25

Laura

You better tell Mama, or I will!” The sound of Bonnie Sue’s screeching voice sends me flyin’ up the stairs to see what’s goin’ on.

“If you do,” Renee shouts back, “I’ll tell her about the time you and all your little cheerleader friends skipped school and hung out with those frat boys in Hattiesburg.”

Pete and I have had the toughest time keepin’ Bonnie Sue from growin’ up too fast, and there’s no tellin’ what kinda lies them college boys will tell to get what they want. I reach the top of the stairs, ready to light into Bonnie Sue, but I see Renee comin’ outta the bathroom, her face streaked with tears. And they don’t look like fresh tears either.

“What is goin’ on up here?” I’ve managed to soften my voice, but I still plan to let Bonnie Sue know she’s grounded for the summer.

Bonnie Sue pops her head out of her bedroom and smirks at her sister. “You gonna tell her, or do I have to?”

“You—”

Renee starts to call her sister a name, but I stop her. “There’ll be no name-callin’ here, young lady. One of y’all needs to start talkin’, and I’m not waitin’ all day.” I prop my fist on my hip for extra emphasis.

Bonnie Sue snickers. “If you don’t say it, I will.”

“Okay, okay.” Renee turns to me, chin quiverin’, and blurts, “Mama, I’m pregnant.”

My life has just gone from bein’ slightly messy—okay, a total mess—to bein’ a disaster. “What? How?”

Bonnie Sue laughs. “You should know, Mama. You had four young’uns.”

I point my finger toward her room. “Get back in your room right now, Missy. I’ll deal with you later.” Skipping school doesn’t sound quite as bad at the moment, but I can’t tell her that. “And be prepared for a summer of hard work . . . around the house.”

Bonnie Sue narrows her eyes at her sister and mouths something I can’t quite decipher, but I suspect it involves pain later. When I glare at her, she bobs her head, pops back into her room, and slams the door behind her, leaving Renee and me facing each other.

“Mama, I didn’t mean for it to happen.” She lifts her hands to her face, and her whole entire body starts shakin’.

It breaks my heart to see my second-born in such sad shape, so I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around her. “I know you didn’t mean for it to happen, but you did somethin’ you knew you weren’t s’posed to do, and that’s what happens.”

“Am I grounded too?” She separates two of her fingers and looks at me with one eye.

I slowly shake my head. “I could ground you, but I think you’ll be payin’ for this much longer than anything I can do to punish you. Have you been to the doctor?”

“No.”

“How do you know you’re . . . pregnant?” The word sticks in my throat, but I try not to let my child know how afraid I am.

“Home pregnancy test.” She points to the package in the bathroom trashcan. “I was gonna wrap it in toilet paper, but Bonnie Sue walked in before I had a chance to.”

“So when were you plannin’ on tellin’ us?”

Her chin quivers. “I don’t know.”

There are a lot of things I don’t know, but one thing I do is that we can’t pretend this isn’t happenin’. “Do you wanna tell your daddy, or do you want me to?”

“Do we hafta tell him?”

Renee sure is actin’ stupid for a girl who used to be so smart. “Do you think he won’t notice when your belly starts growin’?”

“I don’t know. He don’t notice a lot of things.”

She has a point, but I’m not gonna make this easy for her. “I think you should tell him, Renee.”

Bonnie Sue opens her door a crack. “I’ll tell him if you can’t.”

“Get back in your room, Bonnie Sue.” After she closes her door, I turn back to Renee. “You better tell him before he finds out from someone else. Does Wilson know?”

“He’s the one who got the home pregnancy test for me.”

“Have you talked to him since you got the results?”

“Not yet.” She sniffles and leans toward me, putting her arms around my neck. “Mama, I’m so scared.”

“I know you are, honey, and you have every reason to be. Your daddy is gonna be furious.”

“That’s not what I’m scared of. What am I gonna do with a baby? I don’t even like to babysit.”

“It’s different when the baby is your own.” I can’t believe I’m sayin’ this, but I continue. “When that precious little package makes its appearance, you’ll feel more love in your heart than you ever imagined possible.”

“Mama!” Bonnie Sue’s voice rings out from behind her closed door. “Can I come out now?”

I let out a deep sigh. “Okay, but you better behave. I’ll deal with you later.”

She comes waltzing outta her room lookin’ like a diva. “Hey, Mama, you’re gonna be a granny.”

Now I’m ready to toss my cookies, but I swallow the lump that’s still growin’ in my throat and shake my head. “Bonnie Sue, if you keep this up, you’ll stay grounded ’til you’re outta high school, and that means no junior-senior prom for you.”

Bonnie Sue scowls at Renee. “Looky what you gone and done. You’re ruinin’ everything for me.”

“I wasn’t even thinkin’ about you, Bonnie Sue.”

That’s an understatement. “Girls, why don’t the two of you talk quietly while I go figure out what to do next?”

I’m halfway down the stairs, when Renee hollers, “Mama, you’re not gonna tell Daddy today, are you?”

“No, honey. Remember, I said you are.”

“Can’t we wait?” Her voice is much closer, so I stop and turn around to see her standin’ at the top of the stairs, lookin’ like the little girl I remember from back when she was still innocent.

Before I have a chance to answer, I hear Bonnie Sue snorting. “It’s gonna be real obvious soon, you moron.”

“There’ll be no name-calling. I’ll send your daddy up here when he gets home.” They disappear, and I continue on downstairs.

