In a Single Moment

by Imogen Clark

It was entertaining to watch Dean at work with other women from the security of her place in his heart. He was your natural charmer – how else had she ended up with a baby at seventeen?

Uhhh his wife just had a bay and hes fkirtung helo what

Michelle wondered if they were aliens who had just dropped in from another planet. They

Hmmm peculis people

‘If you’re going to take her baby to the nursery then could you take Donna too and then we can all get some sleep?’

Ate they gking to gwr swtitches

She looked over to see if her neighbour was still asleep but the bed was empty. She must have gone to the bathroom. There was no sign of her baby either.

Where did shr go thats spooky

kerfuffle

It sounded peculiar, talking to a newborn baby as if it were an adult, but Sylvie found that she had no other way of doing it. What was she supposed to say anyway? It wasn’t

MY mo ds this with the cats

It was amazing, Michelle thought, how you could have four children, each created from the same basic raw materials and yet they could all turn out so differently.

My mother wouldsay the same

There was no sign of the heat abating either and, according to the news, water supplies were becoming increasingly short as demand soared.

ISt is heat wave haint do wrh te odditeiso the bewvorn adtr the cinnection to the other womn sylve whi had a newborn too

The best thing for Carl is that he spends the time at home thinking about what he has done and comes back next year with a better attitude. Can you do that, Carl?’

Oh no wiyh car being hime is hissgoing to conflict witht newbirn in any way

‘Funny though, Dad, wasn’t it?’ replied Carl, looking up at his father. ‘Bloody funny,’ replied Dean, and then they both broke into laughter again.

Ewww the father is enfprcing and instigating carls bad behavior bad role model

had said, and for hours afterwards he would spontaneously burst into laughter, only shaking his head when Sylvie asked what had amused him.

Is sylie jeaous o jeremys relltio shio wirh his yiunger sser as sh eis theapple pf jis ey

Jo screwed her nose up. ‘Fine. The Rachmaninov was a bit stodgy, but I’m not sure anyone noticed.’ ‘Of course it wasn’t,’ snapped Margery. ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself.’

Tbee seen likke SNOBBY FNILY

Something wasn’t right, but try as she might, she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

Mm what coulf it be

‘She don’t look much like you or Dean neither, come to that.’ And in that moment, Michelle knew it was true and that this was what she had been subconsciously

Were thee swited

‘Do you think they ever mix the babies up?’ she asked. ‘At the hospital, I mean.’

Tjis is hwt i tink

They had named the baby after the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.

This was a simple mix-up. She had that Sylvie woman’s baby and she must have Michelle’s.

countered, her voice tight with frustration. ‘That’s the point. She’s not our baby. Or at least, I’m not sure she’s ours. But that’s not the same as people thinking that she’s mine but not yours. That would mean that I had a thing with some other bloke and I didn’t. I wouldn’t.’

was the woman, the woman from the hospital. The woman who had her baby.

Sylvie?

For her, the purpose of the exercise was not to get anywhere or

‘I said I think our babies were swapped. I think we have each other’s children.’ Sylvie had heard her. The

I mean how woukd ine reaft

Family was important and the main thing here was that everyone knew exactly who their family was and where they belonged.

Ditto

‘Well, I’m sure you’ll have passed some,’ Michelle said soothingly. ‘You certainly worked hard enough.’

Me w praxis i hopr

School had said so right from the start. And she was interested in learning too, which was the part that Michelle hadn’t managed to get right with the others.

Wush i had this xonfidebce

A daughter of mine going to university.’

A first gen

two years earlier after she had been expelled from the fee-paying school that she had been attending.

Charly frlm.michelle was also expelled interesting

Dean now lived in a different part of the city, shacked up with his new girlfriend.

Ughhhh

their marriage. Everything would have been fine, she knew, if she’d just been able to get over the Donna thing. If she could have accepted that the

Ugh no shes blaming herself forf the divirce

what? You think I was having an affair,’ she scoffed. ‘I was twenty-five years old with a full-time job, three children under eight and a husband that I loved, and you think that I had the energy to think about having an affair, let alone to actually want to

Dean thought she heated ooooif

wanted to believe that she had treated Donna no differently to the other three. She had certainly tried to treat them all the same. Of course, Donna had been different, but that was just Donna and nothing to do with the way Michelle had responded to her.

‘She’s not “our” Donna. No point pretending otherwise.’

‘Get her to tell you her cock-and-bull story. Because it’s all bollocks, Chelle. We both know that.’

He still diesjt believe yer abour not cheating

‘but I’m not wrong. I’m not your dad, Donna. Never

I mean hes right ut for the wring reason

Sometimes Sylvie thought that he actually enjoyed wallowing in his self-pity, but given what had happened she really couldn’t blame him.

I agree but uts debilitating

‘He’s wrong about that. I wouldn’t. I love your dad.’

went back to the hospital and I told them, but they thought it was the baby blues or something. I don’t know. They

What was she expectibg ti returb the baby???not jpw it works

‘I don’t believe you,’ she said. ‘You always were a shit liar. You know that I’m not yours. You’ve known since the start. Why else did you go to the hospital and try and swap me back? At least Dad’s being honest with me. It might have taken him sixteen years but he got there in the end. But you .

Hiw can fonna be mad at michelke sge tpld the tduth yet dean left them gello

She had tried so hard to do the right thing. She had asked questions and then, when no one seemed to believe her, she had worked to bring Donna up just as she had the others. She’d swear that she hadn’t done anything differently for any of her children. Any differences there were between them came from Donna herself.

I ubdestsd akwaus tryung to do the rught thing yet messiknh up seemigly everytime csnmot please everyone npr be perfedct

‘No,’ Michelle said decisively. ‘It wasn’t right. I did not have an affair and I most definitely didn’t get pregnant by someone else.’

Shes beginning to qyesyion if she acyualkh cgeated yet she knws she didjt

Was he actually her dad or just some random man that fate had placed in her path? What about her mum and her brothers and Tina?

How could you have a family for sixteen years and then suddenly lose them all in the space of a couple of hours? Donna couldn’t get her head around

Ok but sge still had a fanily it just looks duffereht. Almost like adopted

‘To find out like that, or to find out at all?’

‘Yes. I know exactly where it is.’

Oh no now that donna knias does michelke fear shelk want to meet sylvia and plrefer her as her mother

had always been ‘The Power of Love’, which Jeremy insisted wasn’t a Christmas song at all and that putting the nativity story on the video wasn’t enough to turn it into one.

‘Jo and Mark and baby John-Paul. They’re all dead.’

Wait whar

Her life could continue perfectly well as it was without ever meeting these people.

(despite him choosing to be a dick about it just then)

She checked for cars and then crossed the road, striding confidently until she reached the heavy black door. And then she pressed the bell.

She us lragng the doir open for sykvua but just curious ahd wilk stay loyak to muchekke: ?!?!

And then he began to laugh.

In dusbelief

not sure where it came from but please accept my deepest apologies.

Wow jeremy us better tgsn dean