The Greatest Gift

by Rachael Johns

  So, unable to believe her luck and against her better judgement, she answered him with a kiss, hoping against hope that he truly meant what he said, because she was already falling for him and his heart wasn’t the only one on the line.

  Chapter Seven

  AUGUST 2016

  On Saturday afternoon, Harper met her sister Willow outside the front of their mum’s rundown rental in Waterloo. She hadn’t seen either of them in a couple of months and while that was normal with her mother, it wasn’t with her sister.

  ‘Hi there, long time no see,’ she joked as Willow kissed her on the cheek. She was dressed in her usual uniform of jeans, a casual shirt and Doc Marten boots, but it looked as if she’d put on a little weight since the last time Harper had seen her. For someone who’d struggled with an eating disorder since her teens, this wasn’t a bad thing. Love obviously agreed with her. ‘How’s Miriam?’ Her partner was the senior executive to the deputy police commissioner.

  Willow let out a long, dreamy sigh. ‘Wonderful. In fact, so wonderful that not even a summons from Mum can put me in a bad mood.’

  ‘That’s a big call,’ Harper said, glancing ominously towards the front door. ‘I wonder what she wants this time.’

  ‘Money. It’s always money. She’s probably got herself into some kind of debt again or has another crazy idea for a business and needs some start-up funds. Welcome to Shark Tank—where you and I are the sharks.’

  Harper laughed, knowing Willow was probably right. Laura Drummond wasn’t the mothering type—at least she hadn’t been for as long as Harper could remember—and most of the time her daughters were an afterthought. So many times as children they’d been left home alone, sometimes for days on end, while Laura spent time with her latest lover, hoping that this one would finally fill the void left in her heart by the death of her late husband. More often than not, she’d left them with hardly any food; either because she didn’t have the funds or because she’d simply forgotten to buy it altogether. Needless to say, Laura Drummond had never held down a job longer than a few days in her life.

  It was amazing that Harper and Willow had turned out so normal. But if their mother had done one thing for them it was teach them that they didn’t want to be like her. They didn’t want to spend their lives trying (and failing) to please man after man. They wanted to be self-sufficient and independent. As a result she and Willow had worked their butts off at school, studying hard and working secret jobs to save money they made sure Laura never knew about. All this had paid off and now they both had good careers, homes of their own and money for luxuries as well as the food and essentials they’d often gone without as children.

  Thus, finally they were useful to their mother who had conveniently rewritten history to make herself out as a hero who had sacrificed everything to raise them. Now, she believed, it was their turn to pay her back.

  Samuel often asked Harper and Willow why they didn’t just cut the apron strings once and for all. Sometimes Harper wondered this herself, but when push came to shove she simply couldn’t bring herself to do it. Laura wasn’t a bad person, she just wasn’t a great mother, and Harper honestly believed she didn’t even realise this. Either way, there were plenty of worse mums in the world. Mothers who physically abused their children or worse. She shuddered as she remembered an interview she’d done a couple of years ago with a father who had lost both his sons when his ex-wife committed murder/suicide.

  ‘Well,’ she said, pushing that dark memory aside and linking her arm through Willow’s. ‘Let’s face the music.’

  Together they approached their mother’s front door. Five seconds after Willow knocked, Laura answered.

  ‘My girls,’ she said, hugging them both at the same time. ‘It’s so good to see you. Come on inside. I’ve made scones for morning tea.’

  ‘You baked?’ Willow asked. The one time Laura had tried to make a cake (a packet mix) during their childhood she’d almost burnt the house down.

  ‘I’ve been doing a lot of baking lately,’ Laura said, closing the door behind them. ‘There’s lots of good instructional videos on YouTube.’

  Harper gave Willow a look behind their mother’s back. Since when had Laura known how to use a computer? Willow had given her a laptop for Christmas a few years ago and even tried giving her a few lessons in the hope that maybe she could pick up some typing work, but that had ended in tears on both their parts. As far as the girls thought, the laptop had been gathering dust ever since, alongside everything else in the house.

