“Yes, very distressing,” Celine continued icily. “She got herself pregnant.”
A slight pause. “What was that?” he said.
“She got herself pregnant, Truman.”
“Are... are you sure?” He sounded uneasy.
“Oh yes. I’m very sure. It happened sometime in November, I’d say. She’s far enough along you can see it.” The pitch of Celine’s voice had risen several degrees.
“No, that’s not... not...” Truman’s voice sounded weak. Airless.
“What? Not possible? Oh, it’s possible. It’s not only possible, it’s true. Rosie is pregnant. Easy enough for it to happen, you know. All a girl has to do is open her legs to a man.”
I felt the contents of my stomach churn, and I swallowed back the bile. There was no doubt in my mind that Celine knew. If there had been any question before, it was now crystal clear. Celine knew Truman was the father.
“God, that’s... disappointing,” Truman said.
“Yes. It is disappointing, isn’t it?” Celine’s voice was mocking, her words wrapped in venomous yellow.
Seconds of silence followed.
“Did she tell you... um...”
“Did she tell me who the father is? No. She did not. I imagine it’s some boy she met in town. Or maybe one of the field hands. Or any number of young men she has probably met up with in town on those so-called bicycle rides to the library. Maybe she herself doesn’t know who the father is because there have been so many.”
“Celine.”
“What? Isn’t that what had to have happened, Truman? Isn’t it? It had to have been someone she met in town or across the road. Becauseyouwould never risk all that you have here for a few moments of carnal pleasure, would you? You wouldn’t risk this beautiful house and all the money and your nice car and arelationship with your son for a romp with the maid, who, let’s just remember for a moment, also happens to be your ward? Can you imagine the consequences for this family if you had in fact risked it all? The charges that could be brought against you? The damage to the family business and my late father’s legacy? Why, it’s unthinkable. You would never, ever put Wilson and me through something like that. So of course that’s what happened. She’s been out sleeping around. You’ve probably seen her coming in late a time or two from a bike ride in town, haven’t you? I’m sure I have.”
That’s not true!I want to scream.It’s not true!But fear that it could be worse for me if I screamed that there had been only one man—Truman—kept me silent. Several seconds passed. I heard nothing from the room at the end of the hall for a span of seconds. Not a sigh, not an intake of breath, not a creak of a floorboard. Nothing.
Maybe it is the time to tell the truth after all, I thought in that moment.Not here to Celine. But to Mrs. Grissom.Mrs. Grissom, who had placed me at the Calverts’, thinking I’d be safe.
“What happens now?” Truman finally said.
“Thankfully there are places for girls like her, who’ve done what she has done. Mrs. Grissom is coming to retrieve her tomorrow.”
“And... what about the baby?”
“What about the baby, Truman?” Celine said evenly.
“What will happen to it?”
“I don’t really give a damn. Do you?”
“Maybe we should find out.”
“Maybe you should be careful what you ask about. In fact, I suggest you think very carefully about the steps you decide to take next.”
Again, several long seconds of silence hung in the air. Hottears slid down my face. The child moved within me, a fluttering of tiny winglike limbs.
Then I heard Truman’s footsteps as he walked away from his wife. Something made of glass shattered after being hurled against a master bedroom wall. Bright orange filled my head.
I closed my eyes, but the hue only intensified.
An hour later, when Alphonse should’ve been driving up, I opened my bedroom door cautiously. I hovered at the doorway waiting for the chef to arrive, but he did not come. Celine had probably canceled him for that evening. Of course she had. Celine and Truman wouldn’t be sitting down to dinner together like they would on a normal day. It had not been a normal day. Tomorrow, after I was gone, I supposed they would. They apparently had a charade to keep up.
I decided to make myself a sandwich before either one of them came into the kitchen to see about their own evening meal. I was so hungry I was feeling light-headed. I had just taken out of the refrigerator a paper-wrapped package of sliced ham and a block of Swiss when Truman stepped into the kitchen, startling me.
