CHAPTER THREE

 

 

When the final bell of the day rang signifying dismissal and a—hopeful— end to questions I had answer for, I was eager to leave. I hurried the students along, collecting empty plates and gathering up word search sheets and color pencils from around the room. Once the last of my students were gone, it took about half an hour to get my classroom back to normal. I gathered the trash that had been missed during cleanup time; soiled table cloths and single use decorations, and shoved it all in the industrial sized bag I had been given during the morning meeting.

“Hey mommy.”

I looked up to see Ja’mya standing in the doorway. The train case was hanging from the crook of her bent elbow and in her hands was medium sized square box. The box was wrapped in pink paper and topped with a red bow.

“Hey, baby. What’s in the box?” I grabbed my purse out of my desk and dragged the big bag of trash to the door. Leaving the bag by the door, I waited until Ja’mya stepped back so I could exit the room and close the door behind me.

“I don’t know. It’s not for me.”

I glanced at her as we walked down the empty hallway. “Then why do you have it?”

She used her hip to push open the double doors that led to the faculty parking lot and grinned at me. “So that I can give it to you!”

I gave her a sharp look. “Mya.”

She giggled and skipped down the steps outside of the door, coming to a halt on the sidewalk that ran the perimeter of the school and held the box out to me. “I’m serious, mommy. It’s for you.”

I hesitated before taking the box while two emotions warred inside of me. On one hand, I was eager to rip into the box and see if it was another surprise from Jeremiah; but on the other hand I was becoming increasingly nervous about this series of “gifts”. They were coming out of nowhere and I couldn’t figure out the reason for them.

“Mommy,” drawled Ja’mya. “It’s just a box, it won’t bite you.”

I clicked my tongue and gave her a stern look. “The only bite you’re going to be worried about is the bite of my belt on your behind if you don’t watch it, little girl.” I snatched the box out of her hand, ignoring the silly grin she gave me, and motioned for her to keep moving. My car was parked against the fence in the back of the faculty lot.

A car horn tooted and Ja’mya’s smile widened further. She tapped her chin in contemplation. “Oh, yeah! I’m going to Pops and Nana’s tonight.”

I froze mid-step. “You’re what?! Since when? Why didn’t I know about this?”

The way she looked at me, you’d have thought she was dealing with a spooked horse. “I didn’t know, either, until Daddy called me during lunch and told me that Pops was picking me up.” She pointed to the end of the lot and lo and behold, Jeremiah’s father was walking up the sidewalk toward us. He must have been the one to toot his horn. I watched as my daughter ran halfway down the sidewalk to meet her grandfather and launched herself at him.

I shook my head at her dramatics and tucked the box under my arm as I joined them. She was hugging him like she hadn’t just seen him three days ago for Sunday dinner. When I reached them, he hugged my shoulder and kissed my cheek.

“Hey Pops. Listen—”

He held up a hand, cutting me off. “Before you say anything, let me go ahead and tell you that I don’t know a thing. I have no idea what J is planning. All I know is that he asked me if my baby girl could come spend the night, and the answer to that is always yes.” He gave me a pointed look and I couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“Fine then! Keep secrets from me. You just make sure your baby girl does all of her homework before she starts any kind of playing.” I fixed my gaze on my daughter and tried not to let the innocent smile she wore sway me. Out of his three brothers, Jeremiah was the only one to produce a grandchild and as a result Ja’mya rarely heard the word “no”.

Pops dipped his chin twice. “Don’t you worry about this over here. Education comes first, ain’t that right baby girl?” He looked down at Ja’mya who was still wrapped around his waist. She nodded eagerly and I pursed my lips.

“Okay...I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Mya.”

“Okay mommy, I love you. Bye!” She detached from her grandfather to hug me tightly and press a quick kiss to my cheek.

They were on the other side of the fence before I made it to my car and I once again wondered what Jeremiah had up his sleeve. While it wasn’t unusual for him to arrange for his parents to take Ja’mya for a night or two, to give me a break or to surprise me with a trip to Little Rock or Hot Springs, to do it on today of all days? With all of the other little surprises? I was heavily invested in figuring out his end game, now.

