The Switch

by Heather Justesen

  “Hey, settle down. Shhhh.” Danny made more soothing noises, but didn’t tell her she was over-reacting, didn’t give her false words about how it would be okay. He led her to the sofa, sat her down, got her tissues and a drink of water, then held and comforted her until she was ready to talk again.

  “I’ve heard of Huntington’s disease,” he said when she was calm again. “But don’t know much about it. What do you know?”

  “She has dementia, paranoia, and is losing control of her body. The thought of being like that in another twenty years.” She caught her breath, and centered herself. After a few seconds, she felt more in control again. “It scares me, Danny. I don’t want to end up like that, especially not before I’m even fifty.” Too young. Too young. The words kept reverberating through her mind. She was too young to be worrying about this.

  “Are there tests you can have a doctor run?” Danny finally asked.

  “Yes, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford one. Maybe if I got a job with insurance.” Health insurance was a luxury she couldn’t afford for herself, though she made sure the girls had some basic coverage.

  “Let’s not worry about the cost right now.” He turned her to face him, kissed the wetness on her cheeks, then brushed his lips over hers. “Let’s focus on the other stuff for a minute—the good stuff. You found Lisa. You think she’s the one?”

  “Yes.” Tia pushed back the fear roaring through her and tried to focus on Danny’s words. “She looks so much like my mom. Even some like my dad. And the picture of her mother . . . there’s definitely a resemblance to me.” Her voice hitched, but she pushed on. “We got along great, and I think she’s nearly as confused and messed up about all of this as I am, but she’s coping quickly. Or at least she looked like she was coping, but who knows? She said she’d think about the DNA tests. I wanted to give her a few days to come to grips with everything.” She went on to talk about their afternoon together and things they’d discussed over dinner.

  “Feel better?” He handed her another tissue so she could dab at the single tear on her right cheek.

  “Yes, actually.” Tia leaned her face against his shoulder, loved the warmth and the way he tightened his arm around her, pulling her closer. She would put the worry away for now, like he said. Tomorrow she could deal with it better. Hopefully it wouldn’t haunt her dreams.

  “I wish you would have let me go with you.”

  “I know, but it was a long day, and I appreciate you staying with the girls. I feel like I take advantage of Nichole sometimes. You’ve both been so good to me.”

  “I’m happy to help.” His smile warmed and filled her chest.

  “And how did the girls do?”

  “Beautifully, of course.” He tipped his head as if reconsidering his words. “Well, except for the incident in the kitchen. And the one in the bathroom. And I won’t talk about what happened when I took them to the station for a while this afternoon.”

  Worried, Tia stared at Danny, but saw from his expression that he was teasing her. “No major wounds, no choking or need for CPR?” she asked.

  “Nope. Totally good there. Nobody needed stitches or anything.”

  She allowed herself to smile. “Then I guess you handled everything fine.” Feeling infinitely better than she had when she’d walked in, she lifted her face for a kiss. There would be time to worry about Rose’s condition later. And she knew she would do a thorough job of worrying when Danny wasn’t there to distract her, so she might as well take advantage of his presence for a while.

  * * *

  “How are you doing, darling?” Rose Lowell asked when Lisa stopped in to the nursing home to visit the next afternoon.

  “Fine, Mom.” She leaned over and kissed her mother’s cheek. “How are you today? Been arm wrestling the guy who always takes your chair in the common room?”

  Rose chuckled. “Only when I have to. I think he’s sweet on me.” She smiled and preened a little.

  “I’m sure he is.” Lisa sat in the straight-backed plastic chair the nursing home provided in each shared room. Her mother sat in the overstuffed lounger, a remote control in one hand and a mass-market romance in the other. She had read the book at least three times in the past few months—that Lisa knew of—but her dementia meant she didn’t always remember.

  “How are things going at that shop of yours? I know money gets tight this time of year,” Rose said.

