December Exclusive - "Ready" - Part 4

Here's the final part of Ready. Let me know if you enjoyed it!

Auntie Claire has a bulging shopping bag in each hand. There’s a dusting of snow on her coat. It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

“Oh my,” says Mum, jiggling me on her lap. “Looks like Mummy’s been busy!”

I blink. That solves one mystery. So in Katie’s twisted new world, I’m her baby sister.

But that doesn’t matter. None of it does. Because we’re turning all of this back to what it was before. And then next thing will be me walking out of here and going back to my own flat to spend Christmas on my own, where I don’t get turned into a drooling toddler.

I look over at Auntie Claire, who gazes at me as if she’s trying to work out who I am.

I glance at Katie, who opens her mouth wide. To cast a spell. To trap me like this.

Except my niece doesn’t know that her magic hasn’t completely worked.

“Auntie Claire!” I cry out. Aunny Cah! It’s garbled, but still, it gets everyone’s attention, and I swallow the mincemeat that’s gumming up my mouth.

“Auntie Claire.” I’m clearer now, and all eyes in the room are on me.

I point accusingly at Katie. “Auntie Claire, your daughter is a witch.” I might be dressed and look like a two-year-old, my voice might be high-pitched, but there’s no mistaking what I’ve said.

Mum stops jiggling me. I wish I could see her face. I don’t want her to be upset, she’s had enough of that in recent years, but I’m hardly going to just keep quiet about what’s happened.

As for Katie? She can be grounded permanently for all I care, as long as I get my body back, as long as this madness stops.

“Wow,” Katie says, and she doesn’t sound angry or scared. She just looks amazed. And then she giggles. “Mum, the baby’s talking!”

Auntie Claire puts down her shopping bags and shrugs out of her coat. “Yes, she is.” She walks over and takes me from Mum. “Look at you,” she says mildly, “sounding all grown up.” She doesn’t sound amazed; she appears completely calm.

I look at her urgently. “It’s me, it’s Robin. Katie did some kind of magic spell, turned me into a girl, a toddler. She wanted a baby, just like the doll she used to have, only real this time.”

Auntie Claire responds with a beatific smile, and then I watch as she flutters her fingers at Mum and Katie. I continue to watch as they both yawn, and then slump, Mum’s head hanging low, Katie’s hands loose and limp by her sides.

I stare back at the woman holding me. “What did you- “

“Katie’s not a witch,” says Auntie Claire.

I look at Mum and Katie, both silent, both somehow suspended, not unconscious, but not seemingly paying attention either.

Auntie Claire smiles at me. “I’m the witch, silly. Mummy’s the witch, remember? I’m a witch who wanted a baby girl, and now I have one. And I wanted a daughter who would love her baby sister, and I have one of those as well. Oh, you look so confused! But you're ready now, aren't you."

I look at her with wide eyes. Ready? Ready for what?

She flutters her fingers in my face, so fast that I can’t see them. And then she taps me playfully on the nose.

My head is jumbled up with thoughts, jam-packed with before and after and true and false. I want to tell her ‘No’, I want to beg for her to change her mind. And then I focus on the poo I’m making, making my nappy all warm and smooshy, before I forget about that, and I remember that I like being held, because I can see more. I’m high up, but Mummy won’t drop me.

“Someone’s been eating pies,” says Mummy, wiping my lips with her fingers and then poking my tummy. “My chunky little girl!”

“Yeah, Robin loves mince pies,” Katie pipes up.

I look over, and my big sister isn’t sleepy after all, she’s all awake and happy.

“Thanks for watching the girls,” Mummy tells Auntie Susan. “Hope they weren’t too much bother.”

“Good as gold, the pair of them,” Auntie Susan replies. “Katie was a very good big sister; she changed Robin’s nappy and did her hair and everything.”

Mummy laughs. “Well, Katie has always liked dressing up her dolls.”

I watch as Katie spins around on her heels and my eyes widen at her sparkling tulle skirt. “Robin’s not a doll,” she says, but she’s smiling. She walks up to me and holds my hands. “You’re all sticky,” she tells me. “Sticky fingers,” she coos, and I want to agree.

“Stihhh…figuth!”

“That’s right,” says Katie brightly, and I smile at her. Katie’s got a pretty thing on her dress, a pretty shape that’s all sparkly. I reach to touch the pretty shape Katie takes my finger and runs it along the shape.

I squeal when the shape changes colour, becoming even more sparkly.

“You like my sequins on the heart, don’t you,” says Robin. “They’re all sparkly, just like you. A sparkly little Christmas angel, just like Auntie Susan said.”

Mummy tickles my tummy. “Such a sparkly angel, you belong on top of the Christmas tree!” Everyone laughs, and so I laugh as well, reaching greedily to repeat the colourful trick on Katie’s dress. “Spar-kee.”

My sister giggles, and then she wrinkles her nose. “I think Robin’s done a poo,” she announces.

Mummy nods. “Can you change her? I’ve got some wrapping to do.”

“So do I,” Auntie Susan says, “and I think one or two of those presents might be fora very good big sister.”

I watch Auntie Susan wink, and Katie grins. “Okay. Come on, sweetie.” She takes me from Mummy and carries me upstairs to change my nappy.

THE END

Based on a story idea from special helper Waynee:

A Mother wants her son to come and stay over the Christmas period to give her a helping hand cooking Christmas dinner for his Auntie and niece…Why is there a sparkly Christmas dress, tights and a nappy laid out on his bed?