celebrate you starting up the business.’ Stepping to one side, she gestured with a flourish. ‘Ta-dah!’
I could hardly believe my eyes.
There was a piano in my living room.
‘What do you think?’ asked Sienna eagerly, beaming at my amazed delight. ‘You always said you wanted to learn how to play. Well, now you can!’
‘Wow. Thank you.’ I shook my head and laughed. ‘But how could you afford it?’
Sienna was fresh out of college where, like me, she had studied photography. Hardly Miss Moneybags. A lump rose in my throat.
She shrugged. ‘A friend wanted rid of it so I persuaded him to sell it to me for a ridiculously low price. Do you like it?’
‘Like it? I love it!’ I said, attempting ‘Chopsticks’ through slightly blurry eyes and hitting the wrong notes entirely.
‘Bloody hell!’ she groaned. ‘You definitely need lessons.’
I shrugged. ‘Even Chopin had to start somewhere.’
‘Are they the leaflets?’ She pointed at the package under my arm.
Nodding, I opened it up and passed one to her. She stared at it with glee. ‘You know, you really are a chip off the old block.’
We smiled at each other, remembering Dad and his various business ventures, some a great success and a few frankly disastrous.
‘You, too,’ I said, but Sienna shook her head.
‘I’d never have the balls to go it alone. Not without you taking the lead, Big Sis!’
I leaned over her shoulder and we read the leaflet together, poring over it as though we didn’t already know the words off by heart.
‘Oh, my God, Katy. It’s official.’ She turned to me, her eyes shining. ‘We are Sister Act Photography!’
‘Yeah, watch out world, here we come,’ I grinned.
We looked at each other, mad-eyed, and squealed in unison.
I grabbed her arms and yelled, ‘We’re going into business!’ At which point we started jumping up and down, singing raucously, ‘We’re going into business! We’re going into business!’
I caught a glimpse of us in the mirror above the fireplace.
Two sisters.
Two blonde heads.
Sienna’s hair so pale it was almost white, chopped in a short style that highlighted her porcelain skin, blue eyes and small, delicate features. She had a look of Dad when she laughed like that.
And me.
The protective big sister. Taller than Sienna and not quite so fine-featured. My own hair a darker, caramel blonde, shoulder-length. The image of Mum, in photos from the Seventies, with my almond-shaped green eyes, larger nose and fuller lips.
Both of us laughing, almost hysterical with excitement, high on the feeling that we were balanced on the brink of something really special …
I grabbed my camera and captured the moment with a selfie.
It’s a brilliant photo, if I say so myself.
But it’s packed away in a box now with other photos of my sister.
Back then, life seemed so full of promise.
We’d lost our lovely dad six months earlier and it had been tough for us all, especially Mum. I’d long had dreams of setting up on my own as a wedding photographer, and Dad’s death was the catalyst for me handing in my notice at the advertising agency in London and moving back to Willows Edge, the village where I’d grown up. I needed to be there for Mum and Sienna. It felt odd leaving the bustle of the capital for the rather sleepy village of my childhood but it was only an hour’s drive from London, so I could easily stay in touch with all my friends there.
Planning my new venture had given us all something to occupy our minds. It even brought the occasional sparkle back into Mum’s eyes, especially when Sienna took up my offer to join me in the business.
And so Sister Act Photography was born.
It felt like a healthy new start.
We were beginning a new adventure together. Two sisters, as close as siblings could possibly be.
Blissfully unaware that our happy optimism wasn’t going to last.
And that a catastrophic blow, which I could never have foreseen happening in a million years, would soon tear our relationship apart …
‘Ooh, this is cosy!’ says Andrea, simultaneously adjusting her bra for better effect and getting her stiletto stuck in the lawn.
Her enhanced cleavage has Ron’s eyes out on stalks.
I have to admit, I’m grateful for the reprieve.
I’ve been dodging Ron’s slightly moist clutches from the moment I walked into their house and followed them out into the back garden.
Ron is the original Space Invader.
Not that he goes around blasting aliens to smithereens in a very 1970s computer game sort of way. He just crowds you, so you spend the entire time (subtly) backing away until you eventually find yourself in the next room.
Ron and Andrea live in my cul-de-sac. Despite being well past the first flush of youth, they’re known around here as a couple who like to have fun. And their snowdrops are definitely looking perky today.
I glance around the garden, looking for the best place to get down to it.
‘Can we do it against the fence?’ I instruct, aiming as always for ‘friendly but firm’.
As they obligingly reposition themselves, I compliment Andrea on her dress and laughingly suggest that Ron might be boxing a little above his weight there. (I’m only half-joking about this. And I know Ron won’t take offence. He has an ego the size of a small Baltic state.)
The point is, couples can be quite shy about throwing off their inhibitions, so a joke can really break the ice.
I’m trying to relax and just go with it, but it’s not easy when my mind keeps drifting to the backlog of work I need to tackle when I get home.
‘It’s like that dress Lucy Mecklenburgh wore at the Baftas,’ says Andrea, breaking away from Ron to do a little twirl. It’s a strapless mini, heavily embellished with large silver and bronze sequins. A little over the top for a bleak, parky February afternoon, but Andrea does have the figure for it.
I