  “Yes, it has been a little slow, but I saved carefully last year. I’ll make it through, as fine as ever.” Lisa wasn’t actually sure it was true, but she would never admit it to her mom. If she ended up having to fold, Lisa would lie through her smile and say she got sick of running her own business. Thought she’d take a shot at working for a paycheck for a change. She knew Rose worried about her, and that stress complicated her own troubles. No need for Rose to have more to worry about.

  “And have you met yourself a nice young man, then?”

  Lisa squeezed her mother’s hand. “I keep fighting them off with a stick. There’s no extra time in my day for men.” Her lack of free time was only too true. The plentiful attention from men was not.

  This kind of back and forth banter continued for ten minutes or so as each dug for information on the other while trying to keep as much as possible about themselves secret. Lisa knew Rose had been struggling, and out of reality more than in the moment—Lisa had asked the nurse before she came in—so while she pretended to believe that all had been well with her mom, she studied Rose for any indication that things weren’t what they seemed, and resolved to stop in more often. It wasn’t as if she had a social life worth mentioning. The date with Chris a few weeks earlier had been a disaster she had no intention of repeating any time soon.

  Finally, Lisa decided she ought to bring up the subject that had brought her in the first place. She could see Rose was starting to tire. “Mom, can you tell me about the day I was born?”

  Rose looked surprised for a moment, then leaned forward in her chair and began. “It was a dark and stormy night.” She had a twinkle in her eye. “Your father and I drove to the hospital, looking for a place to stay, the thunder roared, the lightning struck, and the headlights bounced on the wet pavement.”

  “Mom!” Lisa had heard the dramatized version of the story more than once, and knew it was actually a snowstorm, so there had been no lightning. This time she’d rather get it straight—if her mom was as coherent as she seemed to be. “The hospital. What can you tell me about when I was born? I popped out and then what?” As a woman who had never had a child, she preferred not to think about the vagaries of childbirth too closely. She’d heard many horror stories from women she knew. “Was I ever in the nursery instead of with you?”

  “Fine, you’re no fun today.” Rose rested back in her chair again, a little put out. “They took you for blood tests and all of that, then to the nursery for a while. I am allergic to their usual anesthetic, so I was drugged pretty heavily from the C-section and wasn’t ready to take care of you. Sometime before breakfast, they brought you back to me and you stayed with me for the rest of the time. Why?”

  “Tell me what you remember,” and I’ll hope I can believe what you say, “and I’ll explain.” Tension gripped her shoulders and churned in her gut as her ulcer acted up. Would she learn something to corroborate Tia’s theory?

  “I slept some, but your father was in and out a lot, so I don’t think they took you away again for more than a few minutes for diaper changes and such.” Rose took her hand and gave it a squeeze, joy on her face. “You were such a beautiful baby.”

  Lisa had seen the pictures, but there weren’t any taken at the moment after birth, as you so often saw. She wondered if she would have realized there was something wrong if there had been a picture of Tia. Probably not. Most babies look so much alike, and it wasn’t as though she would have been searching for differences.

  “Why do you ask?” Rose questioned after a moment of silence had passed between them. />
  “I had a visitor yesterday.” Lisa wondered how to lead up to this. She’d been considering it ever since she’d said goodbye to Tia, but nothing made sense. “Her name is Tia Riverton.”

  Rose clasped her hands in front of her. “Wait, I know that name. You mean the woman who does the cooking segment on the noon news?”

  “Yes. The same one.” Lisa smiled. “She came into my shop yesterday.”

  “Did she buy much? Those celebrities always have so much money!”

  Lisa doubted that was the case this time. “No, not much, though she picked up something for her daughter. Anyway, it turns out she and I were both born in St. Mark’s on the same day.”

  “Really?” Rose was fascinated. “That’s got to be some coincidence, you running into her out here.”

  She held her mom’s gaze and shook her head. “It wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “No? Why did she come?”

  After a moment’s consideration, Lisa decided to approach the subject at an oblique angle. “Have you ever noticed that she has that beautiful red hair, not quite your shade, but curly like yours?”

