The Minnow by Diana Sweeney Read Free Book Online

replied, ‘I’m on a roll.’
    Just like me, Jonah has only one living relative.
    â€˜Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ says the Minnow.
    â€˜Can I get you anything?’ the nurse asks me.
    â€˜I need my thesaurus and my dictionary,’ I answer. ‘Jonah can bring them,’ I add. Luckily, my waters didn’t actually break. I have a weak membrane or something. Anyway, I’ve stopped leaking and I’m hooked up to a drip which is putting the water back in.
    The Minnow has settled down for a nap.
    â€˜Dr Patek will be in to see you at about six,’ says the nurse, as she leaves my room.
    â€˜She’s a bit weird,’ I say to Papa, who has been with me since this morning.
    I have a phone next to my bed. It rings. ‘That’ll be Nana,’ says Papa.
    â€˜Hello, Tom speaking.’
    â€˜Hello, darling,’ says Nana. I wink across to Papa to let him know he is right. ‘That lovely nurse put me straight through, said you have your own phone and everything.’
    â€˜And my own bathroom.’
    â€˜Oh, my,’ she says to me. ‘She has her own bathroom,’ I hear her relay to someone. I hear Jonathan’s gentle laugh.
    â€˜Hi, Jonathan,’ I say via Nana.
    Papa’s face squelches.
    â€˜Hi, Holly.’
    Nana has put her hand over the phone and she’s saying something to Jonathan. She finishes whatever she’s saying— probably admonishing Jonathan for calling me Holly—and clears her throat. There is a long silent pause. Nana and I never speak on the phone. Bill’s boatshed didn’t have a phone, and Jonah’s house used to have one but it hasn’t been reconnected.
    â€˜How’s the Minnow?’ Nana sounds relieved that she has thought of a question.
    â€˜She’s sleeping,’ I answer. ‘They’re putting in more water, so she’ll be swimming around in no time,’ I add. If Nana says something back we’ll be having a conversation.
    â€˜The nurse who answered the phone. What’s her name?’
    â€˜I’m not sure, Nana,’ I say, ‘but I can find out.’
    Nana likes to know names. She’d like to get off the phone and show off to Jonathan and Mavis and Betsy Groot and say nurse Tamsin says this and nurse Tamsin says that. I don’t know if the nurse’s name is Tamsin, I’m just making that up.
    â€˜Well…’ Nana says.
    â€˜Thanks for calling, Nana,’ I say.
    â€˜Okay, dear.’
    â€˜Nana, can you ask Jonathan to ask Jonah to bring my thesaurus and dictionary?’
    â€˜All right dear, but remember you’re a long way from The Crossing. I’m not sure how Jonah will get there.’
    â€˜But I need my thesaurus and dictionary,’ I say, borrowing the Minnow’s whiny voice.
    â€˜Okay, dear. I’ll see what I can do.’

    There is an enormous fish tank at the entrance to the maternity ward. If you take the lift, it’s the first thing you see as the doors open. ‘Thanks to all the staff, with gratitude and love, the Spencer family’ says a small brass plaque. It has a sad tone to it. Like someone’s missing.
    The tank is home to numerous fish, about a hundred tiny snails with red and brown striped shells, some pretty awful plastic weed and one lone turtle. None of the fish are talking, which makes me think of something Oscar said. ‘The tank’s full of mixens,’ says the little turtle.
    â€˜Mixens?’ I say, hoping he will explain.
    â€˜Dunghill,’ he answers. For a turtle, he is being extremely unhelpful.
    â€˜Shit,’ he adds. I don’t know if he is explaining or swearing. I wait to see if he’s going to elaborate and, when he doesn’t, I decide that he is what Papa would call a smart-arse.
    Papa says the best thing about smart-arses is they usually give themselves away pretty early.
    â€˜Uh huh,’ I say, ‘…well, we were just