by Rebeca Seitz
Tandy swallowed and licked her lips. “Deal. But I don’t think Darin will care if you’ve got five extra pounds on your frame.”
“Oh, he won’t. He’s already told me he loves every square inch of me.”
“Then why the diet?”
“We aren’t married yet. That means there are a lot of square inches he has yet to see, and those inches tend to look a little better when they’re thinner.”
Tandy threw her head back and laughed while Kendra stabbed her salad again. “So it’s not the wedding dress you’re worried about.”
“No, it’s the wedding night.”
Tandy dug her spoon into the ice cream. “Trust me, Ken. He won’t be noticing five extra pounds of anything that night.”
“In that case, hand me your spoon.”
Tandy turned the handle toward Kendra and held it across the table. “Happy to contribute to your delinquency.”
Kendra held the now-full spoon before her mouth. “As always.”
“You two are hopeless.” Joy unwound her baby-blue cashmere scarf and folded it over a wrist. “Kendra, I can’t believe you’re eating ice cream when you have a wedding dress to fit into.”
“Old subject, sis.” Tandy scooted over to make room. “How are you feeling?”
Joy’s grin could have lit the midnight skies. “Excited! Nervous. Happy. Mixed up. Elated.”
“Sara said to tell you she’s shopping the maternity catalogs tonight.”
“Good. I don’t want to go to Nashville every time I need a new maternity top or dress.”
“And if Sara picks it out, you know it will be gorgeous on you.” Kendra set her spoon in the ice cream. “If we’re not shopping for maternity clothes, I assume we’re finding nursery stuff?”
“Yes. I told Tandy green and yellow. I was thinking maybe Wind in the Willows could be our theme.”
“Frog and Toad?”
“Toad, yes, frog, no.”
“Toad is such an ugly word,” Tandy mused. “I mean, think about it. Toes are ugly enough as it is. Then we tack on a d and it sounds like somebody either got hit by a foot or developed some deathly disease.”
Kendra looked at Tandy and blinked. “You’re weird.”
“Thank you.”
“As I was saying,” Joy cut a glance at Tandy before focusing on Kendra, “I want to do a Wind in the Willows theme. That’s yellow and green, which will work if I have a boy or girl.”
“But if you have a girl, wouldn’t you want pink?”
“No, I don’t think so. Everyone does pink. I can dress her in pink, of course, and maybe add a pink ruffle to the bed-skirt of the crib. But yellow and green would be different.”
“Then green and yellow it is.” Kendra stood. “Ready to go?” Joy and Tandy joined her. “Where should we start?”
“USA Baby in Franklin.”
It took Tandy a couple steps to realize Kendra and Joy had stopped walking with her. She turned back. “What?”
“It occurred to us that you’re certainly up on your baby store knowledge.” Joy wound the scarf back around her neck.
Tandy sniffed. “I’m not expecting, if that’s what you’re implying. But I like to be prepared, just in case.”
“Translation: They’re trying to get pregnant.” Kendra buttoned her coat.
The little bell jangled over the door as they left Clay’s.
“Are you, Tandy?” Joy crossed her arms to ward off the chilly blast of air. “Why didn’t you say anything? We could have our babies together!”
“Whoa, slow down there. We’re not exactly trying.” Tandy pulled her hands into her coat sleeves. “We’re just not doing anything to prevent it.”
“Ah, I see.” Joy pulled gloves from her pocket that were the same shade of pale blue as her scarf. “Then today will be good research for you.”
As if everyone researches things to death before taking action. “Are we taking my car?”
“Let’s take mine. Bigger trunk.” Joy pointed behind the diner. “It’s back here.”
The girls hunched their shoulders and moved down the sidewalk hurriedly. The car beeped its greeting when Joy pressed the unlock button.
“Good grief, it’s stupid cold.” Tandy jerked open the back door and escaped into the car.
Joy started the car and adjusted the heat setting to its highest. “Amen to that.”
“Ugh, I can’t think straight with that wind blowing up one side of me and down the other.” Kendra rubbed her hands together. “It’s February, for goodness sake, when are we set for warm weather?”
