‘You OK?’ Poppy asked, millimetres from her face.
Norah looked up at her, and she was simply overwhelmed by all the words trapped inside her, like kids in a bouncy castle disaster. They had to escape her, at long last.
‘No! You don’t want to talk to me anymore, and I hate it! I want you around. I need you around! Because, because... I’m in love with you!’
Poppy looked down in pure astonishment. ‘I love you!’ she yelled back.
And then the entire castle was suddenly ripped up and away, the parents outside having finally managed to synchronise their efforts to right the rubber monster.
Everyone looked down to see Poppy on top of Norah. Norah and Poppy looked back. Max was agape. Norah’s mother had her hands on her hips, enraged to see her daughter mounted by Poppy.
‘What on earth!’ she yelled.
Poppy climbed quickly off Norah, and they stood up, hot and sweaty. Around them, kids were being reunited with their loving, if a little useless in an emergency, parents. There were a lot of tears, mostly from the adults.
Luna and Freddie ran to their mothers.
Poppy leaned down and hugged her daughter. ‘You OK?’
Luna laughed. ‘That was brilliant. Can we do it again?’
Poppy shook her head. ‘Not a chance.’
‘Everyone got their kids?’ Norah called to the crowd.
There was a chorus of yeses and thank yous between the weeping noises of children coming down from their brief ensnarement.
Norah gave Poppy a lingering, soft look that said, ‘We’ll talk.’ Poppy nodded.
Norah spotted someone giving a dazed Susan a drink of water. ‘God, Norah!’ she called over to her. ‘That was terrible.’
They walked over to her together. ‘I mean, it was unlikely anyone was going to die, but they were scared,’ Poppy said.
‘Don’t downplay it. You were a hero today,’ Norah told her with a light arm bump.
‘If I am, you are,’ Poppy said, bumping her back.
Norah realised they were grinning at each other a bit too much. She turned to Susan. ‘Do you think that’s all of them?’
‘I took a quick tally. I think you got them all,’ Susan said. ‘Thank god you were both here. Everyone else was pathetic. You’re both supermums.’
Norah smiled. ‘Wow,’ she said. To get such an accolade for once in her life and from Susan was... absolutely meaningless.
Norah had done her best today. But that was all she’d ever done. Which meant she’d always been good enough. She’d just never been able to see it until someone she assumed was better than her had said it. Only then was it obvious that they were all in the same boat. Trying to raise their kids as best they could. It could look a lot of ways, but true love was the effort.
At long last, Norah knew a moment of peace in herself. She knew it couldn’t last.
Poppy turned to the grey-haired woman running the bouncy castle. ‘You let this happen. There were too many kids on that thing.’
‘Don’t sue!’ the woman said automatically. ‘I’m on the edge as it is. The cost of air is putting me out of business. I have to go over the limit to keep the thing going.’
‘Don’t worry, Poppy. I’ll handle her,’ Susan said, rolling up her sleeves, becoming her usual intimidating self with delight.
‘Get her, Susan,’ Poppy said with a grin, patting Susan on the back.
‘So you’re happy to let kids get concussions to stay in business, are you?’ Susan asked the woman in her bulldog tone. ‘You should work in the boxing industry.’
Poppy turned from the developing row, grabbing Luna’s hand. ‘I should get her home,’ she said to Norah.
‘We’ll walk with you,’ Norah said with a smile. ‘I better just tell...’
But she didn’t have to tell anyone anything. Because her mother and Max were coming over. Max’s face looked like a slapped arse, but her mother’s expression put it in the shade. She looked ready to choke Poppy to death.
Thirty-Nine
‘Well, that was quite the show,’ Mrs Cauldwell spat, her furious eyes locked on Poppy.
Poppy tried not to look away, but it was like looking straight at bloody Medusa. But Poppy was determined not to turn to stone today. What Norah had said inside the bouncy castle... Poppy wasn’t sure what it meant for them. She hoped Norah hadn’t simply been suffering from a lack of oxygen.
‘Mum, can you just let everyone breathe for a second,’ Norah begged.
‘I just can’t understand why I keep finding this person... on you,’ she sputtered, jabbing a thumb in Poppy’s direction.
‘Yeah, what’s that all about?’ Max asked.
‘Max, you don’t get an opinion about this,’ Norah said, glancing at Freddie anxiously.
‘Doesn’t he?’ Poppy checked.
