My Sister Is Sick and It’s a Good Thing

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to pick you up,” Nonny said when we were inside on the couches. We each had herbal tea and orange marmalade toast and I don’t think I’d ever felt so warm and snuggly on the inside. “I was already feeling carsick and wasn’t even in a car.”

“Carsick? Are you okay? Is Thomas here, too? How long are you staying?”

Nonny laughed and Mom stroked my hair. Here are the answers they gave to my questions:

Nonny would be staying for six months. Six months. When they told me that I nearly bounced off the couch.
Thomas was not here. Yesterday he had flown from their apartment in Chicago (where his parents also lived) to a job doing some crazy project in the Florida Keys. Nonny said it wasn’t his favorite job but he had to take it because they needed the money. They were trying to save up for a house. He would be gone for nearly six months before that job ended and he’d have to find a new one. Nonny told me that last night by herself was the worst night of her life.
She was okay. She sometimes felt a little nauseated, but that was to be expected.
Expected, because she was pregnant.

“Pregnant!” I said. “A baby? A real-life baby? This is the best day of my whole life! Six months, holy cow … but … oh my goodness.”

A baby.

Nonny was going to have a baby.

My mom and dad were going to be a grandma and grandpa.

Nonny was going to be the greatest mom.

I was going to be an aunt.

“Yep,” Nonny said. She was smiling clear up to her eyes, and even though she looked a bit tired, she proved that pregnancy-glow thing was real. Total glow.

“Tell her more,” Mom said. “Tell her when.” Mom was practically glowing, too. I thought her face was going to break, she was grinning so wide.

“Well,” Nonny said, looking at me. “I’m four months along, and the baby is due February seventeenth.” She looked down at her stomach. “That’s the other reason Thomas had to take this job. So I’ll need your help taking care of me since Thomas isn’t here.”

I was going to take care of my sister and her unborn child. I had maybe never heard anything so wonderful in my whole life.

Nonny looked at Mom. “I still … I mean, I got pregnant so much quicker than we thought. Thank goodness for online classes so school isn’t stalled entirely. The timing, though … I mean, I really hope they’ll let him off for a good chunk of time when the baby’s born, even if he has to go back. For a couple weeks, though, he won’t be here.” She looked back at me. “But you’ll take care of things.”

“Yes,” I said, my fists clenched tight because I could hardly hold my body together. “Yes, yes, I will.”

Nonny smiled, then laid her head back on the couch and closed her eyes. Mom gave her That Look, that Too Precious to Handle look, and I admit it, it was actually nice to see that none of us ever grew out of being her little kids, no matter how old or married or pregnant we got.

How pregnant Nonny got, rather. That one would only ever be her.

There’s an app on my phone called Marco Polo that Mom let me download especially so I can send video messages to Thomas, and I sent one then. “She’s here!” I said. “She made it! Everyone say hi to new dad Thomas!”

He sent a message right back, his hard hat on and his face sweaty. “My main people! Aw, I miss you guys. Thanks for the chat, Lobster. Keep me updated on you-know-who, mmkay?”

(Yeah, he calls me Lobster. Let’s just say the first time he came to meet the family we went out to a seafood restaurant and there was an incident involving my dinner still having eyeballs.)

I looked at my sister while her eyes were closed. She didn’t look pregnant. Except for the glow. I decided I should watch her very carefully in the next few months. Maybe I should document the experience. Track when her ankles started swelling. Track how big her belly slowly grew. Track when the morning sickness went away. Go with her to doctor’s visits, if she’d let me.

Otherwise, I’d never know what it was like.