“Shush, the lot of ya!” Cam shouts over them. “One at a time. H, you’re the eldest, you start.” Harry frowns as he looks at Tallulah and shakes his head. I can’t help but smile at how much like Cam he is.
We have told him a little bit about Tamara. He knows that she’s his mum and she’s now in Heaven and that Cam chose me to be his Mummy instead. He’s never really asked any questions and he has only ever known me as his mum. As far as he and the rest of the kids know, they are all special. We have told them that because Mummy’s belly was broken, they had to be grown in Ash and Jim’s bellies. As they get older, we will explain things to them in a more adult way, but for now, they are happy with those explanations. I want Harry to know about his birth mother, but I also want to protect him from the truth of what she was and what she did. Cam and I have decided that if he asks, then we will tell him as much truth as we feel is age appropriate.
“Lulah told Kiks that her flip flops were ugly,” Harry starts, “and that a princess would never wear flip flops, so Kiks said that Tink would never wear Converse and that Lu looked stupid.” His big brown eyes look between myself and Cam. “And Lulah just pushed, just like that; she just pushed, and Kiks went in the water and all her dress puffed up and I thought she would drown and so I jumped in and then George jumped in and we pulled her to the side.” He stops talking and takes in a breath.
“Is that what happened, George?” Cam asks.
George nods. “Yeah, then Uncle Marls jumped in and pulled Kiks out.”
Marley has been into our bathroom and passes towels to the boys and wraps one around Kiki’s shoulders before passing her to me, saying, “Yep, that’s about it. I’m off to sort my own tribe out. Good luck with this lot.” He winks and shuts the door behind him as he leaves our bedroom.
“Come here,” Cam says to the boys and they obey him instantly, joining us on the bed. Cam is a strict but fair dad. He’s always calm with the kids, and where I tend to fly off the handle, he generally keeps it together, Tallulah being the only one who pushes his buttons.
The boys sit cross-legged at the end of the bed and Cam shifts Lulah to join them while I strip Kiki out of her wet princess outfit and dry her off some more with the towel. Cam reaches down the side of the bed and hands me his T-shirt, taking Kiks from me so I can slip it over my head.
“Mummy’s nudie under there,” I hear H whisper as the other three giggle. Cam looks at me and tries not to smile at the kids’ remarks. Luckily, he’s still wearing his jocks and I admire his beautifully sculpted arse, back and legs as he climbs out of bed to get one of my T-shirts from a chair in the corner of the room and puts it over Kiks’ head. He sits her at the end of the bed with her siblings and climbs in next to me.
“Tallulah, what you did today was a very bad thing. You must never, ever push anyone into a swimming pool. You shouldn’t actually be pushing people anywhere, but especially not into swimming pools. Your sister could’ve drowned.”
I’m so glad in that moment my kids have all been swimming since they were babies. We have a pool at the house and a lake in the grounds and it had been something I was paranoid about. Because there were four of them, and it was easier, we’d hired an instructor to come to our house twice a week and give them lessons from an early age. They were all now strong swimmers and even knew what to do in an emergency.
“But I did drown, Daddy. I drowneded a lot before the boys and Marls saved me,” Kiki says.
“You didn’t drown, baby. If you had drowned, then you would be an angel in Heaven right now,” I tell her.
“Oh, well the water all came out my nose like I was drowneded,” Kiki adds.
“Nobody drowned, but they could have. Do you understand that, Lulah? What you did was very dangerous. Kiks could’ve drowned and then your brothers could’ve drowned, too, trying to save her.”
Tallulah looks mortified. Her eyes shine with tears and her lips are trembling. I want to pull her into my lap and give her a cuddle, but she needs to understand the dangerous consequences her actions could’ve had.
“What d’ya have to say to your brothers and sister, Lu?” Cam asks her. Her eyes are wide and she looks pleadingly at me to help her out, but I know I have to make her face up to this one, so I keep my look impassive, slightly raising my eyebrows to let her know that I’m waiting for her answer.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “I just pushed you, Kiks, I didn’t know you was gonna fall in the pool, I didn’t want you to be drowneded and then be deaded. I’m sorry.”
“What about your brothers? What’ve you got to say to them?” She can’t resist giving a defiant little huff that doesn’t go unnoticed by me but I keep quiet.