Rebecca Pov

  It was a lazy Sunday, (as Sunday was the only day that Levi didn't work and Jordan didn't have nursery), and it was about 10 O'clock in the morning, so everyone was awake at this point, (that is important for context in a minute), when the house phone rang, so I answered it because if it was ringing, it must've been an emergency, as nobody we knew would've rang otherwise.

  "Hello?"

  "Thank God you answered Bex, uh, my Dad's dead"

  "Shit Opal how has he been dead?"

  "Mam found him this morning"

  "That's awful Opal"

  "How do you talk to a sibling that you haven't seen in years?"

  "It depends on why you haven't seen them"

  "Mam asked me to be the one to ring my siblings, I was hoping that you knew how to deal with that type of awkwardness"

  Opal was being set up for failure by her own mother, as none of her siblings, and I mean none of her siblings talked to her parents, and from the tiniest snippets that I got from Opal herself, I could totally understand why, but Opal wouldn't know as to her it was the norm, (which was wild to me, but I didn't say that it was wild to me), but I did say to her that I thought her mother was setting her up.

  "Opal, I'm not trying to stir shit, I'm really not, but I have to tell you before it blows up in your fucking face"

  "What do you mean?"

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  "I think that your mother is setting you up with having you phone your brothers"

  "Why's that?"

  "None of your brothers talk to your mother-"

  "Men aren't necessarily close to their parents-"

  "Levi calls his Dad's at twice a week, Jake pops to his old man most nights after work, Donte and Donavon talk to my Dad at least once a week-"

  "They have no Mam's though"

  I never claimed that I did a good job of telling Opal, but I did tell her, you could argue that I didn't tell her at the right time, but I personally think that there's no such thing as the right time, (though that belief has definitely backfired on me more than once).

  "Right, regardless of the examples having no Mum's, your Mum is setting you up to have the shit reactions on the phone"

  "Not everyone has bad relationships with their parents Rebecca"

  "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

  "I personally think that you could be blinded by your own relationship with Rita-"

  "Fuck off, this has nothing to do with Rita, you quite literally asked me how to talk to siblings about their Dad who they don't even talk to dying this morning, you can't ask me that and then turn around and say that I'm fucking blinded by Rita, you go make those calls for your mother and come back to me when they all tell you to get fucked"

  Yes it was harsh, no Opal wasn't used to quite that level of harshness from anyone, yes I probably could said it nicer if I had given it more than 2 seconds of thought, but it was also massively uncalled for Opal to bring Rita up like that when she asked me about how she should talk to her brothers who don't talk to their parents about their recently deceased father.

  "Sorry Bex it's not you really, how am I supposed to plan a funeral by myself?"

  "That I don't know the answer for, I've never been involved in funeral planning, however if you go to Eddie Harrison, he'll know"

  "He's still alive?"

  "Yes, it was his fiancée that died last year in that accident"

  "How do you know that?"

  "His daughter goes to nursery with Jordan"

  "How do you remember that type of information for everyone we went to school with?"

  It was Jack, it was entirely because of Jack and his business, yeah most people probably would've lost that ability by this point, but it was useful for me, especially because I can't recognise most people by their face, but if I have the corresponding information about them, it's slightly easier for me, (and I needed all the help I could get my hands on).

  "It was useful for Jack's business, so I got to go on his drug selling business endeavours, which yeah was fucking horrendous thinking about what could've happened, but 9 year old me saw it as a way to not be with Rita for hours at a time"

  "How were they allowed to keep you all?"

  "They had coppers in their payroll, there was no other way that they have gotten away with it"

  "Is that why you had that thing with officer Brown?"

  "That didn't help, but it was his blatant racism that just got me riled up"