Before Vivian could sit down with her children, however, the phone rang. She sighed and strode over to it, picking it up as her good mood dissolved. She just wanted to sit down and get a bite to eat after a long day, was that too much to ask?
"Sachar residence, who's calling?" She snapped.
Natasja watched from across the room as suddenly as what little color was normally present in her mom's face disappeared in less than a second. With a quick glance at her daughters, the young woman began speaking quietly and quickly into the receiver, face drawn. Natasja tried to listen in, but her mom had switched to rapid fire Swedish. Shrugging, she returned to the pizza. All the more for her! She swallowed the last mouthful of her second slice and immediately moved on to a third, as Rebecca finished off one of the pepperonis. She had loved pizza for as long as she could remember, and usually managed to persuade her mom to buy it three or four times a week, sometimes more if she'd been good. With most foods, she'd stop eating if she got too full, but with pizza she just couldn't stop.
By the time Vivian slumped into the final seat around the table, all but one slice of pepperoni were gone. In total, Natasja had eaten one whole pizza, and Rebecca had finished off nearly two. As a result both girls were lying back in their chairs, painfully swollen bellies peaking from beneath their tops. Vivian gritted her teeth; true, they were young, but they should know better! She closed her eyes and breathed, in and out, in and out. She had bigger problems.
"Girls?" She asked, but got no response. "Girls!"
Both children woke with a start.
"Uh. What?" Asked Rebecca. Natasja's hand snaked out towards the final slice of pizza but Vivian slammed her hand down hard on top of her daughter's.
"Ouch!" Natasja drew back, tears beginning to well in her eyes. Vivian grimaced.
"Sorry, Natasja, but I need you to pay attention." She opened her mouth, then thought better of it, got up from the table and went to pour herself a whisky.
"Mom, what's up?" Asked Rebecca again. "You're acting weird..."
Vivian threw back the whiskey, then returned to the table with a grimace.
"Girls," She began, "I'm going to have to go away for a while. Do either of you remember your cousin Gina?"
Both children shook their heads, mystified.
"Well, she's my sister's daughter. She's about thirty, and she's got two daughters. You're... you're going to go and live with her for a while."
There was a period of complete silence around the table for a long time, as both children processed the information. It seemed like even the cars outside had stopped to think. Vivian toyed nervously with her ring, twisting it on and off of her finger.
Eventually Natasja spoke.
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