“I’ll bet we see some pretty days by the end of the month,” Joy comforted. “I usually plant my spring bulbs the first week of March, and the ground has to be thawed for that.”
“Ooh! I hope you have a girl. You can teach her all about spring planting.”
“I could teach a boy that too.”
“Yeah, but he won’t care about tulips and daffodils. He’ll want to grow stinkweed and moss.”
Joy put the car in gear and backed out of the parking space. “Well, we won’t be growing stinkweed anytime soon, but moss has a certain nostalgia about it.”
“You’re weird too.” Kendra pulled her gloves off now that the car was heating up.
“Welcome to the club,” Tandy piped up from the back.
“Thank you.” Joy pointed the car in the direction of the interstate.
* * *
I AM ON my way to purchase items for my baby’s nursery.
I am pregnant.
Every time I think that, I wonder if I’ve lost my mind. If I might be lying in a hospital bed somewhere, totally oblivious to the noises around me, ensconced in my own version of reality.
I wouldn’t, however, make up stinkweed.
This must be real.
I’m having a baby! Scott is happier than he was the day we wed. So much joy lit his eyes when I shared the news that it almost hid the tinge of relief there as well.
Oh, let him be relieved. Let him be whatever he wants.
We’re going to be parents!
I asked him if we should plan a trip to China. I feel like I should see where I was born so that I can tell my little one at least a bit about her mother’s heritage. At first Scott looked skeptical—eyebrows raised and that thought wrinkle going across his brow. But I explained that a child needs to know his or her heritage, and I think he knows I meant me more than the baby.
The baby! I can see the finished nursery in my mind already. I’ll sew a yellow quilt with pale green toads and white lily pads trimmed in yellow. I’ll make white curtains with eyelet lace if it’s a girl, and green polka dot trim if it’s a boy. Either way, the crib will, of course, be white. Nothing but white for this pure presence growing in me.
My belly is as flat as it was yesterday. Meg says I won’t begin to change shape for the first few months. She had a small belly at four months. That’s two months away. Two months and two weeks, if I’ve kept my days of the month correctly.
And I know I’ve kept my days of the month correctly. I’ve kept them flawlessly for over a year. I’m six weeks pregnant. There is a six-week peanut right now multiplying as fast as he or she can.
I wonder if this is how my mother felt. Not mother as in Momma here—but the one who gave birth to me. The woman who might at this very moment be walking a street somewhere in the massive land of China, wondering whatever happened to her little girl with the strange blue eyes.
I still do not know if my blue eyes caused her to leave me on that orphanage doorstep. Isn’t that something I should find out if I’m about to give birth myself? This little one will want to know the medical history of my family. I want to know. Does my baby—baby!—have a risk of experiencing some awful disease because my body carries the genetic trait for it?
But China is teeming with millions of people—1.3 billion according to my research. Surely hundreds of thousands of the women there gave up a little girl nearly three decades ago. Maybe even millions.<
br />
I should find her. Soon. Whoever she is, she’s about to be a grandma.
Twenty-One
Do either of you ever wonder about your birth mothers?”
Kendra would have fallen out of her seat if it wouldn’t insult the Lexus. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, why would I kid about such a thing?”
“Why would you want to go find a woman who left you crying on a doorstep?” Tandy met Joy’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
Joy lifted a small shoulder. “I don’t know. I’ve been wondering about her lately though.”
“Because you’re going to be a mother yourself.”
“Maybe.” Joy thought about it, then nodded. “Probably. I think it matters less why I’m thinking about her than that I’m thinking about her at all. Do you think I should find her?”
“Now I know you’re kidding.” Kendra turned the radio down. “You’re going to comb through millions of people and hope one of them says, ‘Yeah, I gave birth twenty-eight years ago to a little girl that I left at an orphanage with a note.’”
“It’s over a billion people, Ken, and I thought I might start at the orphanage.”
“But that place isn’t even in operation anymore. Remember? We got the letter when you were in junior high.”
