Evelina - "Love You To Death"

  *

  Franco passed the twins' bedroom door feeling a pang of sympathy for them, but he knew that as long as Sir Clive was alive they would, at least, be sheltered. He had been looking for Cairo and was surprised to find her in her bedroom, sat on the floor; usually her bedroom was the last place you would expect to find her. She was wearing a man's t-shirt that was much too large for her, her legs and feet were bare.

  “Hello Franco.” She didn't sound as chirpy as usual. He smiled at her,

  “Your mother sent me to find you, I have a message.”

  “Oh?” She tried to sound uninterested. Franco could barely keep the emotion out of his voice,

  “You are to pack a bag. We are leaving tomorrow.” He waited for a reaction. She jumped to her feet, full of questions,

  “Leaving!? Leaving where? Leaving here?” She stood before him, tiny and incredulous.

  “Yes. We're finally going to quit this stinking zoo of a house.” He looked around at the ceiling and the walls as if he despised them, forgetting that it was the only home that Cairo had ever known. She stood in front of him trying to absorb the concept of leaving.

  “Pack a bag? What do I put in it? Where are we going? Who is going?” Franco put a gentle arm on her shoulder and led her across the room to her bed; they sat down together side by side, a huge caring man, a small bundle of youth,

  “Your mother, myself and you will be leaving this house tomorrow. We are going over the sea to the continent, you will love it. There's so much to see - and that includes the ‘sea’ itself. Cairo we're going to travel, to show you the world!”

  She was enthralled, utterly. All her recent dreams were going to come true after all! She jumped up and danced around the room, kicking up the dust of years, clapping her hands and laughing like a happy little girl,

  “Where is mother? I must see her now!”

  “I believe she is in her bedroom.” He called out as she skipped out of her room, along the landing, down a short flight of stairs and knocked on Eve’s bedroom door.

  “Mother? Are you there?” She called out cheerfully remembering that she had only been inside that room a handful of times in her entire life.

  “Come in.” Cairo entered the opulently decorated boudoir in hushed excitement.

  Eve was seated at an ornately carved bureau, writing in a book. She had large elegant handwriting.

  “Mother I'm so excited! We're going away!” Cairo fizzed. Eve put down her pen with a mock frown,

  “I hope you're not going to keep calling me mother everywhere we go! Or else I might have to leave you behind!” Eve half-joked and Cairo’s enthusiasm was undiminished, catching sight of the journal in front of Eve,

  “I didn't know you kept a diary!?” She moved to pick it up but Eve quickly closed it and slid it into a drawer.

  “Yes, well actually I've kept several, I only write occasional entries, the important things. Things that I might actually want to remember some day.” Cairo wasn't at that moment very interested.

  “What time are we leaving?” She asked, bobbing up and down on the spot.

  “As soon as we’re ready. We will take the white car, the convertible, so much more stylish and comfortable in the hotter countries. I haven't told Sir Clive yet, I haven't seen him actually.” Cairo’s face darkened at the mention of him,

  “I think he's in his so-called laboratory. He gives me the horrors you know.” She confessed.

  “Does he?” Eve seemed a little surprised.

  “Yes. And he's taken another girl down there! Poor thing.” Cairo shuddered involuntarily. Eve frowned in thought and turned away.

  “That explains it then.” She said quietly, more to herself than Cairo.

  “Explains what?” Cairo had overheard her.

  “Oh nothing. Just a feeling I had earlier.”

  “What? You felt it too?” Mother and daughter looked at each other closely, not speaking. Eventually Eve changed the subject back to their forthcoming travel.

  “You're allowed one bag and that's all, when we travel; we travel light!” She’d risen from her chair and flung open a wardrobe door, Cairo stepped up beside her asking,

  “But what should I take? I haven’t-” Eve interrupted her,

  “Just a few of your favourite clothes and things, I've got the passports (courtesy of Sir Clive’s friends at the Foreign Office) and we've got all the money we need, so simply pack what you like.”

  Cairo looked around her mother’s bedroom, it was crammed with things, the relics of her long life.

  “Won't you miss all of these things?” She asked. Eve shrugged as if she didn’t care,

  “No, not really, I've lost a hundred times as much before, many times in fact. Possessions don't really mean that much at my age.” She laughed. Without thinking Cairo moved forward and hugged her mother. At first Eve stiffened, then she softened and surprised herself by hugging her daughter tightly.