, it seemed to me that they led dream lives.

I thought, I bet you girls have no idea how lucky you are.

That’s when I decided I was going to come and live here when I grew up. It felt like the first grown-up decision I’d ever made. I remember looking at my parents and feeling sorry for them, because they’d miss me when I moved all the way to Australia.

They do too.

Gemma skidded wildly
through the crowded shopping center, dodging and weaving past Christmas shoppers. “The problem with families is they typecast you,” Charlie had said the night before with the tips of his fingers light against the back of her neck. “I’m the voice of sanity. Sometimes I wouldn’t mind a turn as the voice of insanity.”

“Yes!” Gemma agreed too violently because his fingers were making her shiver and she still had one date to go before she succumbed. “You’re exactly right!”

Today, just for fun, she was going to break free of at least one stereotype. For once she was going to be right on time to meet her sisters. It had been a Herculean effort, but it looked like she was going to make it. (How did they manage their relentless punctuality? You had to plan everything so far in advance! It was exhausting!)

She pounded to the top of the packed escalator, apologizing as bag-laden shoppers moved aside for her. As she reached the top, her unzipped handbag flew upward and its entire contents went cascading in a noisy clatter down the escalator. Gemma watched in horror as the crowd bent as one to scrabble for her things. As they stepped off the escalator she accepted each new
item they handed her. Handfuls of loose change. Purse. Mobile phone. Lipstick. Scrunched-up tissues.

“Thank you,” she said. “Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.”

A little old lady carefully pressed a tampon into her hand. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Sweet Jesus, please don’t let there be a condom.

Finally, her entire, thankfully condom-less, bag was restored to her, and she ran breathlessly to the designated coffee shop, now five minutes late. Neither Cat nor Lyn was there. She was first! Triumphantly she sat down at a table and ordered a pineapple juice.

They were shopping for a combined Christmas present for their mother. It was their annual challenge to find something she might actually keep. Maxine consistently returned every gift she received. “Yes. Well. That’s lovely, girls,” she would say as she unwrapped their agonizingly selected gift and doubtfully turned it back and forth. “Perhaps you could give me the receipt, just in case.”

Sipping her juice, Gemma contemplated the woman at the next table, snapping irritably at a little boy of about Maddie’s age. Gemma wrinkled her nose at him over the edge of her glass to try and make him feel better. He stared back at her, seemingly stunned. Idiot child. Wait till Maddie and Lyn arrive, she thought, they’ll show you two.

Gemma was in awe of Lyn’s mothering ability. The day they took Maddie home from the hospital for the first time, she couldn’t believe that Lyn was allowed to actually keep this real, live baby. Her own sister, walking out of the hospital, holding that fragile little bundle, chatting away to Michael, even occasionally taking her eyes
off
the baby! Gemma kept expecting some official to tap them on the shoulder and say, Now wait just a minute there, where do you think you’re going with that!

If Gemma had a baby she’d be terrified she’d accidentally drop it or feed it something poisonous. What if she simply forgot she even
had a baby and then remembered days later?

She had a sudden image of herself running up the escalator
and a baby flying from her clumsy hands, hurtling through the air, shoppers looking up with mouths agape, the tampon lady tossing aside her walking stick to hold out both hands to catch it.

She snorted through her straw.

She remembered the first time she and Cat baby-sat Maddie for Lyn. Cat was lying on her stomach on the floor reading a magazine, while Gemma sat on Lyn and Michael’s bed cradling the warm, sweet-smelling swaddle against her shoulder. It suddenly occurred to her that the baby had gone extremely still.

She carefully turned Maddie over.

“Oh my God,” she said. “I’ve killed the baby.”

Cat didn’t look up from her magazine. “Well, Lyn’s going to be really mad at you.”

“Cat! I’m not joking!”

Cat threw aside the magazine and bounced to her feet. Together they stared at Maddie’s flushed, creased face. Cat poked her gently in the stomach. The baby didn’t move. Gemma pressed her hand to her mouth. “What have I done?”

