Vintage (32 page)

She drove to Sam’s house.

He answered the door wearing plaid pajama pants and a worn gray T-shirt.

“Hi,” he said, leaning in to kiss her. “Good to see you. Come on in. Can I get you something? A beer? A cup of tea?”

Violet stepped inside. “A beer sounds great, thanks. I just came from Betsy’s memorial service.”

“I’m sorry.” Sam enveloped her in a tight hug, and she breathed him in. He smelled like he’d just showered, and his hair was still damp.

Violet pulled away. “No, it was good, actually. And it got me thinking.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. “Here, let me get you that beer and we can sit outside. Have you seen the moon out there? It’s a beautiful night.”

Sam went to the kitchen and came back with two bottles of some sort of microbrew.

They settled onto the steps of his wide front porch, lit by paper lanterns under the August moon, and Violet told him that she wanted a baby.

“I realize it might sound kind of ridiculous,” she said. “To end a perfectly good—no, better than good—relationship because I want to have a child in my life someday. I mean, I’m almost forty. There’s not a lot of time left for ‘someday.’ And it’s not as if there’s anyone else out there I want to have a family with. But I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not ready to close that door. There are other options, even if the traditional family scenario doesn’t work out for me. And I’d be lying if I said I’m not considering them.”

The sound of crickets filled the silence that followed. There was just enough moonlight for Violet to see the look of disappointment on Sam’s face.

“It’s not ridiculous,” he said. “You should get what you want out of life. I would never ask you to give up something you want.”

“And I can’t ask you to change your mind, either,” said Violet, hoping he’d tell her she was wrong. “Are you surprised at my decision?”

“No,” Sam said. “I could have predicted it on our first date, from the way your face lit up when you held Karen’s baby.”

Violet took a sip of the beer he’d given her—it was rich and tasted a little bit like chocolate. Unlike Jed, who consumed whatever was on sale by the caseload, Sam stuck to small-batch bottles from local breweries and sometimes even home brews from his buddies. Violet liked that Sam would rather have a little bit of something exceptional than a lot of something mediocre. She told him so.

“
You’re
exceptional,” he said, brushing a stray black curl away from Violet’s face. “But I don’t want to have to settle for just a little bit of you.” He dropped his hand to his lap. “Unfortunately, it’s usually a deal breaker, the kids thing.”

Violet wondered how many women Sam had had this same conversation with. She hated having to end things with him when, other than the kids issue, everything had been going so well. What Violet was doing went against Sam’s entire philosophy of living in the moment. She wasn’t living in the moment. She was sacrificing happiness in the moment for the hope of a different kind of happiness in the future.

“I wish I could give you a different answer.” Violet reached for Sam’s hand and held it in both of hers.

“Me too,” he said. His voice carried no trace of sarcasm, just sadness. Violet could tell he meant it.

She knew it was childish, but she felt hurt that she wasn’t able to change his mind, that she didn’t have some special quality that the other women hadn’t possessed. Thinking she could change people, though, had always been a problem for Violet. And it was time to stop making the same mistakes.

INVENTORY ITEM
: pants

APPROXIMATE DATE
: early 1990s

CONDITION
: good

ITEM DESCRIPTION
: Capri pants by Brooks Brothers. Pink cotton with green embroidered turtle design.

SOURCE
: Dig & Save thrift outlet

April

APRIL HEAVED HERSELF TO
a seated position in bed and tried to remember what day it was. At this late stage in her pregnancy, she was ticking off the days until her due date. The days seemed to stretch on forever because she could barely sleep at night. No matter what way she turned, there was some lumpy piece of her body or the baby’s body in the way. And the kid wouldn’t stop moving. This morning, she had a consistent ache low in her stomach.

She remembered it was August thirty-first—six days from Labor Day, her aptly named due date.

“You sure seem excited to get a start on things,” April said, putting her hands on her belly. “I have to warn you, though, kid, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a crazy world out here sometimes.”

Charlie rolled over and rubbed April’s thigh. “What time is it?”

