[FnG]magnolia;21029457 said:
"Darling, come here. Now."
"Mummy, I -"
"Now. To my side. I won't ask again."
*
- Ah you made it. How nice of you to finally arrive. Were you ... busy?
"No," she says, "Not busy, no."
- But you came?
"Clearly," she responds, nodding.
- For her? she asks
"For both of them."
- I think that you know this will be difficult.
"I know." There's an intake of breath here and we watch, expectant. "I know," she says more firmly. We exhale.
- Leave her and take him
There's a pause, a beat, and we all count to 1, 2 3 -
"No."
- Leave him and take her then.
There's a pause a beat, a -
"I can't do that either," she says.
- It's amusing that you think you have a choice here. Let me make this more simple for you.
TO BE CONTINUED.
- You can't have both. So sorry, so very sorry, she sings. Everybody off, next stop, end of the line she adds glumly. Oh dear. All the King's Men Couldn't Put ... Humpty, are you there, she asks suddenly, suspiciously.
I hear Diz ask this and know she's talking about me. My balls shrivel and pull in and my gut feels like it's been punched. I hear a sob from my daughter and a muted gasp from my wife. I hear breathing - heavy, laboured, painful breathing - and wish I could see what was happening.
- Humpty? Are you there, she asks again.
Why is she asking this? She knows I'm here, she called us here, we're here because of her. I try to stop the shaking that has gripped my body and I'm nearly successful.
"Daddy," she says softly, "she doesn't know. I don't think - I don't think she knows if we're here or not anymore. Something's happened. Something's changed. The Brown Room is changing."
- Humpty? Humpty!
I feel a hand, tiny fingers touching my foot and - is that light, can I see light?
"Shhh," my daughter says and the light remains dim but I can now see a face. She smiles at me and oh God her face is radiant, glorious, it's -
"Blue and white," my wife says in tones so low I can barely hear her. I feel another hand, larger certainly but equally as delicate, and my wife's hand touches my hand.
"We can do this," she adds, "we can make this, we have to make this."
"Daddy, she's right. We can do this but we have to leave now! We have to lea -"
- Humpty, oh Humpty. I'm tired of this and these games. I think I had a ... wobble ... but we're back now. Brown Room, lights please.
The sickening, glaring, yellowish light of the Brown Room slowly starts to appear.
"We have to leave now, now!" my ladies say.
And that's when it happens.
TO BE CONTINUED