Cat poked again, harder—and Maddie’s face crumpled as she erupted into a scream of rage. Cat picked her up and began to jiggle her. “Yes, I know, darling, we won’t let that murderous Auntie Gemma hold you anymore.”

It had been the most terrifying moment of Gemma’s life.

“Gem! Gem! Oh! Gem!”

Gemma looked up to see Maddie running through the coffee shop to her, followed by Lyn pushing an empty stroller. Maddie was wearing blue denim overalls and a gaudy pink and silver tiara in her hair. Gemma had bought her the
Little Princess
tiara, secretly coveting it for herself.

“Over there! Gem!” called Maddie to the little boy at the next table as she went running by, pointing her out, as if to say, Are you mad? How could you have missed seeing this extraordinary person sitting right next to you!

Gemma swooped her onto her lap, and Maddie placed both
her tiny starfish hands firmly on Gemma’s cheeks and immediately launched into an incomprensible story.

Lyn remained standing, clutching the stroller handles. “What’s the matter?” she demanded.

“What do you mean?” asked Gemma, turning her head and letting Maddie turn it back again.

“Why are you so early? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong! Why are you so late?”

“I’m not,” Lyn maneuvered the stroller out of the way and sat down. “I’m right on the dot. We always tell you a time half an hour earlier than the actual time.”

“Your Auntie Gemma is typecast,” Gemma told Maddie. “Just like Meg Ryan. That’s why nobody believed she was a brain surgeon in that movie.”

“City of Angels,”
said Lyn. “Shocking movie. Michael and I walked out of it.”

“Nobody would believe I was a brain surgeon either.”

“Probably not. You’d keep dropping your instruments.”

“I think I would make an excellent surgeon. I’d be very calm and cool.”

“You’ve got something on your cheek. Mascara, maybe.” Lyn licked her finger and reached over for Gemma’s cheek.

Gemma recoiled. “I’ll do it myself!”

“It’s only saliva. When you become a brain surgeon, you’ll have to touch mushy, bloody brains.”

“Dirty,” said Maddie sympathetically. She put her own finger into her mouth and began to rub away at Gemma’s cheek.

“Where’s the waitress?” Lyn swung around in her chair and tapped her fingers on the tabletop. “I need caffeine to help me cope with Cat. This is the first time I’ve seen her since the Dan thing.”

“Oh yes! I knew there was something I was looking forward to! The biggest family scoop of all time.”

“Stop it, please. It was a long time ago. I can hardly remember it.”

“Oh, come on. Explain yourself. I don’t get it. Why didn’t you just tell her at the time?”

Lyn pushed her hair back behind her ears and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.

“Why didn’t
he
just tell her is more to the point! I was on the other side of the world. By the time I got back they’d already been seeing each other for months. Obviously I should have said it right away. But she was so happy and they were all over each other, remember? It seemed cruel to say, Oh by the way, I dated him too. And besides—”

“Yes?” said Gemma benevolently. She was feeling especially affectionate toward Lyn today, she looked so uncharacteristically uncertain.

“I never thought it would last. I didn’t think Dan was the commitment type. Every week I expected it to end. Next thing you know, you and I are both walking down the aisle in purple taffeta.”

“And why didn’t you tell me?”

“You?” Lyn looked at her with disbelief. “You can’t keep a secret.”

Gemma’s affection levels plummeted. “That is
so not true!”

“That is so not true,” repeated Lyn thoughtfully. “You talk like a fifteen-year-old. Kara says that. That is
so
not true, Lyn, I do pick up my own washing.”

Gemma gritted her teeth and went back on the attack. “So, did you sleep with Cat’s husband too?”

“Gemma! He wasn’t Cat’s husband at the time.”

“Did you?”

“What if I did?’

“Nothing if you did. I’m just wondering. Did you?”

“I lost my virginity to him.”

“You
didn’t!”
Gemma allowed Maddie to slither from her lap. “Your first time was with Hank in Spain!”

