“What’s she doing here?” the words drifted into Myrtle’s dreams.
“She is a new Mother, just like everyone else in this ward,” the mid wife’s words cut through the dream and woke Myrtle up.
“Her sort usually get others to carry their babies for them and then steel them away after they are born,” said the angry woman.
“Well, she’s different,” said the midwife. “She insisted on carrying her babies to term and giving birth to them.”
“What does she want, a medal,” laughed the woman.
“I’d like to be treated like any other new Mother,” said Myrtle, opening her eyes and looking at the woman.
“She’s giving me the evil eye,” screeched the woman. “I’m not safe here, nor is my baby.”
“I am a Fairy Godmother,” said Myrtle. “My job is to solve problems, not make them. So, no I haven’t given you the evil eye, you and your baby are safe here.”
“How do I know that?” the woman blurted out.
“You don’t,” sighed Myrtle.
“Aren’t you going to magic something up to convince me?” she asked.
“And what would that prove, that I am prepared to magic something up to get a bit of peace?” Myrtle. “It wouldn’t mean that I wouldn’t do something later to make you regret all this fuss you are making.”
“Maybe it shows that you can’t do anything,” said the woman. “Perhaps giving birth means you’ve lost your powers.”
“I wont do anything,” said Myrtle. “Not now, so I suggest you go and look after your baby before I change my mind.”
“That wasn’t very kind of you,” said the mid wife as the woman ran sobbing down the ward.
“She wasn’t being very kind to me,” said Myrtle. “And you didn’t do much to help me.”
“You didn’t seem to need any help from me,” said the mid wife.
“Which is fortunate,” said Enid.
“I didn’t see you there,” stuttered the mid wife.
“I know,” said Enid. “When can she come home?”
“Normally we keep new Mothers in for four days, to make sure they are OK,” said the mid wife. “However, as her husband is a Doctor, I shall go and see if we can let her go earlier.”
“That would be very good of you,” said Enid as the mid wife headed off down the ward.
“I would like to go home,” said Myrtle. “But don’t make a habit of talking for me, I can talk for myself.”
“Or I can talk for her,” said James. “The mid wife has just said that you can come home, if it’s OK by me.”
“And is it OK by you?” asked Enid.
“Of course it is,” smiled James. “I’ve just finished my duty and I can start my paternity leave as soon as we get home.”
“How long do you get?” asked Enid.
“Four weeks,” smiled James, looking at the twins.
“I can take over helping after that,” said Enid, vanishing, with a wave of her wand.
“How’s she going to help?” asked Myrtle.
“She brought you up,” smiled James. “And she did a very good job of that.”
“No she didn’t,” said Myrtle.
“I have no complaints,” James’s smile was becoming a little fixed.
“She dropped me off at the nursery and I didn’t find out who she was till recently, she paid no part in bringing me up,” said Myrtle.
“She was telling me all she knew about babies,” said James, looking confused.
“That wouldn’t take long, unless she’s had some and not told me about them,” said Myrtle. “With my family, that is a possibility.”
“But,” said James.
“Lets get home,” said Myrtle. “It wont feel like we’re a real family till we get there.”
“That’s not very logical,” said James as Myrtle waved her wand.
“It’s how I feel,” said Myrtle as their home came into focus around them.
“Shouldn’t you have packed or something first,” said James, looking at all the things on the floor.
“Why, we’d only have to unpack them here,” said Myrtle, waving her wand to direct everything to the right place, which included the laundry for a few changes of clothes for the twins and herself.
“OK,” said James. “What do we do now?” he asked as the twins started to cry.
“We find out what is wrong with those two,” said Myrtle, heading towards their bedroom.
“Velvet?” Myrtle asked into the phone.
“Yes,” said Velvet. “How is life with the twins. Your Mum said to leave you two to it, she’d given James the benefit of her knowledge, so she didn’t think you’d need any help.”
“Her knowledge! She doesn’t have any, well, not as far as I know,” said Myrtle. “I’ve helped look after kids before, even babies, but this is so totally different. They wont stop crying, I don’t know what they want, if I did I’d give it to them.”
“How is James?” asked Velvet.
“Fast asleep,” said Myrtle. “When he goes to sleep nothing wakes him up and that includes our twins screaming at the top of their lungs. I’ve tried.”
“Would you like me to come round?” asked Velvet.
“Please,” said Myrtle. “I can wand you.”
“Is it that urgent?” asked Velvet.
“Yes,” said Myrtle, giving her wand a quick twitch.
“Good morning Velvet,” said James wandering into the living room just as Velvet appeared.
“Had a good night’s sleep?” asked Velvet.
“It was a bit disturbed,” he admitted. “I think Myrtle was checking up on the twins. They are crying again,” he added and Myrtle dashed off.
“And it didn’t cross your mind to see if she needed any help?” asked Velvet.
“I need to catch up on my sleep,” said James. “I’ve been on nights for a few weeks.”
“You don’t get paternity leave to catch up on your sleep,” said Velvet. “You get it to help your wife.”
“I know that,” said James smiling.
“So you can start now,” said Velvet. “Myrtle looks washed out, you can look after the twins whilst she catches up on her sleep.”
“But I don’t know what to do with babies!” said James.
“Neither do I,” said Myrtle, handing them over to James and heading for the bedroom.
“Now is the time to learn,” said Velvet.
“They are a bit on the smelly side,” he said wrinkling his nose.
“Probably need a nappy change,” said Velvet. “And don’t even think of asking Myrtle to do that, you need to know for the times when she is working.”
“Couldn’t she have maternity leave till after they need nappies?” asked James, looking round for inspiration.
“No she can’t,” said Velvet. “No more than you could take paternity leave till then.”
“But,” said James.
“Here’s the changing bag,” said Velvet. “I’ll change one, so that you can see how to do it, then you change the other.”
“Enid said that she just waved a wand,” said James.
“The council are trying to cut down on the use of wands,” said Velvet. “Also, some nappies have ended up in some very strange places.”
“I heard one had ended up on the head of that statue in front of the Hall of the Fairy Council,” said James.
“No one admitted to putting it there and it took quite a lot of getting it off, I don’t think the stains will ever go away,” said Velvet.
“Who is that statue of?” asked James.
“I don’t know,” Velvet replied. “But he had a nice horse.”
“So, no short cuts to clean nappies,” sighed James.
“No,” said Velvet, starting the demonstration. “Is there anything else Enid told you?”
“You don’t rate her baby care advice?” asked James.
“Let’s put it this way,” said Velvet. “She looked after Myrtle for a few days and when she handed her over to the nursery, she needed a good bath before the could work out if she was a boy or a girl.”
“Oh!” said James.
“Enid, she’ll talk the talk till the cows come home, even if she hasn’t the first idea about what she’s talking about,” said Velvet. “That’s one changed, now it’s your turn to change the other.”
“You are so much better at it than I ever could be,” James stuttered.
“You wont learn till you try,” said Velvet. “I’ll talk you through it.”
“Her dress is wet,” he said.
“Take it off and put a clean one on after you’ve done the nappy,” said Velvet.
“Wont she get cold?” he asked.
“Only if you stand around all day talking about it,” Velvet told him.
“Wouldn’t it be better if Myrtle did this,” said James. “She’s going to be with them most of the time.”
“I should think she’s done it several times over the night,” said Velvet. “Just get on with it.”
By Janice Nye © 2021
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