“Surely someone who worked there is still alive. They’ve probably gone on to work for another orphanage.”
“I think you’re nuts.” Kendra raised the volume again. “Let it go. Focus on your own kid and don’t spend time thinking about a woman who’s shown no sign for twenty-eight years of thinking about you.”
She didn’t mean that last part to sound so harsh, but birth mothers were best left alone.
Especially when the daughter is carrying a grandchild.
* * *
TEN MINUTES LATER the sisters stepped from the car in the USA Baby parking lot. Joy hefted her purse higher on her shoulder. Her lips compressed into a thin line. “Ladies, we are on a mission.”
“To create the best baby nursery since Hannah was born!” Tandy lifted a foot to step forward, but Joy’s hand on her elbow halted her stride.
“No, you and Kendra share the same mission. Don’t let me purchase everything in that store.”
Kendra laughed, tucking her arm through Joy’s. “Come on, baby sister. We’ll guard your checkbook.”
They walked together into the store and paused in the doorway. Joy’s eyes grew wide as she took it in. Painted white wood, oak, mahogany, cherry, walnut—at least seven trees were represented in the cribs lining each wall. Fleur de lis ran amok over one, crying out for a little girl in pink ruffles to take them home. Another with stark bars of missionary style under the clean line of an arch called for a little boy with a heart for baseball and dirt. Changing tables, diaper pails, bunk beds, cribs, rockers, strollers, curtains, rugs, and even matching wicker baskets to store clean diapers had been arranged in orderly fashion.
Joy crossed her arms. “I should have brought Scott. He should see this.”
Tandy couldn’t take her eyes from a painted white set in the far corner with a splash of red ladybugs in the curtains and fabric. “No, he shouldn’t. If I’m overwhelmed, I pity the man who walks in here.”
“Good point.”
They were still staring when a saleslady in a long, dovegray skirt, ivory cashmere sweater set, black boots, and pearls strode forward. “Welcome to USA Baby. I’m Noni. Is someone expecting?”
“That would be me.” Joy stepped forward and held up her hand like a second-grader on the first day of school.
“Congratulations!”
“Thank you.”
“When are you due?”
“September.”
“Oh! You found out early then.”
“We’ve been trying for a while,” Joy admitted.
Noni looked between the sisters, a crease forming on her brow. “All right then.”
“Not the three of us.” Kendra rolled her eyes. “She and her husband have been trying.”
Noni’s hand flew to her throat, and Tandy couldn’t help but notice the veins there.
“Yeah, we’re the sisters.” She tried to put Noni at ease for her mistake.
“I’m so sorry.” Noni laid a hand on Joy’s arm. “So, so sorry.”
Joy placed her hand over Noni’s. “Don’t worry a bit about it.”
Tandy kept a close eye on the veins in Noni’s throat as she swept a hand across the store. “Well, what can I show you? Have you settled on a theme or colors?”
“I have. The Wind in the Willows.”
“How lovely!”
“Thank you. I thought I could go with a green and yellow theme, then highlight with pink if I have a girl or blue if I have a boy.”
“How sensible of you. And creative! Let’s see, I think we have just the thing. Follow me, please.”
Joy walked alongside Noni. Kendra and Tandy fell in line. Tandy felt like a baby chick following the mother hen.
“Cluck, cluck,” Kendra whispered.
Tandy whipped her head to the side. “That’s what I was thinking!”
A grin split Kendra’s face. “I know.”
“Here we are.” Noni turned into a mock nursery. A pale-green crib stood in the center of its back wall. The slats were straight, but each end rose in a French arch and sloped out on the corners in a manner reminiscent of a pagoda.
“It’s exquisite!” Joy rushed to the crib like a hungry man to a Big Mac. “And green. I thought I’d have to settle for white, which would have been perfect from a purity standpoint, but maybe a little too girly if I have a boy, now that I think about it further. Oh, Noni, thank you!”
The elderly woman’s face broke into a series of smiles as her wrinkles mirrored the movement of her lips. “My pleasure, child. That’s why I’m here.”
