Visions (8 page)

The description of how Amelia must have appeared to this man jolted my memory of the vision and tugged on my heartstrings. Morgan continued. “She did go home, you know. When she left school that day. It was all planned. She knew her mum and stepdad would be out at that time, so she went back to the house to get her stuff together. There was a half-made sandwich in the kitchen, so she must have been planning to set off after she’d eaten. Carrie was positive that she’d seen someone moving around in the front room behind the blinds. It must have been Amelia. She must have heard Carrie’s car, thought it was one of them returning home and made a dash for it without taking the time to put shoes on. How scared must she have been?”

              My blood boiled a t the thought. “That’s what she’s gone home to again, then. She’s not going to get a reprieve from what’s going on there until her mum can be bothered to treat her head-lice. Clearly she is uncared for and terrified of her stepdad, her mum or both. Whatever is going on is bad enough for her to feel the need to run away from it.” We looked at each other and I knew that Morgan felt as useless as I did. Unless someone witnessed the abuse or Amelia trusted somebody enough to confide in them, there was nothing we could do.

13

To distract me from my concerns about Amelia, I phoned Theo and filled him in on the situation between Morgan and Bronwyn.

“What about the boyfriend situation?” he asked, sounding interested. “Did you find anything out?”

              “Yes, but it doesn’t match with the vision. Morgan isn’t seeing anyone, though she did mention that she had her eye on someone. I hope it’s not you!” I joked.

              “How could she possibly resist? So, do you think she’s going to meet Mr Right really soon?”

              “Mr Right?” I laughed. “You’ve seen too many chick flicks. I don’t know, though. Maybe. It’s more worrying to think about what it means if nothing happens. That might mean that it was just a normal daydream, but it was uncontrollable. At least for now, there seems to be some point to what’s happening.”

              “I wouldn’t over-analyse it too much. There’s no guaranteed answer either way. Anyway, I’m glad you phoned. Would you like to do something on Saturday night?”

              “I would love to, but I’ve promised Morgan that I’d go to the cinema with her and Bronwyn. I guess she wants me to be some kind of buffer for the tension in their relationship. I’m looking forward to it, though. We’re going to see
Bridemaids
.”

              “Apt choice, considering!” Theo chuckled.

I hadn’t actually thought of that at all.
Could I have been seeing that we were going to see this particular film and got all confused in the vision?
It didn’t seem at all likely. Besides, it had been so vivid.

              Theo was working a shift at the hospital on Friday, so I had a quiet night in with a glass of wine and a book. Although Morgan’s sister would have arrived by now, I figured they would probably want tonight to themselves. Bronwyn might be put out if I phoned to see what they were doing. She obviously wanted to see Morgan if she was willing to drive all the way here and stay. My quiet night turned out blissfully to be just what I needed and I awoke feeling fully refreshed the next day. I marked some classwork books, cleaned the house, went food shopping, and then still had plenty of time to get ready for the cinema. We’d arranged for Morgan to pick me up at six, with the film starting at half past. There was then the casual arrangement that if we wanted to move on elsewhere after the film, we would decide at the time.

              At six o’ clock, I made sure I was all ready to go when Morgan and Bronwyn arrived. I sat with my handbag and coat next to me. When it got to five past, I assumed they were running late and checked my phone for a text. By quarter past, I knew we might just catch the start of the film if Morgan turned up now and the trailers at the start were long enough. By twenty-five minutes past, I rang her mobile. Morgan answered after five rings, her voice sounded muffled. “Morgan? Are you ill?”

              “No, not exactly,” she sobbed. “I should have phoned you but, well…My mind was elsewhere. Bronwyn’s visit hasn’t exactly gone to plan. Would it be ok if we skipped the cinema and I just came there?”

              “Of course!” I said, hoping that Bronwyn hadn’t brought bad news regarding their mother.

Morgan arrived in a flood of tears, carrying a bottle of wine.

“Shall I open this?” I asked, taking the bottle from her.

She nodded, walked into the living room and threw herself dramatically on the

sofa.

I brought two glasses of wine in and sat down opposite her. “Is it your mother?”

