“I might cry sometimes,” she says. “I could be a bit of a wreck.”
“That’s okay. I’ve seen you eat and cry at the same time,” Tony says.
“I might be insane to do this,” she says. But even as she’s saying it, she knows it’s not true. She’s planned it all out. She has the house to live in, and she can support herself by teaching. For now she can bring the baby along in a basket to her classes. Her students can pass her around.
“Actually, you seem kind of sane to me,” he says. Which has always been one of the best things about him, she realizes: he always thinks things are falling into place. “Who knows what will happen? We’ll take it a day at a time,” he says.
It’s not until she gets out in the middle of the country that she knows for sure it’s going to be all right. Somewhere over the Mississippi River—that big crack in the middle of the United States—she has a moment. She’ll ask Tony when she gets there, if he and Milo want to move in with her. Tony can paint houses, and she can keep the children and write. They’ll cook together and set up the baby swing on the patio, and play catch in the grass when summer comes …
Is this crazy to dream like this? Or could it be that this is her story after all, rising up to meet her in midair?
Serena Sophia, who had been nursing peacefully, suddenly falls asleep and yanks her mouth off the breast and flings herself backward, arms outstretched and milk dribbling down her chin.
It’s as if she’s a drunken sailor on shore leave, absolutely inebriated with the abundance before her, smiling her toothless grin like somebody who just knows all the good things that are coming.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am so lucky to have people in my life who love to read early drafts and don’t mind being asked—okay, forced—to give their opinions and constructive help. Alice Mattison, Kim Steffen, Leslie Connor, Nancy Hall, Allison Meade, Stephanie Shelton, Mary Rose Meade, Holly Robinson, Nancy Antle, Susanne Davis, Sharon Massoth, and Diane Cyr are among the very best readers and commenters a writer can have. Thank you for your love as well as your endless patience and humor, and for not hiding when you saw me coming.
Alice Smith, Lily Hamrick, Amy Kahn, Joan Levine, Peggy Allen, Deb Hare, Jennifer Smith, Marji Lipshez-Shapiro, Beth Levine, Nicole Wise, and Karen Pritzker Vlock offered undying friendship and diversions, cups of tea, long walks, green smoothies, hamburgers, wine, four-hour phone calls, and, in some cases when needed, full moon labyrinth treks. Thank you for everything.
I am fortunate to have Dr. Mary Jane Minkin in my life, a brilliant friend who was willing to devote a lot of thought to the phenomenon of late-in-life pregnancy and childbirth, and helped me know what Rosie was going through.
The Crown Publishing Group has been fantastic to work with. Thanks especially to the patient and wonderful Christine Kopprasch, who helped birth this book through her careful and wise editing and endless encouragement.
Thanks also to the people at Crown and Broadway who have been unfailingly kind and generous and helpful: Molly Stern, Sheila O’Shea, Meagan Stacey, Catherine Cullen, and Jessica Prudhomme. Nancy Yost, my agent, is smart and funny and lively, and I couldn’t do without her wisdom and great ideas.
My stepmother, Helen Myers, listened to plenty of drafts of this book via telephone and helped me shape the character of Soapie. Helen passed away before publication, and every day I have to remind myself that I can’t just call her up anymore. I miss her more than words can say.
My children—Ben, Allie, Stephanie, Amy, and Mike—all bring me such laughter and love. They also brought me Charlie, Joshua, Miles, and Emma, for which I’m eternally grateful.
Thank you also to the women and men who gather around my dining room table for writing workshops and share their innermost thoughts and creative yearnings. You are truly a joy!
And last, a bigger-than-words-can-say thank you to Jim, who stands by me in love and every single day makes me laugh.
A READER’S GUIDE TO
THE OPPOSITE OF MAYBE
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Please note: In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this novel—as well as the ending. If you have not finished reading The Opposite of Maybe, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.
1. When Rosie and Jonathan get interrupted while making love and he loses interest in continuing, Jonathan says this is just middle-aged life. Is Rosie’s need for romance realistic after fifteen years?
2. Is Soapie accurate that Jonathan’s love of the ancient, unusable, untouchable teacups says something about his personality? If he hadn’t gotten the opportunity to move to California with the teacups and start a museum, do you think they would have stayed together?
3. What is the significance of the teasing their friends do—The Jonathan and Rosie Show, for instance?
4. When Soapie explains her philosophy of living the rest of her life to its utmost and not submitting to being cared for by people who will have authority over her, Rosie can understand and support this decision, even though it means Soapie might be unsafe. How should we treat older people who resist nursing care and insist they have earned the right to take chances with their health?
5. Why is Tony so reluctant to challenge his former wife and her partner, and what eventually changes his mind? What is it that Rosie sees in Tony that he doesn’t see in himself, and why does she eventually fall in love with him?
6. When Rosie finds out she’s pregnant, her first reaction is to be shocked—and astonished—that her body could do this after so many years. But then this is quickly followed by her realistic sense that she isn’t equipped for motherhood. What do you think really changes her mind and makes her decide to have the baby? Do you think Rosie will be a good mother even though she didn’t have any real mothering herself?
7. Once Rosie hears the truth about her mother’s death, she says she sees everything about her life in a different light. Everyone tells her it doesn’t really change anything, but she doesn’t agree. Is it just a matter of becoming accustomed to this new way of seeing her mother’s short, tragic life and putting away the fantasy she had? How does her reaction color her relationships with Tony and Jonathan?
8. Rosie says that she and Tony are going to have a time of the “Peace Corps of the heart, where you get to be your own sweet caseworker, ministering to all the hurt and ruined places, rebuilding the infrastructure and soothing the natives.” Why does she think this will help her? Is it possible to give yourself that kind of uncommitted time from your real life?
9. Do you feel Rosie should have given life in California more of a chance, given that Jonathan is the baby’s father?
10. Soapie always thought Rosie should go to Paris and write in a café, or go look at lions in Africa. But is there a way in which Rosie did end up doing exactly what Soapie advised her to do for her life?
11. Do you think Rosie and Tony will stay together? What do you expect Jonathan’s role in Beanie’s life will be? How did you feel about Rosie’s decisions?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maddie Dawson lives in Connecticut. She is the author of The Stuff That Never Happened. She’s written for magazines and newspapers and has a website at www.maddiedawson.com.
ALSO BY
MADDIE DAWSON
“[A] deceptively bouncing, ultimately wrenching novel [that] will grab you at page one.” —People
B D W Y
Broadway Books
Available wherever books are sold
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The Opposite of Maybe: A Novel Page 35