The Fairy Godmother Part 34

“Easy?” I asked Enid.

“Piece of cake, walk in the park,” Enid replied without looking at me.

“We are asking a woman to put her child through a bone marrow transplant for a child whom she was told died at birth,” I said.

“She thought she was expecting one child and she got one child,” said Enid.

“But she was delivered of two, one of whom was taken away without her even seeing them,” I replied.

“It happens all the time with fairies,” said Enid.

“These aren’t fairies we are talking about and they don’t expect it to happen,” I replied.

“We’re here now,” said Enid opening the gate to the garden of a rather average semi-detached house, built around the early 1970’s.

“Are they here?” I asked.

“Hello,” said a lady standing at the door. “And who are you?”

“One of them is the woman from the home who warned me that they were likely to spirit Ella away,” said Jessie. “She got her to me before they could,” she added picking Ella up and holding her closely.

“And the other woman?” she was asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jessie.

“There are a few things we need to talk about,” I said to the woman standing in the doorway.

“I’m not sure,” she said.

“We just want to talk,” I said. “There may be a solution, but it’s going to take a lot of explaining.”

“I’ll listen,” said Jessie. “I’m not making any promises though.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” I said.

“You can come in,” said the woman, looking at me.

“What about Enid?” I asked tilting my head in her direction. “I couldn’t have got Ella out without her help.”

“OK,” the woman agreed, but she didn’t look happy about the idea, can’t say as I was either.

“Have I got this right,” asked Jessie about ten minutes later. “You are saying that I gave birth to twins and that one of them was taken from me shortly after birth!”

“Yes,” I said.

“You’d know if you’d given birth to twins,” said Judith, the woman whose house we were in.

“My memories of the birth are sketchy to say the least,” said Jessie. “I was in so much pain, there are gaps. I remember two babies being taken out of the room, there was a problem, but I don’t know what it was. Only one of them was brought back, but everyone told me that there was only the one baby and that I was probably seeing double or something. It was very confusing.”

“Ian would know,” said Judith.

“He didn’t arrive till an hour later,” said Jessie. “He got away from work as soon as he could, but the traffic back, it was horrendous and there were so many delays.”

“There must have been someone in there with you,” said Judith. “Your Mum wouldn’t let you go into Labour on your own.”

“That’s right, Mum was there, she’ll know what happened,” said Jessie, picking up the phone.

“Mum,” Jessie said, when the phone was answered.

“Is it wise you ringing here?” she asked quickly before Jessie could say anything else.

“I’ve been talking to some people, the woman from yesterday and her friend,” said Jessie trying not to name names.

“What did they want?” asked Jessie’s Mum.

“They want to sort out all this mess,” said Jessie. “To start with they say I gave birth to twins.”

“They can’t prove that,” Jessie’s Mum snapped.

“So they were right,” said Jessie. “And you knew about it.”

“You have to understand, you weren’t supposed to know about the second baby,” said Jessie’s Mum, slowly.

“So what went wrong?” asked Jessie coldly.

“Everything,” sighed her Mum. “You shouldn’t have seen her.”

“But I did, I saw her and you’ve been denying her existence ever since,” Jessie snapped.

“It isn’t as if she was your baby,” her Mother tried to explain.

“No, I just carried her for, how many months?” Jessie asked.

“About seven,” said her Mother.

“About seven months, I was a surrogate and no one bothered to tell me about it,” Jessie shouted down the phone.

“It was half fairy,” said her Mother. “A changeling, it isn’t as if it was any sort of drain on you.”

“That isn’t the point,” said Jessie. “You knew about all of this and you didn’t tell me.”

“I wanted to, but your Father thought it best not to burden you with the information,” her Mother replied.

“I am an adult, I was an adult then, I should have had the say in this, no one else,” Jessie shouted at the phone.

“You were under fifty,” said Enid. “A fairy of your age wouldn’t get to make a choice like that.”

“I am not a fairy,” snapped Jessie, glaring at Enid.

“No, well it wouldn’t be a problem if you were,” Enid replied.

“No,” I said. “They don’t have maternal instincts.”

“I’ve never had a problem with it,” said Enid.

“I don’t think this is helping any,” I replied glaring at Enid.

“I’m sorry,” said Jessie’s Mother. “But I hoped, once they had the baby, then everything would be OK.”

“It would have been,” said Enid.

“But?” asked Jessie.

“The changeling got ill,” said Enid.

“How ill?” asked Jessie

“We have tried everything, but without a bone marrow transplant from Ella, Rosie is going to die,” said Enid.

“Is that where they were taking her?” asked Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“And when they were done what would they have done with her?” Jessie asked.

“She was to be adopted by the changeling’s human Mother, just in case other transplants were needed,” said Enid. “They would explain to her that they were twins separated at birth.”

“You got it all sorted out, so neat and tidy and then things went wrong,” said Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid looking at me. “Then things went wrong.”

“So you think you have the solution,” said Jessie.

“I think so,” said Enid.

“So what is it?” Jessie asked.

“Rosie needs the transplant, now,” said Enid.

“That’s a big thing for a little girl,” said Jessie.

“Well, for humans,” said Enid.

“Ella is human,” Jessie reminded us.

“But Rosie is part Fairy,” said Enid. “So, in this case the methods we use will work.”

“Which are?” asked Jessie.

“We take Ella to Rosie,” said Enid. “Then a bit of Fairy dust and the wave of a wand, simple transportation.”

“What happens after that?” asked Jessie.

“Ella comes home to live with you,” said Enid. “The family who were going to adopt her wont.”

“But they will have Ella’s twin,” said Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“I want to see her,” she said hanging up the phone.

“Is that wise?” asked Judith.

“I want to see the baby I gave birth to,” said Jessie. “Because if I don’t, then non of this happens.”

“It is irregular,” said Enid. “But then all of this is.”

“Is that a yes?” asked Jessie.

“Yes,” said Enid.

“Right, well there’s no time like the present,” said Jessie.

“Shouldn’t you talk to Ian about it?” asked Jessie.

“He’s busy fighting through the courts, he said he’d speak to me after it has all been sorted, that way Ella can’t be traced,” said Jessie.

“Only she has been traced,” said Judith.

“But not by the law,” said Jessie.

“If you think you are doing the right thing,” said Judith.

“I want to see my other baby,” said Jessie. “And until I do, Ella stays here,” she added as Enid brought out her wand.

“OK,” said Enid.

“And this one stays here till it is sorted,” she added looking at me.

“You and I will go to see her,” said Enid.

By Janice Nye © 2020