There had been many little things that had caused Charlie to become unsettled and uneasy about her sister. She wanted to be as close as she had been when they’d first been thrown together.
“Amber, aren’t you afraid of getting pregnant?” she asked, one evening.
Amber looked up from her book and laughed.
“How, reading a book?”
“You know what I mean!”
“I take precautions.”
“You mean rubbers?”
Amber nodded.
“They break sometimes, or so I’m told.”
“Well, so far I’ve been lucky.”
“How often have you done it?”
“Now, Charlie, you know better than to ask me that,” Amber said with a smile.
“Does your mum know?”
“God no! I hope I’ve been discreet about things.”
“What about Greg?”
“What about him?”
“Have you and he, you know, done it?”
“What do you think?”
“Knowing you, yes.”
“Well, there you are. How about you and Mike, have you let him yet?”
Charlie blushed, shaking her head.
“Charlie, I think that’s fine. You get no medals for doing it or not doing it. I wanted to and am glad I have. Each to their own, so don’t get wound up about it.”
She bent her head and went back to her book.
“Amber?”
“What?” the younger girl asked, without raising her head.
“Are we still friends?”
Amber looked up. “Of course, you silly old thing. What makes you ask?”
“Would you tell me if you were in trouble?”
“What kind of trouble?”
Charlie shrugged.
“I don’t know, any kind, I suppose.”
Amber frowned.
“Probably not, why?” she said, honestly.
“Why not? I’d tell you if I was in trouble.”
“Charlie, that’s okay. I think I prefer to deal with things on my own. If it was boy trouble, for example, I’m not sure you could help. Do you?”
“Maybe not. I think that’s how we’re different.”
“Different, in what way?”
“You’re sort of closed off, but seem to know everything that’s going on. Nothing ever surprises or shocks you. It’s almost as if you know things in advance.”
Amber felt icy tendrils of unease.
“Like?”
“Like the other day. When they announced the winners of the essay competition, you seemed to already know the result. Then there was the selection of the first XI hockey team. You were dropped, but seemed to know in advance. There’s more, and you know it.”
“I knew Gabby would drop me. I haven’t been playing that well recently. As for the essay competition, who won it?”
“Sarah Findlay, why?”
“Who won the junior competition a couple of years ago?”
“Sarah Findlay. Okay, so they aren’t the best examples, but you know what I mean. I’m your sister, it’s not good having secrets, Amber.”
“Secrets? Like?”
“Like your art courses. How come you never come back with any work?”
“I leave it there.”
“Rubbish! Oh Amber, I know something’s happening, why can’t you tell me?”
Amber closed her book, marking the page by turning the top corner over. She gently laid it down and looked at her sister.
“What do you want to know?”
Charlie was taken aback by this direct approach, as she had been expecting a rebuff or denials.
“Everything, something, I don’t know, I just want you to share stuff with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m your sister, your friend and I worry about you.”
Amber fixed her stare on the other girl, trying to work out whether to manipulate her way out of this, or whether there was another way. Charlie knew her better than anyone else, even Jenny, so in the long run, manipulation was pointless.
“Do you understand what a secret is?” she asked at last.
“Of course.”
“No, not just something that most people don’t know about, I mean a real secret. One that no one else can ever have the faintest suspicion of.”
“I know what a secret is, Amber.”
“Then, what I am going to tell you is one of those secrets. It goes no further, not to your father, not to your lover and not to anyone who offers you millions of pounds.”
“I haven’t got a lover,” Charlie said, somewhat petulantly.
“You will, eventually. Okay, this is true, and the only way I can tell you is part of the secret.”
<Hello Charlie!>
Charlie went very pale as her stepsister communicated to her telepathically.
“How did you do that?”
<Easily. You see, I’m specially gifted in that I can do things that most people don’t even dream about. It started before I was born….>
“Amber, what’s up with Charlie?” Gareth asked at suppertime. Charlie had left the table early after barely touching her food.
“I haven’t a clue, Daddy. I think it may be a girl thing.”
Gareth decided to drop it, as girl things were outside his realm of experience. Living with three women was tough enough, he was just grateful that he could divert his attention to the two little boys when girl things raised their head.
Amber helped Jenny clear the table and was drying up when Jenny asked her to come clean.
“Right, Amber, what the heck is happening? I know Charlie isn’t on, as you both aren’t due for another week and a half.”
“Charlie and I had a chat. I told her some truths she wasn’t ready to hear.”
“You told her?” Jenny asked, horrified.
“Mum, she’s my sister and best friend. She knows me better than you do and she’d guessed something wasn’t right. I owe it to her to be honest, besides I know she’ll never tell anyone.”
“You shouldn’t have told her, it’s dangerous!”
“Oh, you know, what happens when you go, who do I trust then? The Major and his friends may not be my friends forever and I may need someone to trust, who else is there?”
Jenny hadn’t thought about that, so she bit her tongue.
“Mummy, look, I’m alone, and you know it. You did your best to hide me, but it didn’t work. I must assume that, eventually, someone who shouldn’t know will find out too. When that happens, I need at least one friend.”
“Oh God! I hope you know what you’re doing?”
“One day at a time, Mummy, one day at a time.”
Charlie got over her shock quite quickly, and after a hesitant start became accustomed to ‘talking’ to her sister without voices. As a result, the two girls were bound by an invisible bond that would prove stronger than anything they’d experienced. It even became fun, almost.
PART THREE: FOR REAL.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1971 Berlin.
Max Freiberg was tired and cold. He looked at his watch for the umpteenth time in the last few hours. He could hardly see the luminous hands, for it had been quite a while since he had exposed the watch to any light of any strength. He wasn’t allowed heat or light in his observation tower, in case he went to sleep, probably.
Easing his steel helmet back slightly to relieve his head. The cheap leather inner straps were rubbing him, causing chaffing and irritating his scalp. His normally fair hair was cropped very short, as per the sergeant’s demands. He lifted the heavy binoculars to his eyes once more, but the view was the same. The Americans were watching him watch them watching him. He wondered whether they had a heater in their tower. He assumed they had, along with light, a radio and probably TV.
He suddenly heard a noise of metal on metal, and it caused him to start in some surprise. He wasn’t due to be relieved for another two hours, so he assumed it was the sergeant trying to spring a surprise inspection. Max breathed a sigh of relief - grateful he hadn’t fallen asleep. The last man who’d done that had not been seen again.