              “No, but thanks. You’ve reminded me that things could be much worse. Old mum’s fine but she did make Bronwyn come this weekend. They’ve known for ages and kept it from me, but now mum said enough was enough. I had to be told. I wish they hadn’t bothered.”

              “What have they known for ages?”

              “Sorry, I’m not making much sense, am I? The stupid bitch left the nastiest detail right until the end as well. I was actually pleased for her at first!” Morgan ranted. I pointed towards her wine and she took a gulp. “Bronwyn told me she’s been seeing someone for a while now. She said it’s been going well, but until they knew that it was going to last, they’d chosen to keep it between themselves. Recently, it got so serious that Mum had to be told. My sister’s pregnant!” she howled.

              “Pregnant? Is that why you’re upset?” I asked, perplexed.

              “No. Pregnant is good. The idea of being Auntie Morgan is lovely. I congratulated her, but the best was still to come. He’s asked her to marry him as soon as possible, before the baby is born. The she told me who it was.” I knew before she even said his name. “It’s Raheem, my ex-boyfriend. We were together for five years, for God’s sake. We discussed moving in together, but he didn’t want to get married or ever have children and that stuff really matters to me. That was one of the reasons why we broke up, and now the selfish bastard has changed his mind and decided to do it all with my sister of all people. He could have chosen anyone. Why did it have to be her?”

              “What does she look like?”

Morgan looked at me like I was mad, but it stopped her from whimpering.

“Who? Bronwyn? She looks a lot like me. Apart from the fact that I’m a little bit thinner, a bit better looking and a whole lot nicer a person, we could be twins. Why?”

              I shook my head. “Never mind.” It all made sense now. I’d seen Raheem proposing to Bronwyn. My vision hadn’t been positive as I’d originally thought; it had been extremely negative for Morgan. I felt guilty, like I’d seen something personal and private. I shouldn’t have had access to that but at least Morgan was choosing to tell me about it.

              “I loved him so much, Gill. He broke my heart. It took me years to get over him. The break-up itself was awful and that’s why I feel so angry and betrayed by all of this. She knew, my mother knew, too, how badly he’d treated me. When we were together, he treated me well enough. It was when we were apart. He once told me that he wasn’t sure that he agreed with monogamy at all. He said it went against male nature. I thought he was joking and then I found out he wasn’t.

“One of my friends saw him with another girl in town. We got to talking about it, sitting in the university canteen and then other girls, who I’d thought were my friends, came forward
s
saying that they’d seen him with other women, too. They didn’t tell me because they didn’t want to cause any trouble or upset me. The worst thing is – and this is really mortifying – when I confronted him with it, he dumped me and I, pathetic thing that I was, begged him to stay with me!”

              My heart clenched for her. “It sounds like Bronwyn hasn’t made the best choice. I think you had a lucky escape, Morgan. Can you imagine being tied to a man like that by a child?” I reasoned.

              “Bronwyn claims she’s in love with him and that he has changed. He’s not the same person anymore, she says. One minute I hate her and think of how crappy a sister she’s been, but then I get angrier because it stands to reason that she has done all of this to hurt me. The next minute I remind myself that, as unpleasant a person as she is, she’s still my little sister and I can’t not care about her to some extent. Then I feel sick with worry about how he’s going to treat her.” She gulped the last of her wine and held the glass out for me to refill.

              “The thing is, Morgan, there isn’t really anything you can do. She knows she’s hurt you and she’ll have to live with that on her conscience. For now, all you can do is tell her you forgive her…” She looked up at me in shock, but I felt wholly that this would be the right way forwards for her. “No, really. Tell her it doesn’t matter to you anymore because you don’t have feelings for Raheem now and that you wish her all the best for the future. When it all falls to pieces, you’ll help her to put it all back together again.”

              “What do I gain out of this?” The mortified expression on her face almost made me laugh.

              “You get to be the bigger person. You show maturity and trust me, she and your mum will respect you for it. If she has done it to upset you, it won’t have worked; at least not long term, anyway. If she’s in love with him, she’s going to realise what a great person you are when she needs you and you are there. Also, you get to be Auntie Morgan to a lovely little baby who doesn’t know anything about the world he or she is coming in to or how awful people can be!”