  They emerged into the kitchen to see the laptop set up on one end of the table and the other end laden with a basket of fresh scones, jam, cream and clean plates. Even more surprising was that they could actually see the bench surfaces, and that the sink wasn’t full of dirty dishes. Again Harper and Willow exchanged looks of surprise. Something weird was going on.

  ‘Wow, these smell good,’ Harper said, nodding towards the basket of scones.

  Laura beamed. ‘Wait till you taste them. Now you girls take a seat and help yourself while I put the kettle on. I have some very exciting news.’

  ‘Can’t wait.’

  Harper detected the sarcasm in her sister’s voice as they both pulled out chairs and sat, but she didn’t think their mother did. She plucked a scone from the top of the basket.

  ‘You’re actually going to eat one,’ whispered Willow, her eyes wide.

  Harper shrugged. ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’

  ‘You die of food poisoning.’

  Harper chuckled as she cut the scone in half and proceeded to apply jam and cream. Willow wasn’t exactly joking—Laura might never have intentionally poisoned her children, but there were a few times in their childhood when she’d accidentally come close. She never quite understood why you should keep cleaning, gardening and cooking supplies separate.

  ‘So, how’s the lovely Samuel?’ Laura asked as she carried tea supplies over to the table. ‘Still busy, busy, busy?’

  ‘He’s great. Hopefully he’ll be making partner at the firm soon.’ Harper took a surreptitious sniff of her scone before taking a bite. It wasn’t actually that bad.

  ‘Lovely, lovely.’ Laura sat opposite the girls and poured tea into fine china cups from a teapot Harper had never seen in her life. She smiled across at Willow. ‘And what about Mary? How’s she these days?’

  ‘Miriam is great, thanks for asking. Now, what’s this news you have?’ Willow had never possessed a lot of patience, but right now Harper didn’t mind her hurrying things up because she had a doctor’s appointment to go to soon.

  ‘Well.’ Laura clasped her hands in front of her on the table as if she were about to launch into prayer.

  Was that it? Had she found Jesus? Maybe this was where Laura sat them down and finally apologised for being such a shitty mother.

  ‘I’ve met someone!’ The grin Laura had been wearing from the moment they arrived somehow managed to grow even wider.

  Here we go again.

  ‘Is that it?’ Willow didn’t even try to hide her annoyance. ‘You dragged us all the way over here on a Saturday to tell us about another dropkick guy you’ve met at some seedy bar? Don’t you know we don’t care anymore?’

  ‘No!’ Laura shook her head, her smile only slightly dimming. ‘He’s not a dropkick and I didn’t meet him in some seedy bar. This time it’s different. I feel it in my bones—and it’s actually thanks to you I’ve found him, Willow.’

  ‘How the hell do you figure that?’

  Harper reached under the table and put her hand on Willow’s knee. They were grown-ups now. No stupid boyfriend of their mother’s could hurt either of them ever again.

  ‘After you girls nagging at me that I needed to get a job, I decided to learn myself some computer skills. I signed up to a course at the local library and they got me online.’

  ‘Wow, that’s great,’ Harper said, seriously impressed that her mum even knew where the library was.

  Laura beamed at her.
‘Thanks, honey. And that’s how I met Mack.’

  ‘At the library?’ Willow sounded sceptical.

  ‘No, online. There’s a whole world of cyber dating out there. You don’t even need to leave the house. I had to sort through a lot of losers to get to Mack, but we’ve fallen in love and we’re going to get married.’

  ‘Well, congratulations,’ Willow said, not sounding congratulatory in the slightest. ‘When do we get to meet the lucky man? Is this where he steps out of the pantry?’

  ‘Actually, he’s from Montana.’

  ‘Montana as in America?’ Harper exclaimed, pushing the plate with her unfinished scone on it away from her.

  ‘Yes. He’s a cowboy. Has a ranch and everything and he wants me to move over there! Isn’t it exciting? Willow, you and what’s-her-name could come visit me and get married. It’s legal for lesbians to tie the knot in Montana you know.’

