The People's Friend Special

All In The Family

A big favour is requested in this uplifting short story by Eirin Thompson.

- by Eirin Thompson

WHEN I met Ryan, I didn’t just get a fantastic new boyfriend, I also got two new best friends – Ryan’s brother, Jared, and Jared’s girlfriend, Adele.

Adele was pretty and vivacious, with auburnting­ed hair and sparkling brown eyes.

Jared was fun-loving and warm-hearted, a bit burly and with a blond thatch.

Ryan and I were a little quieter, but we loved to spend time with them.

There were beach parties, trips to the funfair and a memorable mini-break in Paris, where Jared threw himself enthusiast­ically into the accent, but sounded more like Inspector Clouseau than Gérard Depardieu.

On our last night in the romantic city, Jared and Adele announced that they were going out for dinner, just the two of them.

“Why don’t you and I take a stroll along the Seine?” Ryan suggested. “It’ll be something special in the moonlight.”

We had just enjoyed a warming Armagnac at a little café-bar and were

There was only one thing that my dear friends wanted – and I knew I could help!

ambling along, soaking up the atmosphere, when we heard someone call our names.

“I don’t believe it!” Ryan exclaimed. “Look!”

Jared and Adele were shouting to us from a cruise boat on the water, practicall­y jumping up and down.

“What’s the matter with them?” I asked.

“I can’t make out what they’re saying,” Ryan said. “Whatever it is, they’re pretty excited.”

All became clear back at the hotel, with Jared announcing, “Nous sommes fiancés!”

He’d popped the question during their supper cruise on the Seine – they were engaged.

****

Adele was insistent I was to be her chief bridesmaid.

“You can pick the colour for the frocks if it means you’ll say yes,” she suggested.

“But wouldn’t you rather ask family?” I answered. “I don’t want to stand on anyone’s toes.”

“You’re like a sister to me, Madison. I can still have my nieces, but I need you by my side.”

I felt honoured.

The wedding was great fun. Once the serious business of the church ceremony was complete, everyone piled into the marquee in Adele’s parents’ garden and trays of bubbly began to circulate.

Jared made a funny speech.

Adele made a funnier one.

Ryan, who was best man, squeezed my hand as the happy couple kissed under the fairy lights to a toast from the bride’s father.

“I love you, Madison,” Ryan whispered.

I gazed into his eyes. “I love you, too.”

****

Ryan’s proposal was just as romantic, in its own way.

About a month after Jared and Adele’s wedding, he whisked me away to a cottage in the Scottish Borders where he’d holidayed as a child.

“This is the place I was happiest in my whole life,” he told me.

“I can’t think of a better place to ask you to make me as happy again by agreeing to marry me.”

I didn’t hesitate. Ryan was decent, strong and kind. He worked hard and he was good with kids.

It didn’t hurt that he had shiny black hair and eyes like dark chocolate.

“Of course I’ll marry you.” Unlike Jared and Adele, who couldn’t wait to get married, we took our time.

“If we stick to our threeyear-plan, we’ll have a deposit for a house and be able to afford the honeymoon of a lifetime,” Ryan reminded me whenever I wanted to splash out on something frivolous.

Our priority was to have our exotic honeymoon then come home to our new place.

We wanted our honeymoon to be special because, after that, we were settling down properly, intending to start a family straight away.

Keen though we were, Ryan and I were still shocked when it turned out we were having what people called “a honeymoon baby”.

“That’s fantastic!” Jared cried, picking me up and spinning me round, then plonking me down. “Sorry – I should be more careful.”

“You clever things!” Adele exclaimed. “Now, have we

picked any names yet? I like ‘Adele’ for a girl.”

All through my pregnancy, they showered us with attention.

“If their enthusiasm is anything to go by, I reckon they’ll be the next to make a baby announceme­nt,” I told Ryan.

“Just imagine all the little cousins playing together.”

Baby Rebecca was born healthy and well, weighing in at just over eight pounds and with a shock of black hair.

“She looks just like her daddy,” Adele said as she cuddled her by my hospital bed.

“She’s perfect,” Jared whispered.

I exchanged a look with Ryan – was his normally rambunctio­us brother almost crying?

“Babies get to people in all sorts of funny ways,” Ryan said later, when we were on our own in the quiet ward.

****

Ryan and I were overjoyed when Rebecca had a little brother, Eddie, and again when we had a third child, Flora, whom we decided was to bring our brood to completion.

All three had their father’s dark good looks, although each had their own distinct personalit­y.

Every new pregnancy brought Jared and Adele running to express their joy and offer their help.

