Violet continued, "How have you not realized that this is your purgatory? Your punishment and if you mess it up you will get a one-way ticket to a place you do not want to be." She pulled his hands away from his face. "Get up, Daimhin and go get her. We have discussed this, a million times. You messed up everything!" Violet turned away from him abruptly and demanded as she walked away from him. "Fetch her and take her across. You have no choice in this."
>i<
Daimhin arrived at her home, just as her mother was dishing up their dinner. Bangers, mash and mushy peas. Her mother looked sad, and her young face was lined with worry lines. He wondered as he looked at her how her life would have changed if she had walked into that pink room all those years ago to find a baby, dead in a pink cocoon.
He watched them as they spoke. Her mother asked concerned, "How do you feel today, Taylor?"
Taylor smiled up at her mother reassuringly. "Good."
" Remember, tomorrow we need to be at the hospital early. Must I wake you?"
Hospital?
" No, I'll set my alarm. I am glad I washed my hair tonight though." She pulled her fingers through her wet hair, hanging over her shoulder. "It needed a good wash."
Her mother looked at her with a worried look in her eyes. The tiny lines around her eyes pulling in onto each other. "I wish you wouldn't wait to wash your hair, when it is already so late, Taylor."
" Come on, Mom. I am sure in the big scheme of things it really does not matter when I wash my hair."
Her mother stood up from the table and while she walked to the basin with the dishes, she sighed as she said, "You could catch a chill."
Taylor stood up and followed her mother to the basin. "You should stop worrying so much, Madam." Her voice took on a pleading tone. "Please." She wrapped her arms around her mother's waist and rested her cheek against her back.
They stood like that for a while. Her mother was staring absent-mindedly through the small window over the basin, small glistening tears appearing in the corners of her eyes.
" Go on. Go and dry your hair, before it gets any later."
Reluctantly Taylor moved away from her mother. "Do you need any help?"
Her mother turned away from the basin. "Taylor, you need to get to bed. Please."
Taylor turned away from her mother. "Honestly, you are such a nag pot. You should stop being so worried every time we go to the hospital. Everything is fine, I'll know when something is changing."