Writer:-Valmay Bartlett, Gosnells Writers Centre

Western Australia 

CONTRADICTIONS

03

  


It was a contradictory mid week day, full of space and time. A day to be enjoyed with family and friends. San was fiercely determined to make the most of every minute, in spite of her mother's hurt feelings.
    ‘How’s the mummy?’ asked Roxy.
    ‘As always,’ San answered. Smiling at the image on Roxy’s phone. Her mother dressed in a glittering white Sari. Feigning welcome at the marriage of her son to a girl not of her choosing.
Roxy always addressed her mother-in law with deference, but to San she refered to her laughingly as ‘the mummy’.
    ‘Look at how young we were,’ said Angela, as the phone moved to a picture of the bridesmaids. San and Angela, in identical burgundy dresses.
    ‘You’re my sister officially now,’ Roxy had told San.
    Then I guess you're mine too,' Angela had added.
    ‘Twelve years ago today,’ said Roxy.
    ‘How did they go so quickly?’ San sighed.
    ‘Taking care of this lot,’ Roxy replied. Looking down at her three girls, tugging at her skirt.
    ‘Can we go and play with the other kids, Mum?’ Maya asked.
    'Please Mum,' added Aisha.
Only Romy hung back shyly. She’s like me, thought San.
    'Off you go then,' Roxy told the girls. 'But stay where we can see you.'
    'How long do you have?' San asked Angela.
    'Till three,' Angela replied. 'Unlike you two I don't get weeks of leave over Christmas.'
    'Teachers work hard,' Roxy protested. 'Did I tell you San's been made vice-head? I knew she'd get it. Even at Uni. she worked harder than the rest of us put together.'
    'Congratulations San,' Angela said warmly.
San felt the warmth of the words contradicting her mother's cool dismissal of San's promotion. 'You have nothing else, Saanvi,' her mother frequently admonished. 'No husband, no children, only that school. Your brother is a doctor, yet he has a wife and family.' .
San noticed Maya and Aisha had already joined a group of children running round the square, but Romy stood waiting, watching the children dancing on the platform, not sure if she would be welcomed. A boy sat down, his legs dangling over the edge of the ledge. He had russet red hair and wore a crimson Santa hat with a white fur trim. The boy leaned forward. San couldn't hear his words, but his hand stretched down, and Romy was pulled upward. San smiled as she watched the two children sitting side by side in companionable silence.
    'I have enough,' San had told her mother. 'I'm living in the best way I can. It is what we do here.'