  ‘Oh my Lord.’ Willow clicked her tongue and shook her head, ignoring the reference to her own possible nuptials. ‘So you haven’t actually met him yet? He could be a serial killer.’

  ‘He’s definitely not. We’ve talked online and on the phone. Here’s proof.’ Laura grabbed a piece of paper from near her laptop and thrust it at Willow.

  Harper looked over her sister’s shoulder and saw that it was a phone bill.

  ‘How the hell are you going to pay this?’ Willow asked as Harper’s gaze landed on an amount owing well into the thousands. ‘Doesn’t your boyfriend ever call you?’

  Their mother had the good sense to look a little contrite. ‘He does, but I don’t want to send him broke. I was hoping you two could give me a loan.’ Before they could reply, hell no, she added, ‘And while you’re at it, could you lend me the money for a plane ticket as well? Pretty please.’

  Hearing pretty please from a child infuriated Harper, but hearing it coming from her mother made her homicidal. She dug her fingernails into her palms and silently counted to ten. In that time, she considered the possibility that perhaps sending their mother off to the other side of the world to be some stranger’s responsibility was not such a bad idea. So what if she didn’t have the best track record with relationships?

  It appeared that Willow was on the same page, for before Harper had got to eight, she said, ‘Okay.’ Then she folded the phone bill until it was small enough to shove into her shirt pocket and added, ‘But this is the last time, Mother. We’ll pay the bill and buy you your flight to Montana, but it’ll be a one-way ticket. We’re not bailing you out again if this doesn’t work out, understood?’

  ‘What?’ Harper exclaimed.

  At the same time, Laura sprang from her seat, rushed around the table and threw her arms around Willow. ‘I knew I raised you right. Thank you. Once I’m settled, maybe you can all come for Christmas.’

  ‘And maybe the Pope will convert to Scientology,’ Willow replied, extracting herself from their mother’s embrace.

  ‘Do you want to see a photo of Mack?’ Laura asked, clapping her hands together in excitement. ‘Or better still, maybe we could Skype him.’

  ‘A photo will be fine,’ Harper said. ‘I’ve got some place to be shortly.’

  ‘Okay then.’ Laura grabbed the laptop from the other end of the table and set it in front of Harper and Willow. She knelt on the floor between them and brought up a folder of photos dedicated totally to him.

  As their mother clicked it open, Harper looked at her sister and mouthed, ‘Montana?’

  Willow shrugged and then gave her two thumbs up.

  ‘There he is! Isn’t he gorgeous?’

  Harper turned back to the screen not sure what she was expecting to see, but she had to concede that for a man in his late fifties he was quite good-looking. For a bald guy. He smiled back at them from the photo and he seemed genuinely warm and friendly. ‘So what’s he like?’ she asked.

  Laura opened a browser and logged into the dating website. ‘Here’s his profile. It tells you the basics, but as I said, he’s a cowboy. Years ago he used to be a bull rider, but he’s retired from that and these days his ranch keeps him pretty busy.’

  Harper read how Mack was a lonely widower looking for another lost heart to help him find his way again. He wanted someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work and who’d enjoy working on the ranch with him. Laura was pretty much the exact opposite of what he was looking for.

  ‘I want to see your profile,’ Willow said, taking over the laptop and finding their mother’s details. ‘Holy hell. How old is that photo? Did you say you’ve Skyped? Mack knows you no longer look like this right?’

  Laura frowned and then patted her stomach. ‘I’ve taken up jogging and I’m almost back to the weight I was before you two ruined my body, but Mack cares more about what’s inside. We have so much in common. He brings out the best in me. He makes me want to be a better person.’

  ‘Well, congratulations then,’ Willow said, pushing to her feet. ‘I hope you’ll both be very happy. You sort yourself a passport and then we’ll organise your ticket, but we better be off now. Harper has somewhere to be.’

  ‘Okay, my darlings, I’ll be in touch.’

