Thursday, 10th April 00:50 BDST: Smethwick, England.

“Reeney, Reeney. Come on, love, let’s get you up to bed, come on girl let’s have you,” Amy’s words slowly begin to raise Doreen from slumber. Yet, as the world floods in she can’t remember how the blanket on top of her got there before, but she rolls it back slightly nonetheless as a sign that she’s getting up, looking out at her mother’s feet from under the table, through one slightly open eye. “OK mom, in a minute,” she slurs, closing her one eye again and pulling the blanket back up. 

“Come on love it’s one in the morning; you’ll do yourself no good sleeping under there, go to bed, there’s a good girl. Come on let’s go up to bed love.” With the sound of pleading in her mother’s voice, Doreen breaks sleep’s grip and throws the blanket off from her torso and the cold begins to embrace her. Through the same eye again she sighs as she looks over to the fireplace and sees that the fire’s out. But before she can surrender her position on her terms, Amy pulls the blanket away with a flourish. “Well, ”she says, “you can freeze to death or go up to bed!”, placing a hot water bottle by the table as a peace offering. “Thanks mom,” Doreen begrudgingly sighs out, rolling her eyes and stretching an arm, then pulling it in close, feeling its warmth as she begins to crawl out into the cold living room, standing up and then stumbling into the outstretched arms of Doreen who hugs her tight, rubbing up and down her back to warm her up. “I miss dad so much, mom,” Doreen sleepily muses. 

“I know love, there isn’t a day that I don’t think of him all alone down there, but two weeks tomorrow we’ll be a family again for your big day. I can’t believe my little girl is getting married,” Amy says, pausing as she looks upward, tilting her head backwards so her tears don’t spill out. “Everytime I walk past your bedroom, if the door’s ajar, I have to stop and stare at your wedding dress hanging up like a work of art on your wall.  It’s so beautiful. Goodness, I always think to myself, my little girl made that, my little girl.” The tears flow just as Doreen gets her words out and they hug again, their embrace breaking as Doreen bends down to pull the cushion seats out to put them back in the settee. “Leave them love, we’ll do that in the morning, let’s get you to bed,” Amy says, grabbing Doreen in an embrace again and kissing her quickly on her head. “I love you mom,” Doreen mutters, her eyes closed, as Amy whispers back, “I love you too. Love you to the moon and back”.