“Six.”

“Go back to bed.”

“Can’t. I hardly slept. I’ve been lying here for an hour already waiting for it to get light outside so I could get up and feel somewhat normal about it.”

“Oh, I can make you feel much, much better than normal,” Charlie said with a delicious grin. He reached for her.

She squirmed. “No, I feel disgusting.”

“I don’t think you look disgusting. I think you look beautiful.”

After so many months of being alone during her pregnancy, she reveled in the soft luxury of the compliment, as if she were lying wrapped in a fur blanket. This time, when Charlie reached for her, she didn’t squirm away.

Later that morning, when April came in to work at the shop, she paused inside the front door to admire what Violet had done with her mom’s place since the closing. She’d painted the walls her signature blue, except for a bright orange accent wall behind the register. Violet had also organized the shop into sections, with clothing in the main room up front, dishes and housewares in the formal dining room, and linens tucked on shelves in the open closets. It was like walking into someone’s beautiful home, where everything was for sale. Gladys the Goose stood on a pedestal table in the foyer, casting a friendly glow upon anyone who walked through the door. Most impressive of all, though, at least by April’s standards, was the fact that Violet had set up a shiny new computer at the register counter and, with April’s help, was now implementing a bar code system to keep track of all her merchandise.

Violet sat on the white shag rug in the dining room, pulling glassware out of boxes and dusting each champagne flute and dessert bowl before sticking a coded price tag on it and placing it on a shelf.

Violet looked up when April came in. “Good morning.”

“Still unpacking, I see,” April said.

“Yep. I can’t believe how much stuff I have.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure,” Violet said. “I could use a hand switching out the summer stock. The students have already started to come back from break, and they’re looking for fall clothes.”

“Sounds good,” April said. “I still can’t lift anything heavy, though.”

“That won’t be a problem. I can take care of bringing out the boxes of inventory from where I stuck them in the basement. I’ll just have you arrange the clothes on hangers and on the racks. Actually, why don’t you start by taking down some of the summer items? If you put them in boxes, I’ll carry them downstairs when you’re done.”

April removed gauzy sundresses, cotton Bermuda shorts, and strappy tank tops from hangers. She couldn’t believe how quickly the summer had passed. This year, even more than in other years, she felt a sense of loss as the days shortened. Not only was she leaving the summer behind, but soon she’d be leaving behind her life as she knew it. April felt like her childhood had ended, for the most part, when her mom died. Now that she was just days from her due date, she felt like she was being catapulted into yet another level of the adult world. The fact that she had Charlie to help her made the concept only slightly less scary.

After she’d cleared an entire rack of summer clothing, April sat cross-legged on the floor, folding the items into boxes. She felt a wet sensation in the seat of her pants. Her pulse quickened. Was her water breaking? She shifted to look at the floor. When she saw nothing, she got up. She felt a trickle down the inside of her legs and hurried to the bathroom in the back hall, covering her rear end with her hands. Once she’d shut the door, she inspected her pants and underwear, which were soaked with clear fluid. She stuffed a wad of paper towels into her underwear. She needed to call her doctor. But first she needed to change her pants, and she didn’t have an extra pair.

April darted out of the lavatory and dug through one of the boxes she’d just packed until she found a pair of pants large enough to fit her—a pair of plus-sized pink capris embroidered with dozens of little green turtles. They would have to do. She grabbed a long scarf from one of the racks to use as a belt and went back into the bathroom to change out of her wet clothing.

When she returned to the dining room wearing the pink pants, Violet gave her a curious look.

“I think my water broke,” April said. “I hope it’s okay that I put these on.”

Violet’s eyes grew wide. “Sure, whatever you need. Is there anything I can do?”

“I don’t know. I’ve gotta call my doctor.” April grabbed her cell phone from her purse and dialed Dr. Hong’s office. One of her nurses answered the phone and, upon hearing that April’s water had probably broken, instructed her to go to the hospital right away.

