Obsession Read Free Page B

from anything else you can’t speak French.’
    ‘I don’t think one has actually to
speak
it,’ Corrie said, with more feigned innocence.
    ‘In Amberside that’s just what they would expect,’ Edwina laughed. ‘Now, turn on the TV, let’s spoil ourselves and snuggle up on the couch in front of the late night movie.’
    ‘Ooooh,’ Corrie thrilled, ‘just let me get my slippers on first.’

– 2 –
    WHEN PAULA’S BABY girl was born two weeks later Corrie and her mother took the bus into Ipswich. A few minutes after they arrived at the hospital with their gifts of flowers, champagne and baby paraphernalia Dave came bustling down the ward, having just returned from taking his parents home. Corrie and Edwina stood to one side and watched as he lifted the baby into his arms, gazing down at her with such awe and devotion that both women were very nearly moved to tears – until Corrie saw the expression on Paula’s face and they both burst out laughing.
    Dave took their teasing in good spirit, but still, even when she started to whimper, wouldn’t be parted from his daughter.
    ‘She’s hungry, you idiot,’ Paula said.
    Dave looked up at Corrie and Edwina with a grin so wide it looked painful. ‘Amazing isn’t it? She knows when she’s hungry.’
    Paula’s face was a picture as reluctantly he handed the baby over. Then he proceeded to watch, mesmerized, as little Beth started to suckle.
    ‘She’s brilliant, isn’t she?’ Dave cried in triumph. ‘Look she can even …’
    ‘Dave! Shut up!’ Paula said. Then turning to Edwina and Corrie. ‘You should have seen him when I was giving birth. If it hadn’t been for the fact a head was on its way down, he’d have had his head up there. Got in everyone’s way, including his own. Then when it started getting really bad, what does he do? He starts cracking jokes! Tell them what you said to the midwife. Go on.’
    Dave’s face was all innocence.
    ‘Well there’s me,’ Paula said, ‘holding onto his hand for grim death, screaming my head off, and feeling like I’m giving birth to a table, and he
he
can’t stand the pain. “God, you’ve got one hell of a squeeze,” he says to me. Then he turns to the midwife and says, “Do you think I’ll ever play the piano again?”, “Oh, I’m sure you will,” she tells him. “Funny,” he says, “I couldn’t before.” ’
    Dave looked so stupidly pleased with himself, that despite the laughter Corrie was hard put not to show how moved she was at how deeply Paula and Dave loved each other. Her own mother and father had been that much in love and she wondered if Edwina was thinking of that now and remembering the times when they had looked down at their new-born baby the way Dave and Paula were looking at theirs.
    The introspection was fleeting and with Paula teasing Dave so relentlessly while he sat there beaming with pride, Corrie couldn’t resist a few jibes of her own. She and Dave were always scoring points off each other, and today, with the heady combination of champagne and euphoria, they surpassed themselves. In the end they caused so much hilarity on the ward that they managed to attract quite a crowd around the bed.
    Finally Edwina and Corrie made their farewells. When they got out onto the street Corrie was still animated, so much so that as they walked towards the bus stop and she chattered on to Edwina about the baby she ended up walking, smack! bang! into a lamp-post. She saw stars.
    Edwina caught hold of her arm, but as dazed as Corrie was she could see her mother was trying very hard not to laugh.
    ‘Oh, my God! Was anyone looking?’ Corrie gasped. ‘Please, tell me no one saw.’
    ‘No one saw,’ Edwina assured her, laughing as a grinning news vendor quickly averted his eyes.
    ‘I shouldn’t be allowed out,’ Corrie wailed. ‘Something like this always happens to me. And ow, it bloody well hurts.’
    ‘Come on, I’ll treat you to a cup of tea somewhere,’ Edwina