Joy ran her small hands over the wood, caressing each inch of its top.
Tandy leaned over to Kendra. “I think Joy’s in love.”
Kendra nodded. “We should meet her new beau.”
They walked forward and joined Joy, whose hands had stilled on the wood. “I have to buy this.”
Tandy snagged the price tag and turned it over. “That’s it, I can’t afford kids. Look at this.”
Joy and Kendra looked at the tag as well.
Kendra’s eyes widened. “For a crib?”
“Hush, girls!” Joy slapped the tag out of Tandy’s hand, and Tandy didn’t know if she should be more shocked by the price tag or the fact that Joy had just slapped her hand like Momma. “Quality furniture costs money. Besides, I spent less than that on the bed I share with Scott. Shouldn’t our baby have something as nice as we do?”
Kendra waved a hand in front of her nose. “Your child is going to stink.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Well, he’s going to be so spoiled, we’ll smell him coming a mile away.”
“Oh, why do I bother with you two?” Joy turned from them and marched over to Noni, who stood waiting at the entrance to the nursery. “I’ll take it.”
“Wonderful!” Noni clapped her wrinkled hands together, and Tandy was reminded of Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes.
“Idgy Threadgood would have been even more appalled at the price of that crib,” she said from the corner of her mouth.
“Idgy?” Kendra looked lost for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “Fried Green Tomatoes.”
“You’re getting slow in your old age, sis.”
Again, they fell in line behind Noni and Joy, whose heads were joined together in conversation as they walked back down the hallway.
“Is it me or do they look like they’re planning a frontal?”
They waited with Joy at the counter as she made her purchase and arranged for delivery, which cost even more.
“For that price, shouldn’t the thing drive itself to Stars Hill?”
Tandy almost laughed, but a laser look from Joy killed the hilarity.
They were almost ou
t the door when Tandy realized what they’d forgotten. “Stop!” She threw her arm in front of Joy and Kendra.
“What now? Find some new way to tell me how ridiculous and dumb I am to spend money on furniture?” Joy crossed her arms and tapped a foot.
Oh yeah, she had the mother thing down cold already.
“No, we didn’t take a picture! How will you scrap this moment?”
“You’re right!” Kendra dug around in her bag and pulled a digital camera from it triumphantly. “Aha! Back to the crib, ladies.”
They all trouped back to the mock nursery, catching Noni’s eye in the process. Noni hurried over as quickly as her wizened legs allowed. “Was there something else I could help you with, dear?”
“Yes, Noni. Could you take our picture, please?”
“I’d be delighted.” Noni took the camera from Kendra’s outstretched arm and the sisters positioned themselves around the crib.
Tandy saw from the corner of her eye the moment Joy laid a hand on her belly and gave a triumphant smile.
“Say baby!”
“Baby!” They chorused and Noni flashed the camera.
“Thanks so much.” Kendra popped the camera back in her bag. “We almost had nothing to scrapbook!”
Noni waved to them as they dashed out of the store and back to the Lexus.
“Where to next?” Tandy pulled her seat belt around.
“How about Target? I heard the one in Cool Springs has a pretty good baby section.”
“Okay. And after that we could hit the Bombay Kids at the Galleria.”
“I thought they went out of business.” Kendra buckled her belt and pulled the visor down to check her lip gloss in its mirror.
“You’re right. I saw a sign up there the last time we were in.” Tandy put a finger to her lip and tilted her head. “When was that? A few weeks? Maybe they’re still having the going-out-of-business sale.”
“Did someone say sale?” Joy’s excitement vibrated from her being. “Let’s do the mall first. Target is open later anyway.”
Satisfied, Kendra snapped the visor closed. “Did you forget you’re fixing dinner for the family tonight?”
“Oh, that’s right. All right, it’s one o’clock now. I called Daddy and Meg and told them dinner at eight. So we have seven hours. An hour to get home, an hour to get dinner ready, that leaves us five more hours to shop. We can easily do the mall and Target in that time. We’ll simply need to come back for the other stores.”