Dot (Araminta Hall)

She tried to imagine Dot where she was but couldn’t place her so far away. Mavis worried as she washed her hair that it had been insensitive to ask her to come to register Rose’s birth. She hadn’t thought about it until after they’d left the registrar’s and seen Dot’s white face and asked her what the matter was and she’d simply said, ‘I’ve never seen my birth certificate.’ Mavis remembered how she’d felt the atmosphere tense when the registrar had asked her for the father’s name and she’d given Clive’s and stupidly she’d thought that was because it was Clive, not because it made Dot realise that there was a piece of paper somewhere in the world with her father’s name written on it.
    Maybe she should have taken Clive; he’d offered, after all, but it had seemed too strange. And when they’d arrived at the town hall and sat in the waiting room with the other cooing couples, she’d been overwhelmingly pleased that it was Dot sitting next to her and not a boy she barely knew. She’d only told him of Rose’s existence the week before and of course she’d only done that because Dot had insisted, which meant it was a fact which still hadn’t entirely settled in her mind. But it had unequivocally been the right thing to do; he’d been round and met Rose, brought a stupid pink balloon which had made Mavis laugh and spat out the no-doubt well-rehearsed right words about how he’d like to be part of Rose’s life and, when he left college and got a job, he’d help out financially. He’d texted her only last night to ask if his parents could come and visit Rose. Mavis hadn’t yet replied, the thought of sharing her daughter was still too much.
    ‘Do you reckon we should get married before or after college?’ Mavis had asked and he’d paled so quickly she’d been worried he might faint; she’d laughed and hit him on the arm and assured him she was only joking.
    ‘Debbie’s taken it hard,’ he’d said then. ‘I think it’s good I’m going away to college in September.’
    ‘If you get maths,’ Mavis had joked.
    He laughed. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘It’ll be OK,’ Mavis had said kindly and he’d smiled, but she’d got the feeling that he was ready for a change anyway.
    ‘What about you?’ he’d asked.
    ‘I doubt I did my best,’ she’d replied. ‘I can sit them next year and I’m going to ring Manchester. Mr Hughes rang and he said universities have good policies on studying with babies now. So, you never know.’
    Dot had rung a few hours after they’d got home from registering the birth and asked Mavis where she thought her mother might have hidden her birth certificate.
    ‘In your house it could be anywhere,’ Mavis had answered. ‘Why don’t you ask her? It’s about time.’
    ‘I know,’ Dot had said. ‘I want to but I can’t. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to. This might be the only way. I Googled it and there’s a place in London you can go to get a copy. Charles House in Kensington it’s called.’
    ‘What if his name’s not on there?’
    ‘Then I’m no worse off than I am now.’
    ‘Are you thinking of going?’
    ‘I don’t see why not. The exams are all over and all I’m doing is waiting around.’
    She’d called back a bit later and said she’d arranged it all. She’d found a B and B to stay at on a place called Edgware Road, which was just a short tube ride from Kensington and she’d told her mum that she was going on an open day to Manchester so would be away for a day and a night.
    ‘I wish I could come with you,’ Mavis had said, meaning every word.
    ‘So do I, but you’ve got Rose. Anyway, it’s probably one of those things I should do alone.’
    ‘When are you going?’
    ‘Well, it opens at nine and it says on the website to get there early cos they’re always so busy, so I’ve booked into the B and B for this Wednesday night and I’ll go along on Thursday.’
    ‘Wow,’ Mavis said, ‘nothing like striking while the iron’s hot.’
    ‘That’s what I thought.’
    But then Rose had started squalling and Mavis had had to go and somehow forty-eight hours had passed in a second and now Dot was in London and Mavis had only spoken to her by text last night when she’d been on the coach.
    Getting dressed was easier now. Mavis still couldn’t fit into her jeans or anything, but every day she felt slightly lighter. The midwife had told her that was because she was so young, her skin was still firm and the baby was