“Well, for starters, no one will believe I’m pregnant.”
“They will if you look like you are.”
“But it’s ludicrous, Charlie. Women touch other women’s pregnant bellies. Especially family. Your mother. My mother. My grandmother. Your grandmother. It will never, ever work.”
“It Goddamnedbetterwork!” His fist thundered on the kitchen counter so hard the toaster keeled over. I don’t know what was more surprising, the toaster falling or Charlie taking the Lord’s name in vain. In all the years I’d known him, I’d never heard him do that.
“You’ll make it work. You’ll keep them from touching you.”
“How?”
“That’s your problem.” He staggered back to the table. “I’m sure you’ll think of something. You do a damn fine job of keepingmeat a distance.”
“I’d—I’d have to see Dr. Henry.” He was the town doctor who’d attended me during both pregnancies.
“Nah. We’ll say you’re seeing someone in Mississippi since that’s where the baby’s going to be delivered.”
My thoughts were like a goldfish in a bowl, circling round and round, making no progress. “Charlie, this is insane. I won’t do it, and you can’t make me.”
He leaned toward me. “Can’t I?”
“No.”
“You want to lose your children?” His mouth curled into something that sent a shiver up my spine. It was evil, pure evil. He pulled a flask out of his pocket, unscrewed it, and took a long swig. “I’ve kept some of your letters from Loverboy. You think any judge in this parish would think you were a fit mother if I were to pull those out?”
Eddie woke up in his crib and started to cry. I left the room to see to him. When I came back to the kitchen, Charlie was gone, and so was his car.
•••
Charlie came back before midnight and passed out in bed beside me. The next day was Easter, so I got up, pulled my church clothesout of the closet, then slept the rest of the night on the sofa. I wasn’t going to awaken him. Let him miss Easter service. Let him miss the family luncheon. I’d say he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t get out of bed; everyone could draw their own conclusions. Let the whole town talk about him, for all I cared.
But he woke up and got dressed and acted just as nice and pretty as you please, playing with the children and making them both laugh. He even helped hide the eggs for Becky’s Easter egg hunt and changed Eddie’s wet diaper. I thought he might have been in a blackout the day before, because he didn’t mention a thing about a baby or another woman. I figured he probably just made the whole thing up to terrify me.
After church, we all gathered at his mama’s house for Easter dinner. My mother and father were there, along with my grandmother, and, of course, Charlie’s parents and grandmother. I took both a peach pie and a butterscotch pie. We all sat and ate ham and green bean casserole and carrot and raisin salad. Right before we served the desserts, Charlie stood up.
“I have an announcement to make.”
My heart thudded hard in my chest.Oh, no. Please, God, no.Maybe it was something to do with his father’s business. I looked at my father-in-law, but his face looked just as puzzled as I felt.
“Adelaide and I are havin’ another baby.”
Everyone broke into excited chatter. “When?” Mama asked.
“In September,” Charlie said.
“Why, Adelaide. You’re not showin’ at all!”
“We wanted to keep it a secret because she’s been having a bit of a hard time,” Charlie said.
“Oh, my dear!” my mother exclaimed, turning toward me. “What’s the problem?”
“I—uh...” I was literally speechless. I couldn’t believe that he’d just announced such a falsehood like that, so publicly, with no warning.
“Woman troubles,” Charlie said. That was code for bleeding.And no one—not even mothers and daughters—talked about that back then. Why, when I’d started my period at age thirteen, I’d thought I was dying. My grandmother on my father’s side had died of colon cancer, and I thought that’s what I had. My mother noticed blood on my underwear the next day when she did the laundry. She handed me a sanitary napkin, told me women had this happen every month, that it was a woman’s curse, and I’d just have to wear a pad and bear it.
“What does Dr. Henry say?” Charlie’s mother’s face was scrunched with worry. I suddenly recalled Charlie telling me she’d miscarried several times after his birth. My own mother had had a difficult labor with me and was unable to have any more children.
“She’s not seeing Dr. Henry. She saw a specialist in Mississippi when we went to the lake a few weeks ago.” Charlie turned to his father. “We’ll be opening the branch store in Jackson in September and I’ll want to be there, so I figured we’d rent a place for a few months. I wouldn’t dream of being away from her at a time like this.”