“Well, it wasn’t.”

“But it was!”

“I guess I might be just a little more qualified to speak on the subject.”

“I can’t believe it.”

Gemma and Lyn watched Maddie trot over to the little boy at the next table and put her face right up close to his so their noses were practically touching.

“So.” Gemma didn’t look at Lyn. “Dan, hey? Any good?”

Lyn didn’t look at her. “Yes. Very.”

Gemma’s mouth dropped. For some reason this seemed incredibly shocking. Lyn looked at her sidelong with a glint of pride, and the two of them began to rock with wicked laughter.

“Stop it,” said Lyn helplessly. “It’s not funny.”

Gemma grabbed a napkin to wipe her eyes. “No, it’s terrible. You’re terrible. I didn’t know you were so terrible.”

“Cat! My Cat!”

Pushing the little boy unceremoniously to one side, Maddie went running through the coffee shop toward Cat. Gemma smoothed both her hands down her cheeks as if to wipe away the laughter, and Lyn sat up very straight.

“One word and you’re a dead woman,” she said as she held up her hand to wave at Cat.

“Get a grip.”

Cat walked toward them with Maddie clinging to her hip. The woman with the little boy had stood up and was gathering together her shopping bags. When she saw Cat, she did a little start and straightened.

“Hello!” she said. “You’re Lyn Kettle, aren’t you? The Brekkie Bus business! What a coincidence, I was only just reading about you in
She this morning.”

Cat shifted Maddie to the other hip.

“I’m her sister. The unsuccessful version. But Lyn’s right there.” She pointed at Lyn and the woman did a double-take as Lyn gave her an embarrassed little wave.

“That’s right! You’re triplets! Oh, you can
really tell!”

The woman was swinging her head back and forth observing the three of them with satisfaction.

“And you’re just the same as the other two, except your hair is red!” she said to Gemma.

“That’s right!” Gemma praised her.

“Good Lord, we’d never noticed!” Cat said.

The woman’s smile became a little fixed. “Well, it was a pleasure to meet you all!” She held out a hand to Lyn. “I really admire what you’ve achieved.”

“Thank you.” Lyn shook her hand graciously.

“Bye now,” said Cat, and she buried her face in Maddie’s stomach and growled, so that she gurgled with delight.

“What are you doing here?” Cat asked Gemma as she pulled out a chair and sat down with Maddie on her lap.

“She’s refusing to be typecast,” said Lyn. “Do you both want a coffee? I’m going to order one at the counter.”

“How are you?” asked Gemma, as Lyn went for their coffees. The dark shadows under Cat’s eyes reproached them for their laughter.

“Fine,” answered Cat. “Never better. I stopped by at Nana Kettle’s on the way here. She says you’re going to do water aerobics with her. You’re a glutton for punishment.”

“I think it will be fun. Want to come?”

“Yeah, right. You made a shocking mess of her nails last week.”

“Thanks,” said Gemma. A sudden thought occurred to her.

“You know something weird Nana said?”

“Everything she says is weird.”

“She said Pop didn’t like Marcus.”

An expression of nervous caution immediately crossed Cat’s face. Cat and Lyn both became peculiarly polite whenever Marcus’s name came up.

“Did
you
like Marcus?” asked Gemma. “You can say if you didn’t. He’s dead, you know.”

“I know he’s dead. Of course I liked him.”

“Did you think we had a good relationship?”

Cat shifted around in her seat, looking for Lyn. “Um. I really don’t know. I mean, yes. You did. You were getting married.”

Maddie banged her hands on the table and Cat handed her the salt and pepper shakers. Pleasantly surprised, Maddie immediately turned them both upside down.

“I do remember something,” said Cat suddenly. “I remember when you came back from skiing in Canada. The holiday you got engaged. Marcus said something about you being
timid
on the slopes. I said, What the hell are you talking about, timid? I’ve seen Gemma ski double black diamonds at a million miles an hour. You looked really strange, I thought maybe you’d had a big fight.”