“Elsa! Language!” And then Mum laughs out loud. Elsa as well. Grandfather’s laugh.
And then they lie there talking about superheroes for quite a while. Mum says now that Elsa has become someone’s big sister, she has to bear in mind that big sisters are always idols to their younger siblings. And it’s a great power to have. A great force.
“And with great power comes great responsibility,” whispers Mum.
Elsa sits bolt upright in the bed.
“Have you been reading Spider-Man?!”
“I Googled him,” Mum says with a proud grin.
And then all the guilty feelings rush over her face. As they do with mothers who have realized that the time has come to reveal a great secret.
“Elsa . . . my darling . . . the first letter from Grandmother. It wasn’t you who got it. There was another letter before yours. Grandmother gave it to me. The day before she died. . . .”
Mum looks as if she’s standing on the edge of a high diving board with everyone watching and has just decided she can’t go through with it.
But Elsa just nods calmly, shrugs, and pats Mum on the cheek, as you do with a small child who has done wrong because it doesn’t know any better.
“I know, Mum. I know.”
Mum blinks awkwardly at her.
“What? You know? How do you know?”
Elsa sighs patiently.
“I mean, yeah, okay, it took me a bit of time to figure it out. But it wasn’t exactly, like, quantum physics. First of all, not even Granny would have been so irresponsible as to send me out on a treasure hunt without telling you first. And secondly, only you and I can drive Renault, because he’s a bit different, but I drove him sometimes when Granny was eating kebab and you drove him sometimes when Granny was drunk. So it must have been one of us who parked him in the garage in Britt-Marie’s space. And it wasn’t me. And I’m sort of not an idiot. I can count.”
Mum laughs so loudly and for so long about it that Elsa starts getting seriously worried about the hummingbird.
“You’re the sharpest person I know, do you know that?”
And she thinks, Well, that’s nice and all that, but Mum really needs to get out there and meet a few more people.
“What did Granny write in your letter?” asks Elsa.
Mum’s lips come together.
“She wrote sorry.”
“For being a bad mother?”
“Yes.”
“Have you forgiven her?”
Mum smiles and Elsa wipes her cheeks again with the Gryffindor scarf.
“I’m trying to forgive us both, I think. I’m like Renault. I have a long braking distance,” whispers Mum.
Elsa hugs her until the hummingbird gives up and just goes off to do something else.
“Your grandmother saved children because she was saved herself when she was small, darling. I never knew that, but she wrote it in the letter. She was an orphan,” whispers Mum.
“Like the X-Men.” Elsa nods.
“You know whereabouts the next letter is hidden, I take it?” says Mum with a smile.
“It’s enough to say ‘where,’?” says Elsa, because she can’t stop herself.
But she does know, of course she knows. She’s known all along. She’s not stupid. And this isn’t exactly the most unpredictable of fairy tales.
Mum laughs again. Laughs until the evil nurse comes stamping in and says there’s got to be an end to this now, or she’ll have problems with the tubes.
Elsa stands up. Mum takes her hand and kisses it.
“We’ve decided what Halfie’s going to be called. It’s not going to be Elvir. It’ll be another name. George and I decided as soon as we saw him. I think you’re going to like it.”
She’s right about that. Elsa likes it. She likes it a lot.