Once I deposited my bags in the trunk and got settled in the car, I pulled the box into my lap and started ripping at the paper. I used one of my keys to cut the tape across the top and unfolded the flaps. When I saw what was inside, my heart flew up into my throat and tears pricked my eyes. Staring up at me was a family of stuffed bears that were sewn together. A large black bear had his arms wrapped around a smaller brown bear who held a baby bear in its lap. I remembered the day Jeremiah had given me this set as vividly as if it had been yesterday.

 

I was in the second semester of my last year of graduate school and working as a teacher’s aide at a local private school when I found out. There hadn’t been any weird cravings, no weight gain, and especially no sickness to give me a hint about what was going on in my body. A routine well-woman appointment was perfectly timed and my gynecologist wore the widest smile I’d ever seen on her face when she reentered the examination room that I occupied.

I’d been seeing this same woman since I was 18 and the campus clinic referred me her way when they learned I had private insurance. We were almost friends, considering how...intimately...she knew me. So the smile on her face brought a smile to mine and I wiggled my shoulders a little in expectation of the clean bill of health she was about to give me. Jeremiah and I had been together exclusively for just under four years and the thought that something could be wrong never even crossed my mind.

“Well, Lee, I see you’ve been busy.”

We were close enough for her to call me by my nickname, at least. My brows raised at Dr. Mallory’s observation but the smile didn’t leave my face. “I’m a few months from having a master’s in education and I’m nose deep in my capstone so, yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“That’s it?” She tilted her head at me and laid the sheet of paper in her hands, face down across her lap.

“I’m in my sixth year of school, what else could it be?” I giggled and shook my head.

“Ah. Well let me be the first to congratulate you, because you’re pregnant.”

My jaw dropped. “What?!”

She nodded and handed me the sheet of paper. My eyes scanned it but quickly deduced that the medical jargon and figures only reiterated what Dr. Mallory had just told me. If I didn’t believe it, the word “pregnant” in all capital letters at the bottom of the page confirmed it for me.

“I won’t know how far along you are until we do an ultrasound but since you were my last patient of the day, I can go ahead and take care of that for you without booking another appointment.”

I nodded absently, my eyes still glued on the word “pregnant”. An hour later I climbed into my car, equipped with a sample packet of gummy prenatal vitamins, pamphlets on first-time pregnancy, and a prescription for iron pills. Not only was I pregnant but I was now anemic as well. When I got to my apartment, I put everything on the kitchen counter, and tossed two gummy vitamins into my mouth. I snatched up my cordless phone and took it with me into my bedroom as I climbed into bed after getting undressed.

Jeremiah answered after two rings. “I was just about to come over there. I thought we were going to go to lunch after your appointment.” Just hearing his cheerful voice made me smile.

“You might still want to come over.”

I don’t know what, but he must have heard something in my voice because his tone became serious. “What’s wrong? What did the doctor say?”

I sighed, already comforted by his concern. “Nothing’s wrong. Well, not exactly. She just told me that I’m eight weeks pregnant.”

There was a beat of silence and then he whispered, “Are you serious?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah.”

“You’re having my baby?” His voice was full of wonder and my throat tightened with unshed tears. I tried to swallow them down but before I could get myself under control to answer him with even a simple “Yes”, he informed me that he was on his way and disconnected the call.

I had no idea how much time had passed but it was enough for me to fall asleep because the dip of the mattress as he climbed in behind me woke me up. He slid under the covers and wrapped his arms around me, covering my hand with his own and pressing something soft to my chest. I moved my unoccupied hand from under my pillow and grabbed what felt like a stuffed animal from him and brought it from under the covers.

As I examined the trio of bears and wondered where the hell he was able to find them so fast, Jeremiah pressed a kiss to the back of my neck. “That’s us, baby. That’s our family. I’m excited about this baby. I’m excited about our future.”

 

I grabbed a couple of napkins out of the glove compartment and wiped my face dry. Years had passed since I’d thought about that day but it was one of my happiest memories. That was the day Jeremiah and I went from being two people in a relationship to being a family. Every day thereafter, Jeremiah showed me that he wasn’t just blowing smoke when he said he was excited about our future. He blew my mind time and time again with his dedication to me and Ja’mya, and not for the first time, I was reminded of how incredibly lucky I was to have him.

I dropped the empty box on the floor in front of the passenger seat, put the bear in the seat on top of my purse and drove home to my man.