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Teresa, despite being a lapsed Catholic, has been saving herself for marriage. After a brief initial resistance, Teresa’s body responds in kind to Miles’s kisses and caresses. After all, she has grown to love this English man.
Five weeks later, something that should have happened hasn’t. With Miles at work, Sarah at school and Sharon playing with her troll on the floor at her feet, Teresa phones her friend Barbara and asks her to make a doctor’s appointment over the phone for her.
Barbara calls her back and tells her she can go the next morning at ten and collect a small bottle from the receptionist. The next day she has to fill it with the first urine of the day and then return it to the surgery for testing. She wishes her friend luck.
Five days later, Teresa calls Barbara and asks if she can phone the surgery for her again.
Ten minutes later, Barbara calls back and says, “Congratulations!”
Teresa tries to smile but fails. Instead, she hears herself wail and sob while her friend listens.
She doesn’t tell Miles.
Douglas senses something wrong. He doesn’t ask his wife, Barbara, any questions, though.
Barbara knows that if a woman gives her body, a man will take it. Barbara will speak for Teresa. Her heart aches for the friend who loves Miles so much.
Today, Douglas gave Barbara time off to help her friend. She takes Sarah to school and then Barbara brings Sharon with her to the hospital, to wait for Teresa.
Both women are terrified Miles will reject Barbara and the new life she’s carrying. Miles works all day, most evenings and Saturdays, too.
He has shown no regard for her respectability, just plenty of interest in her physical qualities. She fell for him and allowed him to come to her every night. Miles’ control over her scares the women.
“Sharon, come here. Sit.” Barbara’s tone brokers no refusal. The child has other plans and continues bashing the floor.
In honeyed tones, Barbara tries again, “chodz tu, Sharon, chodz.” Barbara pats the orange plastic seat next to her in the stark waiting area and Sharon clambers up beside her. Barbara releases the toy hammer from the child’s sticky fist and reaches for a softer toy.
Barbara, Sharon and Teresa arrive back at the house in Ridgefield Road moments before Sarah gets in from school. Teresa goes straight to her room, tears streaking her empty face.
Barbara takes charge of the cooking, while Sarah reads and Sharon scribbles in her colouring book at the kitchen table.
After feeding the girls, Barbara plays with them, bathes them and then tucks them into bed.
She knocks softly on Teresa’s door but there’s no reply, so she opens it. She notes her friends’ wrinkled brow and her long blond hair licking her face. She closes the door without a sound and with a wish for the pain to leave her friend. As she comes down the stairs Miles opens the front door.
When he sees her, his eyes widen and he opens his mouth. At first, nothing comes out but then his words tumble over each other.
“What are you doing here, Barbara? Where’s Teresa? Are the girls okay?”
It takes Barbara a few seconds to reply. “Girls sleep, Teresa sleep. I go, now.”
“Tell me why you are here,” Miles insists.
“I help Teresa, she not feel good.”
“What’s wrong with her? Why didn’t she call me at work?”
“You talk with Teresa.” Barbara points her finger at Miles. She shakes her head and says, “I don’t say.”
“I will ask her. Thank you for your help, Barbara. Shall I call Douglas for you?”
“No, I made driver test and have Mini, present from Douglas,” she smiles.
Outside, Barbara can feel Miles’ stare on her back as she walks to her car. She gets in and drives off.
The next day Barbara calls her friend when she knows Miles will be at work. It rings for a long time before Teresa answers; when she speaks it’s as though the woman has not only had a foetus removed but also her spark.
Barbara works to drag words from Teresa’s stony silence. Miles took Sharon to his mum’s; Teresa has the day to herself. Miles was kind to her last night. She didn’t cry. Her body was cold so Miles spent the night holding her. She didn’t move all night.
Barbara forces a promise out of Teresa to call later.
When the phone rings that evening, Douglas answers it.
“I found her collapsed in the kitchen when I got home after dropping Sarah off with my mum,” Miles says. “What happened?” Douglas asks.
“There was blood everywhere, so I rang for an ambulance. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I don’t think I’d know either, Miles. The ambulance was the best solution; let the experts handle it I say. Some sort of woman’s problem, was it?”
“Well, the blood was coming from that part of her body. There was so much of it. I put her in the recovery position, covered her with a bath towel and sat on the floor beside her. It seemed like seconds later the ambulance arrived.
The ambulance men wrapped her in some blankets and got her on a stretcher. She didn’t regain consciousness and still hadn’t by the time we got to the hospital.” Miles’ voice cracks at this point. But he carries on with his story.
“After he’d examined her, the doctor told me she’d miscarried but she would be fine in a few days.”
“She was pregnant?” Douglas attempts to keep his voice at a normal pitch.
“What? Oh, yes, we’ve been sleeping together for a while now. I am such a fool.”
Glossing over the staggering relationship aspect, Douglas decides to stick to the platitudes and practicalities. He responds, “Thank goodness for that, is she conscious, now?”
“Not yet. We’re waiting for her to come round. I’m going to stay here until she does.”
“I’ll tell Barbara. She’s been worried because she hadn’t heard from Teresa since she spoke with her this morning. She said she didn’t sound right then.”
“Tell Barbara thanks for looking after Teresa and the girls yesterday for me, will you? I appreciate Teresa having a woman friend.”
“Of course, I will. Let us know when she wakes up, we’ll come over to see her.”
“Will do. Thanks, Douglas.”
“I’ll let you get back to her, Miles.”
“Cheers, bye.”
“Bye.”
Miles wakes the next morning to the sound of the tea trolley rattling in the corridor. His attention focuses on Teresa in a blink, he finds her gaze on him. Her blue eyes the colour of the sky on a cloudless winter day, yet with something beyond the blueness, something with a depth he doesn’t know how to reach.
“Hello,” he whispers.
“Hello,” she croaks and swallows the lump in her throat. She reaches for the jug of water on her bedside locker. “Let me,” Miles leaps up to grab the jug and pours a plastic beaker half full for her, then holds it up to her mouth.
She takes it from him and gulps the water down. “Girls?” she whispers.
“At Peggy’s, don’t worry. Sleep if you can.”
“Home”. She throws back the covers and frees her legs but the action causes her to double over.
Miles catches her before she falls. He holds her to him and her arms reach around his waist. They don’t let go for a long time.