  “It reminds me of when I was her age. Actually, she kind of looks like me, don’t you think?” Rose asked smugly. She patted her gray curls, which still showed a few streaks of red. “I’ve often thought I looked a lot like that when I was her age. So young and pretty. Do you like my new hairdo? Vera permed it for me when she was in yesterday.”

  “Yes, I love the hair.” Since it was Sunday, and Vera came on Mondays, Lisa knew her mother was confused. “Tia is pretty. And she does look like you.” Lisa bit her lip, then plowed on. “But I think she looks more like Dad. Don’t you agree?” She handed her mom a picture of Tia printed from the television station’s website.

  Rose didn’t take it, didn’t even look at it. Her tone cooled. “What are you saying?”

  This was it. Lisa wet her lips in preparation to speak. “Tia sent me a letter a few weeks back. She said she had recently learned there was a baby switch at the hospital on the day we were born and she thought I might be the person switched with her. I didn’t respond to the note—it was ridiculous, right? But she checked out the other woman, had a DNA test done and it wasn’t her.”

  “You’re my daughter.” Rose’s voice was strong and a little upset.

  Lisa tried to placate, wondering if she had made a mistake in telling the truth. Would it make her mother’s condition worse? “Yes, I am. I’m your daughter. But though I haven’t had a DNA test yet, it looks like she might also be your daughter, only biologically instead.”

  “Why are you telling me this lie?” Rose’s face grew red. “It’s not true. You’re my daughter. Don’t you think I’d recognize my own baby?”

  Lisa wondered if the response had been programmed into that generation. Tia had mentioned Mona said something similar when the news came out. “Look at this picture. And she showed me one of her mom, her name is Mona. She looked almost exactly like me at my age.”

  Rose slapped the picture out of Lisa’s hand. “You don’t want to be my daughter anymore? Is that it? Can’t stand to have me as your mom?”

  “No. You’ll always be my mom, always and always. I love you.” Tears overflowed Lisa’s eyes and she had to bite back a sob. “I’m sorry I upset you. I don’t have to meet them. Maybe she’s wrong anyway, it’s just ridiculous.” She would have said anything to get her mom to calm down. These fits of temper always worsened Rose’s condition, and the last thing Lisa wanted to do was make things worse.

  “You don’t love me anymore,” Rose sniffed and wiped a tear.

  “I do love you. I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry.” Lisa bent over her lap, crying.

  There was a long moment of silence before she felt her mother’s hand on her shoulder. “You’re a good girl. I’m sorry, honey. You know this is nonsense. We won’t speak about it anymore.”

  Lisa cried for a moment longer as she tried to calm herself. It had all been so much—too much all at once. What had she been thinking bringing it up with her mother? She’d known what it would do. It would have been better if she’d introduced Tia as a friend, let them meet, but never told Rose the truth. Now it was too late.

  Thirty-eight

  Tia was home checking out dinner. Danny had agreed to meet her and the girls at her place this time, and he’d brought some pasta dish he’d invented. It looked interesting, she supposed, as she gave it another stir in the casserole pan. Tomato sauce, pasta, meat and olives had to be good, right?

  He phone rang and after Lisa introduced herself, she blurted out, “I spoke to my mom this afternoon.”

  “What did you tell her?” Tia’s hand paused on the spoon, her breath catching.

  “She’s so upset. I shouldn’t have told her.” She filled Tia in on the details, or at least enough to get the picture.

  Though it stung a little, Tia pushed it away for the moment. This wasn’t about her. “My mom is still in denial about everything, so don’t hold it against yours,” Tia soothed. “Maybe she’ll come around when she’s had some time to adjust.”

  “She knew your name as soon as I mentioned it. Apparently she watches your show all the time.”