              “I know you’re right. It’s going to be hard, though. Can we not slag them off
,
just for tonight? It’ll make me feel better. I’ll start being the better person tomorrow. For now, I just want to feel bitter about it.”

I smiled at her. “That bitch!” I yelled. We both laughed.

              Another full bottle of wine later and we were both incredibly drunk, dancing to Abba in the living room, using our now empty wine glasses as microphones. Morgan agreed it would be best to sleep on my sofa rather than going home drunk and I went to bed knowing that tomorrow morning, I was going to wake up to one hell of a hangover.

              This time my prediction was very accurate. The first thing I did when I woke up was run to the toilet to be sick. My head felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to the temple. I could hear Morgan pottering around in the kitchen, so I assumed she was fine. I was too embarrassed to go downstairs smelling of stale alcohol and sweat, so I got in the shower and had a thorough wash. When I got downstairs, Morgan had put cartoons on and was sitting with a brew in her hands, smiling. “At least one of us is capable of picking a decent man!” she announced.

              “Huh?” I could smell her bitter coffee. I wondered whether I was going to be sick again.

              “I’ve just had a very lovely chat with Dr Theodore Arnold!” she said, holding up my mobile phone. “Firstly, let me just say how sexy that accent is! He called to ask how the cinema trip had gone. I told him I’d had some bad news so we stayed in with a couple of bottles of wine instead. I think you may have been retching over the toilet seat at that point.”

              “Oh my God, you didn’t tell him that, did you?”

              “I didn’t give him the exact details, but I told him you were feeling the after effects of a boozy night. I don’t think it helped that we didn’t eat anything. Anyway, he’s going to pop to the supermarket for some bagels and then come over for

breakfast. How sweet is that?”

              I threw my heavy head into my hands and shrieked into them. “Morgan, he’s never been here before and now the first time he comes round, I’m going to be sick as a dog!” Adrenaline must have kicked in because I suddenly managed to summon enough energy to run back upstairs to do my hair and put some blusher on. I wasn’t a great fan of the zombie look.

              Theo arrived when I was walking downstairs feeling significantly more alive, and Morgan was in the process of making more coffee in the kitchen. “Wow, you even manage to look hot when you’re hung-over. I’m impressed and I brought bagels! Can I borrow your toaster?”

              “Be my guest!” I led him through into the kitchen, aware that he was looking around the house as we walked. “Do you remember Morgan? Morgan, this is Theo.”

              “I remember seeing Morgan at the club, but it’s nice to be formally introduced.”

              “Does this mean I can’t refer to you as Dr A anymore?” Morgan laughed.

              “That kind of makes me sound like someone out of a cheesy romance novel so…sure, you can call me that! I’m glad you’re smiling, anyway, after your night’s plans going awry. What do you like on your bagels? I have soft cheese, jam, butter, or eggs.”

              “You’re spoiling us, Theo!” I scolded him. “Besides, you’re a guest, so take a seat while I make you a cup of tea…”

              “Coffee, actually.”

              “Ok! Take a seat while I make you a cup of coffee and I’ll take care of the bagels, too.”

Morgan joined him at the table.

              “So, can I ask what happened?” Theo asked her.

              “It’s complicated, really, and to be honest, this morning, it doesn’t quite feel like it’s as big a deal as it was. Basically, my sister is having a baby and getting married to my ex-boyfriend who broke up with me because I wouldn’t accept his non-existent morals regarding monogamy. Anyway, rather than tell me when they started to see each other, she decided to tell me when it got to this stage. So, as you can imagine, it came as a bit of a shock and rather than go to the cinema with the lying, back-stabbing bitch…sorry,” she added, looking at me. “Rather than going to the cinema, I decided to tell her to go back to him,” she concluded.

Theo looked suitably shocked. “When did he ask her to marry him?”

              “I didn’t ask, to be honest. I got the feeling it was very recent, though, because she has only just told our mum,” Morgan answered.

              “Where did he propose?” We both looked at Theo in shock when he asked this. “I’m sorry. I guess you don’t want to talk about it.”

              “No, I’m fine. I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know.”

              “What does your sister look like?” Theo asked. It was like he just couldn’t help himself.