"Who planned the party?"
"Kasia."
"Who was going to make the cake?"
"Kitena."
Jimmy Bishop, holding his youngest child JD (Joshua Dante, known to me as Baby Joshy), looks at me gravely, as if I was stupid, and about to ask, "Who was his mother?", to which the supposedly emotionless answer would be "Bikki." This is Jimmy's way of dealing with things. He doesn't cry. Not like me. The side of my face that can cry has been an endless waterfall; the other, dry, empty as the sewn-up socket above the cheek. At least I can pretend I'm taking it like a man by standing sideways.
It's Timo's birthday today. Bikki had got Kash to plan a big party, with one of Kitena's legendary cakes. After all, you only turn one once. Now, Kash is gone. Kitena is gone. Nobody to call the contacts, nobody to make the cake. And worst of all, he has no mother to wish him a happy birthday. Bikki's gone. Three children, no mother.
I hand Brygida, whom I was rocking in my arms, to Bri, and look at Timo playing with his friends, who are trying to explain Bikki's absence. Sweet, but so sad.
"Timo mummy other house, like Holly mummy," says Jimmy and Mayhem's daughter Holly, who has been moving from house to house every few days ever since she was born - now she only has one house, and just assumes that she'll be going back to Mayhem's soon. No such luck.
"No Holly, Timo no have mummy, I no have daddy and I no have mummy now," says Sophy's unexplained 'immaculate conception' Jimi, who is coping very well.
I see Timo's 'girlfwend', Skye (Javen's niece, orphaned by the massacre), hugging Timo and giving him a little kiss. "Happy buffday, boyfwend."
Edited by user 13 April 2010 01:29:10(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