  “Yeah?” Tia felt a smile slide onto her face. Mona had caught the show a few times. She mentioned it to friends and acquaintances mostly as a claim to fame, but she wasn’t interesting in the cooking segment itself. It felt kind of good knowing the woman who had most likely given birth to her enjoyed her segment. Tia wondered though, if Rose would refuse to watch it again, after the way she had reacted to the mere possibility that they were related.

  “So how are you holding up?” she asked Lisa. “Have you thought more about the DNA test?”

  “Yes. I’m still not sure that I want to meet your family, but I’d like to do the test, to be sure before I make any other decisions.”

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll have your part of the kit sent to you.” Tia looked down when Tristi tugged on her pant leg.

  “Hungry. Want eat.”

  Tia covered the microphone on the cell. “Good idea. How about you go get Danny and your sister?” She could hear Samantha’s giggles along with the deeper rumble of Danny’s laugh coming from the living room. From the sound of it, Samantha thought she was getting away with giving him monster tickles.

  “I appreciate it,” Lisa said from the other end of the line. “I’ll keep in touch. I’ll let you go now, I’m sure you’re getting ready to eat soon, if I didn’t interrupt your meal.”

  “You didn’t interrupt, and thanks for calling.” Tia said goodbye and ended the call as Danny came in, letting Tristi tug him by the hand. Tia leaned back against the counter. The thought of Huntington’s disease hadn’t been far from her mind since Lisa had mentioned it the previous day, but it didn’t make her want to burst into tears anymore. Even the research she’d done hadn’t freaked her out when she’d looked for more information about the disease that afternoon.

  “Who was that?”

  “Lisa. She agreed to be tested.”

  He took her hand. “Good. How are you holding up?”

  “Better. The call didn’t make it worse, anyway. I think we’re headed in the right direction.” That was true. She made a decision to keep the positive parts of this in the forefront of her mind.

  Great.” Danny leaned in and brushed his lips across her cheek. “Let’s eat, I’m starved.”

  “Hey, that’s my line!” Samantha said as she climbed into her chair.

  Tia smiled and brought the casserole a la Danny to the table.

  * * *

  The test kit arrived. Ron went through the swabbing process yet again, and returned the kit. Tia didn’t tell her dad or Wes about the Huntington’s disease. There would be time for that when she had more information. Tia kept in touch with Lisa, and knew she was also trying to wait for answers before jumping to conclusions or thinking too far ahead.

  Work and school and recipe testing continued on as before. A picture a
rrived in the mail from Claire and Carl’s wedding—Carl wearing black pants and a tan dress shirt with the tails untucked, Claire in a white cocktail dress holding an enormous hot pink gerbera daisy instead of a bouquet. They looked as incredibly happy as Claire’s emails proclaimed that they were.

  The wait for the DNA results was interminable. Tia worked diligently on her recipes, saw Danny as much as possible—which meant visiting him at work a few times in addition to their dates—and exchanged emails with Lisa nearly daily.

  Still, her search for more information about whomever might have switched them was crawling, when it moved at all. Tia had begun researching the doctor and staff. Unfortunately, she hit dead ends at every turn. The hospital administrator still refused to help out, so Tia headed back to the library. She learned the local newspapers were on microfiche, which would be far easier to handle than the cumbersome archive books, and was much more convenient.

  She took an hour or two each morning starting with files dated a year before her birth, and moving two years past her birth looking for any article referencing someone who worked at St. Marks, especially in OB.

  Very little came up, and what did turned out to be more dead ends.

  Finally, after checking the testing website for three days, the DNA results came through. Ron was Lisa’s biological father.

  Tia picked up the phone while she stared at the screen. Her hands trembled as she dialed Lisa. The call went to voice mail, making Tia want to growl. “Hey, it’s Tia, the results are in. We weren’t wrong. Call me.” She hung up and stared at the screen for a long moment. How did she feel about the results? She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if it was a surprise she hadn’t been born to her parents, or that she hadn’t been convinced that Lisa was their biological daughter, but actually seeing the results on the screen was disorienting.