  Not really knowing what had just happened, Harper gave her mum a quick hug and then followed Willow outside. Laura shut the door behind them and as they started off down the cracked path towards the road, Harper said, ‘I thought you weren’t lending Laura any more money? And I do believe you just said that we’d both pay her bills and buy her an airline ticket.’

  Willow waved her hand in dismissal. ‘Didn’t you hear what she said? She’s moving to America. I’d remortgage my house for that. She won’t be able to call us to get her out of sticky situations so easily from the other side of the planet. Now, where shall we go for a celebratory lunch?’

  Harper smiled at her sister’s enthusiasm. ‘She’s not on the plane yet. Maybe when she tells Mack he’ll get cold feet and ask her not to come.’

  Willow stopped dead in her tracks and horror crossed her face as she looked up to the sky. ‘You wouldn’t be that cruel! Would you, God?’

  Harper laughed—last she heard Willow was an atheist.

  ‘Hey, we should call Miriam and Samuel and see if they can come to lunch too.’

  ‘Maybe another time,’ Harper said. ‘Samuel’s at the office and I wasn’t lying about having somewhere else to be. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment.’

  ‘Oh. Is something wrong? Not a pap test, is it?’ Willow screwed up her nose. ‘I had mine the other week. Ugh.’

  ‘Actually, nothing’s wrong and I’m not getting a pap test.’ Harper had been waiting to see her sister face-to-face before sharing her news, but after Samuel and Lilia’s initial reactions, she felt a little hesitant. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately and have come to a decision. Have you heard of egg donation?’

  ‘You mean when a woman donates her eggs to another woman to have a baby? Of course I have. Oh my God!’ Willow put out her hand and touched Harper’s arm. ‘Is there something wrong with your eggs? Are you going to see a fertility doctor? Do you need my eggs?’

  ‘No.’ She half-laughed, swallowing her slight irritation. ‘You know I don’t want children—I’ve never had that maternal urge—and anyway, your eggs would be considered too old for donation.’

  ‘Oh.’ Willow shrugged, her face relaxing again. ‘I thought maybe you’d changed your mind. Plenty of women do when they hit thirty-five.’

  Harper shook her head. Why did everyone assume that just because she was almost thirty-five she must want to have babies? Even her own sister didn’t believe her when she said she didn’t want to be a mum. Harper would be a billionaire if she had a dollar for every time someone asked her or Samuel when they were going to have kids. She always felt a little guilty answering this question—as if not wanting to have children made her weird—but Samuel had perfected his response. He always went on about it being an ethical response to climate change, sometimes even quoting statistics about how the planet was already overpopu
lated, and thus not having children was the morally right thing to do. If the interrogator persisted, he’d add something about the world being a nasty place these days and him not wanting to bring a child into it.

  It was all bullshit—he just didn’t want to sacrifice his comfortable life—but he was smart enough to know if he simply said he didn’t want children, folks would try to convince him otherwise. As it was, people generally accepted his reasoning much quicker than they did hers. For all the western world was supposed to be a progressive place these days, many people still felt uncomfortable with the idea of a woman who didn’t have a maternal bone in her body.

  But Harper had known from about seven or eight that she didn’t want to have children—she’d never liked playing with dolls and she hadn’t gone through the craze that many of her friends had, wanting to start their own babysitter’s club after reading the popular book series. She must have been the only girl in her class who never even read one of them. Like her sister, she was far more interested in getting a good job and being able to look after herself in the way her mother never had.

  Why did she and Samuel even need a reason anyway? Why was it anyone else’s business if they didn’t want to procreate?

  Feeling suddenly defensive, she blurted, ‘I want to donate my eggs to someone else!’

  Willow took a moment to digest the news. ‘Oh wow—that’s fantastic! What a great thing to do.’

  Harper blinked. ‘Seriously? You don’t think it’s totally insane?’

  ‘No, I think it’s a wonderful idea. You’re giving away something that has the power to change someone else’s life. There are so many people who are desperate to have children. If you can give them that, well, I think that would pretty much make you a hero.’