Days Like These by Miranda Barnes

his voice her head. But it was the Jamie from long ago she saw, from when they were first together, first married. The hurt and disappointments from recent times were forgotten.
    *
    The police officers brought Jenny over to be with her. They couldn't stay but they would return, they said. Meanwhile, here was her friend.
    Meg had never been so glad to see Jenny. She clung to her, sobbing. Jenny let her, and said nothing. There was nothing worth saying.
    It was a long night. Meg didn't return to bed. She couldn't think of lying down. She just sat, frozen. Jenny made cups of tea and busied herself around the house, doing goodness knew what. Later, Meg heard her talking to her mother on the phone. Later still, her mother arrived. And Dad.
    Then, for a while, she wasn't aware of anything that was happening. All she could think of was Jamie. And their baby. What would happen to them all now?

 
    Chapter Fourteen
     
    Meg soon became used to life at Bracken Cottage again. At times, it was as if she had never been away. Everything was so familiar, and so peaceful. Almost too much so. At times she missed the roar of traffic, the screech of tyres as someone took the corner too fast at the end of the street. The street lights, too, that created such patterns on the bedroom ceiling.
    At times she even missed Jamie, but not much, if she was honest. Not as much as she would have thought, once she'd got over the shock. It seemed to her now that Jamie had been gone from her long before that terrible night when he died. So what she missed were their first years together. There had been little to delight her in more recent times. Besides, she had more urgent demands on her now.
    She stirred herself, climbed out of bed and turned sideways to admire her profile in the mirror. Not long to go now. Some days it was as if the baby was about to tear himself out into the new world, without help from anyone. She smiled. She knew it was a boy. She just knew it.
    'How are you this morning, dear?'
    She turned, still smiling. 'Fine thanks, Mum. I'll be even better in a week or two's time!'
    'Of course you will.'
    Mum smiled back and added, ' I remember how fed up I used to get carrying you. Impatient, too, for it to be over. But you were worth it.'
    'Thanks, Mum! And so will this little fellow be.'
    'Girl, you mean.'
    Meg shook her head decisively. 'He's a boy.'
    'Do you know from the scan?'
    'No. I just know.'
    Mum laughed. 'Dad will be pleased. Someone to help dig the garden and build sheds.'
    'He might not like gardening. He might want to be a rocket scientist.'
    'Whatever. Your father will make the adjustment. He'll have to, won't he?'
    Meg nodded happily.
    *
    She was right: James! He was born right on time in the maternity hospital in Alnwick. She named him after his father, feeling that was the right thing to do. He was Jamie's continuing stake in the world.
    At 8lbs 4 ozs James was a big boy from the start, and ready to delight everyone he saw.
    'Look at those eyes!' Mum said. 'He's wide awake already, after just a few hours.'
    'Nearly ready to give me a hand in the garden,' Dad said with satisfaction, and with a wink at Meg.
    She laughed. She was unbelievably happy. Holding James gave her an extraordinary feeling, better than anything she had ever experienced.
    Mum and Dad were so good with him, too. That was lovely. James seemed to know instinctively that he was part of a family that would cherish him.
    It would have been so much better, of course, if Jamie had been here as well to hold his son, but that hadn't been meant to be. Even if he'd been alive, she doubted if he would have been here anyway. Not for long. The old Jamie would, of course. The young Jamie, rather. The Jamie she had loved more than anything or anybody in the world, and who had loved her back just as much. And that was the Jamie she would remember and tell James about as he grew up.
    The girls in the office had kept in touch over the months since Meg had left work. Carol and