Before Beckett could reply, a woman bounced up to us from the church doorway.
‘Hey, hello!’ she said with enough energy to make my exhausted bones wince. ‘I didn’t spot you guys in the service.’
She wore a baggy blue boilersuit covered in daisies, and had a giant crocheted daisy at the end of each of her long brown plaits. A little girl was clinging to her middle like a baby koala, chewing solemnly on the end of one plait as she stared up at Beckett’s giant frame.
‘We just got here,’ I said with an awkward smile.
‘Oh, okay! Well, the service finished about half an hour ago, but you’re welcome to a drink and a chat. I’m Sofia, by the way. I help run New Life with my husband, Moses.’
Beckett visibly cringed at the offer of a chat, but when Sofia mentioned Moses, his shoulders dropped slightly.
‘Is Moses here?’
Sofia took a few seconds to answer him, having been distracted by noticing the baby on my chest. ‘Um… yes, he’s inside somewhere. Oh, my days, this one is teensy! How are you here? You’re wearing make-up! Why aren’t you at home, lying on the sofa while someone—’ she gave Beckett a sharp look ‘—tends to your every need and want?’
‘We met Moses last month,’ Beckett pressed on, while I tried to process Sofia’s questions. ‘When Bob was born.’
‘Really?’ Sofia glanced at him, then back at me, the realisation dawning on her face. ‘You’re Mary! This is the baby born in our flat! I can’t believe you came back. This is amazing. Wait, let me get Moses. Oh, and Yara. Who else was asking about you? Patty! Has anyone seen Patty?’
‘She talks too fast,’ Marvin pronounced. ‘And says too much.’
‘I’m normally quite chilled,’ Sofia said, scanning the car park. ‘But it’s not every day that someone gives birth in our building. It’s no day, apart from that Sunday. I’m very excited right now. Luke, have you seen Patty or Yara?’
The whole time she was talking and twisting her head about, she had a hand on Bob’s foot. The girl she was carrying, who I guessed was three, dropped the plait.
‘You’re very old,’ she said, dark eyebrows beetling at Marvin.
‘You’re rude,’ he shot back.
‘You’re ruderer!’ the girl shouted, and who knew how things would have escalated if Moses hadn’t appeared at that point?
‘Mimi, it’s actually rude to call someone rude.’
‘Well, then, you’re rude, Dad, because you called Mimi rude,’ a boy holding Moses’ hand said. ‘And now I’m rude, because I called you rude.’
‘Mimi might have said something rude, but that doesn’t make her a rude person, Micah,’ Sofia said, thankfully letting go of Bob and bending down to talk to the boy. ‘Remember we had a conversation about this? Who you are isn’t defined by your worst actions.’
‘Tell that to someone on death row,’ Marvin snorted.
‘Okay, so what’s really rude is ignoring visitors at church,’ Moses said with a desperate grin, before suddenly realising who we were. ‘Mary! Beckett, my friend. And the star of the show!’ He leant closer to look at Bob, but could only make out the top of his head thanks to him currently headbutting my chest, baby talk for ‘feed me!’.
‘I’m calling him Bob, for now,’ I said with a nervous smile. ‘Although, to be honest, I’m so knackered I’ll probably be too tired to think of anything else, so he’ll end up Bob by default.’
‘As good a way to choose a name as any.’ Moses laughed. ‘We spent days agonising over what to call our youngest – she was the only one we had as a baby – but in the end our eldest daughter, Adina, chose Mimi because it’s the name of her Auntie Emma’s cat.’
‘How are you doing?’ Sofia asked. ‘Is Bob all right after his dramatic arrival? Did you make it home through the snow okay? Have you recovered from the trauma of your baby being delivered by an equine dentist?’ She stopped then, hitching Mimi up higher on her hip. ‘Sorry, I’m bombarding you again. Look, we’re having a lunch here, to kick off plans for the Christmas carol service. Why don’t you join us, and we can talk properly?’
‘No, we really couldn’t…’ I said, although part of me wondered why, precisely, I couldn’t stay for lunch, given we’d been invited by very friendly seeming people, and I’d been living off mainly crackers and toast. I glanced at Beckett, who shifted uncomfortably.
‘Thank you, but I really need to get my grandpa back. It’s a big deal for him to be out of the house these days.’
‘All the more reason?’ Sofia said, looking bemused while still beaming.
‘Come on, you’re here to give us an update, you might as well enjoy a bowlful of tagine and a comfy chair while you fill us in,’ Moses said.
Beckett bit his lip, resolve cracking.
‘We only came to give Yara these and say thank you. Oh, and to return the car seat. I’m sorry, I can’t remember the name of the man who leant it to us.’
