Read Online The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney - Free Book Online

covered in dry bark and wiry grasses. The other side of the fence marked the start of the motel grounds, with a strip of bright green lawn, flowers, and bedding plants, all their father’s work. It was an island of green amid the dry South Australian landscape. As she watched, a tubby white sheep trotted up behind Lola and Ellen. Her parents had bought it the year before, to help keep the grass down around the motel. Anna saw Ellen’s reaction, a shriek and then a push against her great-grandmother, looking for a shield. As her hands clenched, Anna felt her mother’s eyes on her and gave an embarrassed smile. “It’s that obvious, is it? I’m trying not to run out there. The doctor says I have to be careful not to make her any more anxious than she already is.”
    “Sheep have fairly blunt teeth. She’ll be safe enough.”
    Surely her mother wasn’t making light of it? “It was terrifying for her, Mum. For all of us.”
    “I know it was. I’m not laughing at you or her. I’m saying it as it is—she’ll be all right with Bumper. Besides, Bumper is so besotted with Lola she only has to whisper a word and he behaves.”
    The sheep was now on one side of Lola, Ellen on the other. Lola had a hand on each of their heads and was inclining her head toward one and then another. Introducing them again, Anna realized. Probably explaining the sheep’s name once more. Bumper as in Bumper Baa. Lola’s idea—she’d thought it was hilarious.
    Lola’s voice filtered in. “Can you feel his lovely soft wool, Ellen? Sheep have lanolin in their wool, one of nature’s very best moisturizers. If you ever meet a shearer, ask to shake his hand. You’ll never feel softer skin in all your life. Now, let’s go and say hello to the chickens as well. They’re a bad-tempered bunch. We won’t worry about shaking their claws today.”
    Anna turned from the window, a smile on her face. At that moment the kitchen door opened and Carrie walked in, carrying a large bundle of long brown twigs.
    Anna’s stomach gave a leap, and the smile froze. “Carrie. Hello.”
    Carrie stopped short. “Hello, Anna.”
    Anna swallowed, kept a smile on her face. “You look well.” She did, too. Small, pretty, she looked like a dainty forest creature. Anna was unreasonably disappointed. What had she expected? Carrie to have turned into a garden troll since they’d seen each other last?
    “So do you.”
    Anna accepted the compliment with a brief smile. So she would want to, all the money and effort she put into it—constant dieting, fake tans, manicures, pedicures, eyebrow shaping.…
    “Have you been here long?”
    “About half an hour.”
    “How was the trip?”
    “Fine thanks.” Anna forged ahead. She was going to be polite; she was going to handle this if it killed her. “All set for tonight?”
    “Just about, thanks.”
    Geraldine looked up from the oven. “You would have been ready days ago if Lola hadn’t kept changing her mind about the way she wanted the serviettes folded. Swans one minute, bishops’ hats the next. What was it you ended up with, Carrie?”
    “Fans,” Carrie said shortly.
    Anna gave a genuine smile. As teenagers they had spent what felt like months learning how to fold different sorts of serviettes for various functions—bishops’ hats for business meetings, fans for ladies’ lunches, and swans for weddings. The three of them could do it in their sleep. Once upon a time Anna would have reminisced about those days, gone straight over, taken the foliage from Carrie, chatted easily, and dragged her out to say hello to Ellen. Now they were standing like two store dummies, stiff and awkward, making equally stiff and awkward conversation. She tried again. “Do you need any help?”
    Carrie paused for a few moments too long. “No thanks. Everything’s under control.” She glanced around. “Where’s Ellen?”
    “Lola’s showing her around.”
    “And Glenn?”
    “He couldn’t make it.