“I’ve gotta go,” April said after she’d hung up. She looked around at the boxes strewn everywhere. “I’m sorry to leave you with all this chaos.”

“Oh, you’re not leaving me,” Violet said. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“I can call Charlie.”

“No way. Tell him to meet us there.”

Violet pulled the Jeep out of the garage and helped April get into the passenger seat. They took the fastest way to the hospital, following John Nolen Drive along the shore of Lake Monona. April watched the bikers and Rollerbladers cruising along the lakefront path, astonished that today was just an ordinary day for them.

“Are you doing okay?” Violet asked, glancing over at April. “Should we be, like, timing your contractions or something?”

April shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m not really feeling anything, though, so I don’t know what we would time.”

“Are you nervous?” Violet asked. “Excited?”

April laughed. “
You
sound excited.”

“Sorry, I guess maybe I’m living a little vicariously.”

“Okay, yes, I’m excited,” April said. “And scared, too.”

At the hospital, Violet insisted that they get out at the emergency room entrance. Violet handed her keys to an attendant near the door.

“We can just park the car in the lot and go in the regular doors,” April said. “I’m pretty sure I can manage walking a few hundred feet.”

“No way,” Violet said, finding a wheelchair near the doors and helping April into it. She wheeled April into the elevator and up to the labor and delivery floor.

While April checked in at the reception desk, she looked around and noticed that she was the youngest person in the waiting area by at least ten years. All the other women around her were dressed in cute maternity clothes. One of the women clutched a binder labeled “Birth Plan” to her chest and barked orders at the man sitting with her, who April guessed was her very obedient husband. Another lady sat with her belly popping out of a black suit blazer, tapping away at her BlackBerry and appearing as if she were negotiating a multimillion-dollar deal from her waiting room chair.

Where are all the teenage mothers I’m always hearing about on the news?
April wondered. She would have liked to see at least one person who looked as clueless as she felt.

C
harlie arrived ten minutes later, bursting through the doors of the waiting area, where April was still waiting to be put into a triage room. “Do you really think the baby’s coming?” he asked.

April shrugged. “That’s what the water breaking always means on TV. You don’t need to panic, though. The nurse said I probably have a little bit of time, since I’m not having contractions yet. At least I don’t think so. Anyway, she said they can do a test to tell if my water really broke or if I just peed my pants without knowing it.”

“Can that happen?” Charlie asked.

“I guess so. The nurse acted like it happens all the time.”

Once April was settled into a tiny triage room, shielded from the open door by a mint-green curtain, she insisted that Violet go home.

“It could be a long time,” April said. “And anyway, Charlie’s here now.”

“Okay, but only if you promise you’ll call me as soon as the baby is here,” Violet said. “Or if there’s anything I can do in the meantime.”

“We will,” April said. “Thank you for everything.”

After Violet had gone, Charlie stood next to April’s bed, looking anxious as the nurse made April spread her legs so she could conduct some sort of litmus test with a strip of colored paper, sort of like chemistry class.

“Yep, your water broke,” the nurse said.

“Good, I’m glad to hear I didn’t pee my pants. I’ve lost control of a lot of my body over the last nine months, and my bladder is one of my last strongholds.”

April was trying to lighten the mood by making a joke, but the nurse didn’t catch it. She just asked, “How far apart are your contractions? And how long are they lasting?”

“I don’t know. I’ve had some pain, but nothing regular that I could time.” She thought back to the events of the morning and blushed. “I did, um, have sex this morning, though. Do you think that could have brought this on?”

To April’s embarrassment, the nurse typed that information into her patient chart on the computer.

“Orgasm can stimulate the uterus into action,” the nurse said. “Especially at this late stage of pregnancy. So, yes, it might have helped you along a little, but sex or none, this baby is ready to come out. Since you don’t seem to be having regular contractions yet, it may be a while, though.”

“A while? Like hours?”

“Hours or, in some cases, days.”

Days? April prayed it wouldn’t be days. “So can I go home and come back later?” she asked.