Two months later, Ethel, Sister Ursula, and seven children under the age of five traveled in a passenger van to the Frankfurt Airport.
At the ticket counter, Sister Ursula prayed over all the children and wished Ethel good luck and safe travels to New York.
“You are truly doing God’s work.” She held Ethel’s hand. “May God be with you.”
“And also with you,” Ethel said back.
Ethel lined up six children and paired them off to hold hands. She had baby Margit, the six-month-old and last addition to her caravan of children, in a baby carrier tied to her chest. Inside her canvas tote bag was their documentation, photographs, and passports, along with extra tissues, cloth diapers, ointments, and snack bags with shortbread biscuits, crackers, andlebkuchengingerbread cookies. Once they arrived at Idlewild Airport in New York, the seven children would continue to their new homes with their adoptive parents in New York City, Washington, D.C, Maryland, California, and Arkansas.
Ethel counted and recounted the children every few steps, but as they waited at the gate to board, she couldn’t help feeling like something was off.
When they took their seats on the aircraft, Ethel placed sleeping baby Margit in the bassinet attached to the back of the seat in front of her, then peered over at the children sitting in the row next to her and two rows in front of her seat. Satisfied, she reached into her purse for her rosary beads and realized that she had left them at home.
CHAPTER 34West Oak Forest Academy, December 1965
SOPHIA
Sophia gripped the receiver so tight that her knuckles hurt.
Click.
Max slid the accordion door open. “Are you okay?”
She bobbed her head as feelings of defeat welled up inside her. “Why am I even doing this to myself?” She put her head in her hands. The last thing she wanted to do was break down in front of Max, but the emotions came from nowhere. “Before I met you, I was fine. Now it’s like I’ve opened Pandora’s box, and I can’t get the lid back on. This is all too much.”
Max touched her hands and pulled them away from her face. “Hey, it’s okay. You are trusting your gut, and I admire that.” He took his thumb and gently wiped at the stubborn tear that betrayed her. “Soph, please don’t cry,” he said, and the gentle way he cooed laid her bare. Max pulled her in a one-armed hug, and she could feel his heart thumping against hers. Sophia’s mind went to mush, and her body felt a longing she had never known before.
“What’s going on here?”
Max let go first. Sophia looked past him and saw Willa with an Echo scarf fashionably tied over her hair.
“Why were you holding each other like that?” Willa glared.
Shivering, Sophia gathered her school sweater tighter around her. She could see the questions in her roommate’s eyes, and she couldn’t bear it. She knew how his arms had felt and could only imagine how she and Max had looked to Willa. It wasn’t what Willa thought, but Sophia couldn’t tell Willa the truth. Not until she was sure of things. So she lied. “I just got some bad news from back home.”
Willa crossed her arms over her ample bosom, looked from Max to Sophia, unconvinced, and then asked, “What?”
“My brother. He’s fallen ill, and I hate that I can’t be there for him.”
“One of the twins?” Willa whispered.
“Yes.”
Willa nodded with concern.
“I’m just feeling overwhelmed with everything, that’s all. Max just happened to catch me.”
From the corner of her eye, Sophia noticed Max looking down at his feet. He hadn’t said anything to defend their behavior. The tension among the three of them was all too stifling on top of the fruitless phone calls.
“I gotta go.” Sophia pushed through the two of them and walked out of the cafeteria. When she was out of their eyeshot, she took off running, just as it began to pour down rain.
Sophia hadn’t missed a class since arriving at Forest, but she couldn’t sit through her afternoon periods. She didn’t have the energy it took for her to be invisible. Instead, she hid out in her dorm room with her head tucked under her pillow, listening to the rain. What was wrong with her? She had turned her world upside down and wished thatshe could forget it all and go back to her life before she’d discovered Ethel Gathers and her Brown Baby Plan. The hope and anticipation she put into each phone call only to be met with disappointment was draining her. Why couldn’t she just leave it all alone?
When she gazed over at the clock, she realized that basketball practice started in an hour. If she left now, she’d have the entire gym to herself. She could run around until she was too tired to think.
The rain had stopped, but she was careful not to walk on the soggy grass in front of the Athletic Center. The smell of sweaty socks comforted her as she dropped her bag on a bleacher. There was a stray ball in the corner beneath the scoreboard, and Sophia picked it up and started shooting. She hadn’t even bothered to change out of her school blouse and skirt. She just ran after the ball and shot, dribbled, shot until she worked up such a heavy sweat that the back of her blouse was soaked through.
Ten minutes before practice was scheduled to start, she heard voices outside the gym and scurried into the locker room to change. The tube light above her locker flickered on and off. Sophia spun the combination to her padlock and yanked the metal door open. Taped to the inside was a picture of a red fox with the eyes blacked out. She ripped the picture down and balled it to the floor. She knew only one person on the team would be so bold as to trespass into her personal space. Sophia gritted her teeth. The sound of footsteps rang out from the gym, and Sophia used the door of her locker to shield her as she stripped down to her underwear.