They were the perfect babysitter­s – warm and caring and a lot of fun.

But by the time Flora arrived, Ryan and I knew something was wrong.

“You see how they are with our kids,” Ryan pointed out.

“So why don’t they have any of their own? Something must be up, Madison.”

I had to agree. Sometimes I saw Adele just staring at the children wistfully.

And for all that Jared found a joke in almost every situation, he never, ever joked about him and Adele having a baby. Or not having one.

Then, one night, Adele and I were on a hen do.

Ryan and Jared were looking after the kids and had instructed us to go and enjoy ourselves – they’d take care of the children in the morning, too.

Adele and I were knocking back the cocktails when she tugged my arm.

“Madison? Can I talk to you about something?” “Sure. What is it?”

“Not here. Let’s go outside.”

****

Ryan and I were right. Adele and Jared desperatel­y wanted to have children, but were unable to do so in the usual way.

It had been a source of great sorrow to both of them, but they had tried to stay positive.

“There is one thing that haunts us, though,” Adele admitted.

“What’s that?”

“A couple of years ago, someone pointed out that we could go down the surrogacy route,” Adele replied.

“Surrogacy?”

“You know – it would be our biological child, but another woman would carry the baby for us.”

“I’ve heard of it,” I said, “but I don’t know anyone who’s actually done it.”

“It’s uncommon, here, because surrogates are only allowed to receive basic expenses and therefore there’s no big financial sweetener.

“But that doesn’t mean it never happens.”

“So it’s still a possibilit­y?” “Well, that is what we don’t know.

“Under the law, if we went with a surrogate, she could change her mind at any time and decide to keep the baby – our baby – and there would be nothing we could do.”

“Even though the child was biological­ly yours and Jared’s?” I was shocked.

“Even so. We wouldn’t have any rights. Our baby could end up in another country, raised by people we’d never even met.”

“That sounds unbearable.”

“Jared thinks so, too. He thinks it’s too risky.”

“And you?” I asked.

Adele shrugged.

“I think we should ask someone we know to do it. Someone who understand­s how much we want a child and wouldn’t snatch it away.”

I swallowed.

“Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me?”

“I’m past asking, Madison. I’m thirty-five and I don’t know how long I can wait. I’m begging.”

****

Ryan was brilliant. He didn’t fly off the handle, he didn’t say Adele had a cheek, and neither did he abdicate all responsibi­lity for the decision to me.

“Let’s have a massive conversati­on about all aspects of this first, then each go away and think about it before we have a final conversati­on,” he suggested.

We discussed my health, and how it was generally very good and how there had been no issues during my previous three pregnancie­s or births.

We talked about what impact another pregnancy might have on my career.

We considered how we would explain the whole thing to our children, and how Jared and Adele might explain it to any child arising from me acting as surrogate.

“In the absence of any substantia­l problems, I’d have to say it comes down to this,” I told Ryan.

“I love Jared and Adele and I think I’d do almost anything to help them. So why not?”

****

It was a pregnancy like no other.

Although I went to great efforts to maintain my in-laws’ status as the “real” parents, the whole nine months were a bit like a family party.

There were always four of us there for scans and examinatio­ns, plus our three kids on occasions!

Jared and Adele made a huge fuss of me, bringing me fancy foods and vitamin supplement­s and paying for massages when I had a bit of back pain.

“You’re the anxious mum, too,” I reminded Adele. “You’re going to need to be in tip-top condition for all those sleepless nights ahead of you.”

I bought her a ticket for a day spa.

Rebecca, Eddie and Flora found the whole thing wonderful.

They got used to saying I

“Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me?”

was the “tummy mummy” for Uncle Jared and Auntie Adele’s baby and drew pictures for the nursery.

From early on we’d talked about the birth, and it was agreed that this was a time Adele and I would share, without the men, who would see the baby straight afterwards.

When the contractio­ns started, I rang Adele right away.

****

Ryan and I had discussed how we’d cope if I struggled to part with this new child I was carrying. But, in the end, there was no such struggle.

Baby Tabitha weighed almost nine pounds and was solidly built like her dad.

She had a head of fluffy hair, and when Adele and Jared held her in their arms she looked every inch like she was exactly where she belonged.

“Say cheese,” the midwife ordered, taking the photo in our special side room.

We’d been put in there because the hospital was bending the visiting rules to accommodat­e our special circumstan­ces.

Seven of us grinned for the camera and Tabitha gurgled.

“One big happy family,” the midwife said.

And she’s right: we are!

The End.

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