When I get to the kitchen, Little Jack is sittin’ at the table with a heapin’ bowl of ice cream in front of him. “Don’t eat too much, or you’ll ruin your supper.” That’s not exactly true anymore, what with him growin’ like a weed these days, but I been sayin’ that since he was a toddler, and I’m not about to stop now.

“When can I get my permit?” He stabs the ice cream with his spoon and lifts a blob about twice the size of his mouth. “I can’t wait to start drivin’.”

I give him what I hope passes as a mama-worthy glance. “You’re gonna have to wait. You’re still not old enough.”

“Daddy says I hafta know this book inside and out to take the test.” He taps the drivers’ test book in front of him. “Even if I start now, I’ll never learn all this.”

Sometimes I wonder how Jack made it this far in life. “You do realize there’s a test involved, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s just stupid stuff like ‘What do you do at a stop sign?’ I already know what to do.”

“Jack, you know there’s more to it than that.”

He looks at me with wide eyes as he shoves a humongous bite of ice cream into his mouth and swallows, followed by a grimace. “Brain freeze.”

My family may be dysfunctional, but I love every single person—even when I wonder if aliens might have taken over their brains. “Slow down.”

“I really wanna drive.” He keeps shoveling ice cream into his face until he gets another brain freeze. You’d think he might slow down to keep the same thing from happenin’ again and again, which is the very reason both Pete and I are worried about him drivin’ a car. No matter what he’s doin’, Jack doesn’t seem to learn from mistakes. Our other young’uns learned early on that if somethin’ hurt they needed to quit doin’ whatever it was that caused the pain. I know we’re not supposed to compare the kids to each other, but I can’t help it.

Jack opens the book, takes a brief glance at it, and makes a face worse than when he had brain freeze. “This is stupid stuff. I’ll never need to know all that.”

“Maybe not, but it’s better to learn it and not need it than to need it and not know it.” Oh man, I’m startin’ to sound like my mama.

Jack’s chin falls slack. “Huh?”

“Never mind, sweetie.” I figure when he’s old enough to get his permit he’ll do whatever it takes. He always does, and I have to admit I’m often surprised by the results.

“When’s Daddy gettin’ home?”

My husband walks in the door every evenin’ around five o’clock, just like clockwork. “Same time as always.”

“I’m starvin’.”

I glance at Jack’s empty ice cream bowl and shake my head. “I better put somethin’ in the oven then, so we can eat when your daddy gets home.”

Jack gets up, grabs the drivers’ test study book, and leaves me alone in the kitchen. His bowl still sits on the table. I mumble as I carry it over to the sink and run some water in it. No matter how many times I remind him to clean up after himself, he still acts like he’s got a maid. Pete says it’s my fault for pickin’ up after him, but I keep tellin’ him that if I don’t, our house will be condemned by the health department. That always gets a laugh from Pete, and then I wanna throw somethin’ at him, but I don’t ’cause I’d have to pick up the broken pieces, and I already have too much to do as it is.

I work hard on preparing a healthy meal that the family will eat, but it’s challenging to cook without so much cheese. Especially the vegetables. My young’uns grew up eatin’ all their veggies smothered in cheese, and now they act like I’m tryin’ to poison them or somethin’.

Pete comes up and puts his arms around me as soon as he gets home. “What’s for supper?” he whispers in my ear before he kisses my cheek.

“Baked chicken, seasoned brown rice, and a vegetable medley.”

He leans back, crinkles his nose, and shakes his head. “I miss the old food. Can’t you cook somethin’ good once in a while?”

I don’t see a problem with an occasional cheesy casserole, so I nod. “Maybe tomorrow night.” Should I have him talk to Renee now or wait ’til after supper? Bonnie Sue interrupts my thoughts as she practically bounces into the kitchen.

“Hey, Daddy, you need to go upstairs and talk to Renee. Now.”

When I see the look of exhaustion on Pete’s face, I shake my head. “He just got home, Bonnie Sue. Give him some time to unwind.”

She makes a smart-aleck face. “He might wanna start drinkin’ again.”

“Wha—?” Pete casts a puzzled glance in my direction.

Now that Bonnie Sue has already said too much, I nod toward the door. “Pete, why don’t you go have a chat with your daughter? It’ll be a few minutes before I have supper on the table.”

Pete looks back and forth between Bonnie Sue and me before he leaves the kitchen. I wanna strangle Bonnie Sue.

“I bet Daddy hits the roof when he finds out.”

I lift the lid on the pot of brown rice and put it back. I’m gettin’ better with the healthy seasonings, and I’ve noticed the family is leavin’ less on their plates.

“Are you givin’ me the silent treatment?” Bonnie Sue asks.

I turn around, fold my arms, and try to bob my head like she does, but I still haven’t mastered it. “Now why would I go and do that?”

Pete’s been upstairs for near ’bout five minutes, and I still haven’t heard a peep from him or Renee. That worries me. Bonnie Sue’s sittin’ at the kitchen table, flippin’ the pages of a fashion magazine she talked Pete into subscribing to for her.

I wipe my hands on the dishrag. “Keep an eye on supper, Bonnie Sue. I’ll be right back.” When she doesn’t even bother to look up, I tap on the table until I get her attention. “If you smell somethin’ burnin’, turn off the stove.”

I’m about halfway up the stairs when I hear whimperin’. “Daddy, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“I know you didn’t, sweetie, but the good Lord sometimes makes things happen, even when we don’t want them to. Where is Wilson?”

That’s exactly what I want to know. I get to the closed door of Renee’s bedroom and stop, plasterin’ my ear to the door, but I still can’t make out what she’s sayin’.